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Relationship between media and society
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Monsters and the Moral Imagination: Rhetorical Analysis Throughout history monsters were very present taking different shapes, sizes and meanings. Monsters can evoke fear but also stimulate our minds to be prepare in case of crisis. Monsters and the Moral Imagination wrote in 2009 by Stephen Asma a professor of Philosophy at Columbia College Chicago. He portrayed several reason onto why monsters arise. During this particular time, US was going through the post 9/11 era, the war in Iraq and the economic recession. Through these rough decades American were very scared of upcoming threats and was in need of a relief. Asma argues that this fear of attack and feeling of helplessness gave rise to the monster culture in Tv series, movies and Arts. His …show more content…
article goes on to talk about the usage of the word monsters throughout different time period. These creatures are more than symbols, there is a moral imagination or story behind each and every monster.
Stephen Asma “ Monsters and the Moral Imagination” is an nonfiction articles which convince a general audience of the flexible use of the word monster and how it helps our imagination. Asma is very knowledgeable about this subject because he is a philosophy professor and he also has attended the global conference on Monsters and the Monstrous which means that he very well informed in this subject which could make his article more legitimate.The purpose of this article is to explain the idea of monsters and its relevance even in today’s age, they portray the challenges that life faces each individual with. They represent the obstacles and even the enemies that everyone faces in life without a choice. As he says “Monsters can stand as symbols of human vulnerability and crisis, and as such they play imaginative foils for thinking about our own responses to menace.”. He persuade his audience by giving them a clear understanding of his reasoning that most would agree with, he also back up most of his idea with books(sources) like Bram Stoker's Dracula to Rice's Vampire Chronicles and gave examples. But in the examples one was very detailed to make the audience feel a little sympathy
while the other example was thoroughly explained with less background information which could be unfair to the readers.They deserve to have both stories equally detailed to make their best judgments. Throughout the article Asma arguments are very logical, his language and words could be understandable to any audience and he uses emotions to connect with the readers for example he felt empathy toward the mentally ill guy that stabbed people at a Cafe because he taught they took his mom away. He does an effective job at Asma use his expertise to furthermore explained how monsters play a role on our “moral imagination”, he talks about the latest experimental of moral psychology has discovered new tools on how people actually do their moral thinking. For example “Brain imaging” can teach us a lot more about the “real value system” and our actions. Also towards the end of the article he gave his Counterargument of the liberal conception that monsters are no longer useful. Asma goes one to disagree and states that monsters will always be useful as long humans are still vulnerable there will be monsters to portray the real life obstacles. Even though Asma does a good job at convincing his audience he fails to include other experts claims and researches to strengthen even more his argument. He also could of argue of the possibility that movies about real life obstacle are more relatable and can mentally prepares us more than monster could do.
In society, there have always been different roles in defining the boundaries between right and wrong; Monsters take a big part of that role. In Jeffrey Cohen’s “Monster Culture,” Cohen explains seven theses which provide a clearer explanation of how monsters take a part in establishing these boundaries. The oldest Anglo-Saxon story written- “Beowulf”- provides three different monsters which all connect to Cohen’s seven theses. In the older version, however, the monsters do not relate to humans in any way, except that they are enemies. The modern version of Beowulf portrays Grendel’s mother to still be evil but also have relations with the humans in the story.
In Jeffrey Jerome Cohen’s essay, “The Monster Theses,” he analyzes the characteristics of a "monster" and explores the course in which they are created. He interprets monsters creation in six different ways; claiming initially that they are symbols and representations of culture. "The monster in an incorporation of the outside." (Cohen, 460). Cohen defines the monster as an outsider to the cultural world in which they are. "The monster is a difference made flesh" (Cohen, 459), Cohen describes how the difference are what makes us human or "flesh."
In most novel and movies monsters are known to be evil, committing numerous crimes against humanity and are normally the ones that we don’t sympathize with. However, this novel carefully shows the reader that monsters can be good creatures, with a decent heart and act based on the actions of others. The novel shows how the monster should be pitied, rather than criticised. Mary Shelley's “Frankenstein” manages to create sympathy for the creature through speech, actions and mistreatment the creature suffers.
Ever thought of where monsters come from? Do they just appear in our world, or are they procreated by fellow monsters, maybe, created by humans and their desires. During the renaissance and romantic era, a belief roamed around consisting of the idea that any child not resembling their original procreators was considered deformed, therefore also considered a “monster.” Many factors were considered to affect a child’s resemblance to their progenitors, such as women imagination, and desires, absolutely crossing of the role of paternity in the creation process. Although she succeeds in providing many good examples of women’s imagination being a primal factor in procreation, Marie-Helene Huet, in her essay, “ Introduction To Monstrous Imagination,”
times we have been fascinated with all sorts of tales about monsters and intrigued by myths and
Jeffery Cohen's first thesis states “the monster's body is a cultural body”. Monsters give meaning to culture. A monsters characteristics come from a culture's most deep-seated fears and fantasies. Monsters are metaphors and pure representative allegories. What a society chooses to make monstrous says a lot about that society’s people. Monsters help us express and find our darkest places, deepest fears, or creepiest thoughts. Monsters that scare us,vampires, zombies, witches, help us cope with what we dread most in life. Fear of the monstrous has brought communities and cultures together. Society is made up of different beliefs, ideas, and cultural actions. Within society there are always outcasts, people that do not fit into the norm or do not follow the status quo. Those people that do not fit in become monsters that are feared almost unanimously by the people who stick to the status quo.
