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The Dragon In Grendel's Ethical For Meaning

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The Dragon In Grendel's Ethical For Meaning
According to the dragon in Grendel, it is ethical for humans to place value on the life of another creature since nothing in the entire universe has any true meaning or value. In chapter five of Grendel, the dragon tells Grendel that “In a billion billion billion years, everything will have come and gone several times, in various forms… Meaningless, however. These jugs and pebbles, everything, these too will go” (Gardner 70). The dragon clearly believes nothing in the universe has a meaning or a purpose; everything just exists. Therefore, the dragon says, it is ethical for humans to place value on other creatures because the value they place on those creatures is meaningless – simply an illusion created by humans to make sense out of the universe.

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