Consistent in the literature of every age and culture, archetypes represent a recurring image, pattern, or motif that reflects a typical human experience. An idea developed by Carl Jung, archetypes in literature exist as representations that reflect vital perceptions of the human psyche that express how individuals experience the world. Using Jung's concept, writers of all ages incorporate archetypes into the structures, characters, and images of their narratives. John Gardner, in his novel Grendel, integrates many of Jung's archetypes into his epic tale derived from the first story Beowulf. Gardner associates Jung's characters of the outcast, the shadow, and the mentor-mentee relationship through the identities of Grendel, the narrator of events, and the dragon. The outcast, an identity related to almost every humanistic myth or story, represents the tragic creature. Grendel. A giant beast with the intellectual equivalence of a human, Grendel lives nearly half his life before realizing himself...