Alienation

Being part of a society blinds members of their faults. Usually, the only way to realize the flaws of society is to step back from it. Alienating oneself from society allows someone to see how society truly operates. Because humans tend to be part of one society, it is hard to see the faults in society. In the books Grendel by John Gardner and The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka,the main characters are alienated from the human society because they are not completely human. In these books, the alienated individual is able to make observations about the human society from an "outside" perspective.
Grendel was alienated from the human society because he was a monster. Despite his appearance, Grendel still tried to befriend the humans. While studying the humans, he noticed a human body of someone who had been murdered. Grendel tried to return the body to mead hall, but the people were horrified and attack Grendel. From this experience, he learned how terrified the humans were of something different than them. He also learned that humans often assumed that grotesque looking figures, such as Grendel, were malicious and intrinsically evil. Grendel thought is was contradictory how the humans would boast about killing others in war but were horrified by a body of their own people. It was at this time that Grendel concluded that he would never be a part of the human society. However, Grendel's rejection from the human society allowed him to see the hypocrisy of the people.
Grendel noticed how exclusive the human society was. He saw how divided the human race was. He noticed how the humans assumed that they were a sophisticated race, but Grendel was able to point out their primitive waring ways. In Grendel’s eyes, humans were misguided by the concept of honor. When Grendel attacked the mead hall, he was confronted by a man named Unferth. Unferth spoke about how either he or the monster would die so he would maintain his honor. Grendel proves societies assumptions about...