In the story Grendel there is a character by the name of Grendel and this character has a certain way about him a certain way that he tends to flow to and that way is something that I like to call existentialism. The definition in my words would have to be A man or woman that is not isolated by their experience of a universe that is indifferent and hostile. Emphasizing humans freedom of choice to make meaning of world by creating their own lifestyles and changing ethics by the beings around them. Now for another characteristic of Grendel and that would be nihilistic this is when u think nothing is real no moral values . IN this story Grendel goes through some changes but the changes are from the outside beings in his world. Also through reading and learning of some of the ways of life I will put myself into one of these categories.
In the begging of the story the character Grendel is very nihilistic and some of his thinking is very primitive in nature Grendel feels alone: he hates his mother, because she cannot speak and is much more of an animal than he, but he can never relate to men, either, because he can't stop himself from eating them. He thinks deeply about whether life has meaning or not, but he is essentially immature and unable to form complete philosophical ideas. One moment he decides that since it doesn't matter whether he kills the Danes or not, he may as well kill them.
Then the next moment, he hears a Dane singing about their glorious history, and he feels that their lives are so meaningful and rich that he wants to join them. He is torn between his mother's animalistic nature, the generally moral and humane world of the Danes, and the philosophy of the dragon. The dragon, which is thousands of years old and knows everything, tells Grendel that life is pointless, so he should just take what he wants when he can get it. These differing philosophies, and Grendel inability to resolve them, leave him confused and angry throughout his violent, isolated life.