Epic poems are usually in black and white; there's a superhuman good guy and a powerful but doomed bad guy who he will defeat. As readers, we have always assumed that the hero is the person with good values ​​and unshakable morals, while the enemy is the strong and seemingly unbeatable offspring of pure evil. John Gardner had other ideas when he wrote Grendel based on the antagonist from the classic epic poem "Beowulf." Quickly, the reader is immersed in Grendel's thoughts and sees that he too is battling inner demons. Just like in normal epics, Grendel's main villains (because he hates almost everyone) are just composite beings of his true nemesis. Ultimately, Grendel backfired as he dedicated his life to theology that cannot stand the test of time. Grendel constantly plays with different theologies throughout the novel. We see him experience solipsism in his youth, determining that “finally and absolutely, I alone exist. Everything else, I saw, is simply what drives me, or what I push back against, blindly, as blindly as everything that is not me pushes back” (22). This theory that nothing has true meaning until it is given meaning could only last so far. He soon becomes afraid that if this is true, he doesn't exist either, because he realizes that the only proof he has of his existence is that he thinks he exists, but it means nothing if he doesn't exist. Grendel's entire world is turned upside down: if he doesn't exist, then everything he thinks exists doesn't exist either; but then what does he do? As he struggles with his own theology, he also questions the faith of the villagers. When he hears the Shaper tell the story of Cain and Abel, he states, "the brothers had never lived, nor the god who had judged them" (51). Grendel can… middle of paper… when these scenarios become inevitable, we collapse under the heavy guidelines of our beliefs, just like Grendel. So when Grendel is bombarded with all the things he had previously ignored, he is unable to understand them all. If in the past, while exploring all the theories, he had focused not on what he liked and what he didn't like, but on where each of them is weak and disproven, perhaps he would have discovered that none of them is infallible. Each of the above theories has been debunked and contradicts each other, but no one focuses on their weaknesses because they are too worried about finding the right one. It seems that Gardner would like us all to live our lives open to all theories while maintaining a healthy dose of skepticism, because all the contradictions between theologies and the dots they strive to put together define the unpredictability of life itself..