In the following essay, the poem Beowulf is analyzed to determine if Grendel and his mother are humans or monsters.

Subject: How Human are Grendel and his Mother? Although a cursory analysis of the poem may lead one to see Grendel and his mother as quintessential representations of a belial and insensate monstrosity that is in diametrical opposition to ubiquitous expectations for tellurians regarding affect, indices of the physicality, etc., closer examination of the text reveals the astonishing possibility that these purportedly nefarious and murderous monsters may be more human than their "civilized" enemies, using …

…justice because she too was turned to hatred. It never works. True, it may appear that people prosper when they raid other shores, when they assert their poweer through any kinds of violence, or any kinds of oppression, but like the boastful Beowulf who needed to prove his prowess in his antiquity, like Adolf Hitler who slaughtered millions,like the drug pusher lying dead in the street, they lose in the end - we lose.