Monsters and the Moral Imagination, written by Stephen Asma, presents many possible outcomes as to why monsters are the rise. Mr. Asma discusses why monster portrayals could be on the rise in movies, books, and stories throughout his subsection Monsters are on the Rise. Perhaps the rise is due to traumatic events in recent history such as the holocaust or the terroristic attacks of 9/11 in
In order to scare us, books, movies, and television shows will take the most ordinary things and make it into a monster. For instance, the movie IT takes a clown and turns it into
In "Monster Culture," Cohen widely talks about and investigates monsters regarding the way of life from which they climb. Keeping up the formal tone of a scholastic, he battles that monster climb at the intersection of a society, where contrasts develop and nervousness increases. The beast is an exemplification of distinction of any quality, whether it be ideological, social, sexual, or racial, that rouses trepidation and instability in its inventors. The creature or monster is habitually an irritating half breed that challenges categorization its hybridism defies nature. Yet despite the fact that there are unreliable monsters, real individuals can get to be monsters as well. Keeping in mind the end goal to bring oddity under control, the individuals who submit to the standard code of the day bestow huge personalities to the individuals who don't. Nervousness is the thing that breeds them and characterizes their presence. In this manner placing the beginning of creatures, Cohen strives to uncover our way of life's qualities and inclinations. For the larger part of the article, the monster is just the subject of our examination, an extraordinary animal under our investigation.
Title: Metaphors in Cinema: Gigantic Monsters Proposed Research: The metaphors in films like Godzilla, Big Bug Movies (Them, Tarantula), and King Kong. Trauma and fear of war, science, and humanity. Question: Develop an argument about how humans deal with their fear of death through the use of one or more monsters (zombies, vampires, etc.). Monsters like Godzilla are important for humans who are coping with a fear of death. The use of monsters is to lessen the fear of imminent threat and or distress of waiting for a catastrophe to happen.
Tragedy shows no discrimination and often strikes down on those undeserving of such turmoil. In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, a creature more repulsive than one can imagine is brought to life by a young scientist. Although this creature is horrifying in sight, he is gentle by nature. Unfortunately, the softer side of the creature is repeatedly overlooked and the so called “monster” is driven to a breaking point. Even though the Creature committed many crimes, Mary Shelley’s Creature was the tragic hero of this story because of his efforts rescue the life of a young girl and helping destitute cottagers.
The Monster is a short story that was written by Toby Litt in 1968. From beginning to end, from a third person point of view, we learn bits and pieces of information about a ‘monster’ of sorts, living in a world full of questions. This monster does not know, or understand what, or who, he is, and neither does the reader. The audience is often left wondering just as much as the main character is, resulting in a story that keeps readers hooked. The monster is simply called a monster, and never told if it is, or is not so. The Monster is a short story in which Toby Litt uses experimental story structure, a unique voice, and an unusual theme to challenge conventional story telling.
One of the many staples of horror fiction is the employment of a monster to aide in the fear the reader experiences. A monster gives the protagonists a tangible object to fear. When the fear is tangible the protagonists are able to be drawn into the story in a more concrete manner. The reader is also able to be included in the fear because they can get a full picture of what is scaring the main characters. Unlike ghosts or spirits, monsters provide a visual representation of the fear to be experienced. One pair of monsters stand out from the others, this is the wolfman and the werewolf. On the surface, both are seemingly the same character with a different name, but this paper is going to explore the differences between the wolfman and the werewolf as they appear in fiction and how their different manifestations relates to the characters in the story and those behind the fur. This writer believes that although there are many similarities behind the werewolf and the wolfman, there are a few differences in how the characters are portrayed. This difference is shown primarily in The Wolfman by Jonathan Maberry and The Cycle of the Werewolf by Stephen king.
Peter Brooks' essay "What Is a Monster" tackles many complex ideas within Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, and the main concept that is the title of the essay itself. What is the definition of a monster, or to be monstrous? Is a monster the classic representation we know, green skin, neck bolts, grunting and groaning? A cartoon wishing to deliver sugary cereal? or someone we dislike so greatly their qualities invade our language and affect our interpretation of their image and physical being? Brooks' essay approaches this question by using Shelley's narrative structure to examine how language, not nature, is mainly accountable for creating the idea of the monstrous body.
Monsters have been depicted in different ways throughout history, but scholars like Jeffrey Jerome Cohen have been able to dissect how monsters are viewed by culture along with examining the various functions that monsters serve in horror fiction and films. His theses cover a broad expanse of interpretations, ranging from topics as different as how monsters represent cultural and societal conflicts to how they fascinate us. Stories like Peter Crowther’s “Ghosts with Teeth” make the reader reflect on a different type of monster, one that constantly undermines our societal and cultural expectations through taking the form of a human. Crowther’s story is profitably interpreted through Jerome Cohen’s “Seven Theses” about monsters, suggesting that “Ghosts with Teeth” is more than the horror story seen at face value.