Monster Culture In Frankenstein

As the world is rapidly modernizing, “monster culture” and the overall perception of monsters in society is also changing. Monsters generally represent the current fears of a society, and it has been this way since the beginning of recorded history. For example, the fear of monsters played just as important a role in the Greek and Roman empires as their gods and goddesses did. Monsters in these times were used to reflect the unknown and frightening occurrences that were unexplainable at the time. The first modern example of a widespread monster came with the publishing of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein in 1886. Shelly’s monster represented a fear of technology as the world began to quickly urbanize and industrialize. The fears shifted to a fear

of characters such as Bram Stoker’s Dracula, which stood to represent how Western society was beginning to fear Eastern culture and its threat to their current way of life. Another shift occurred with Richard Matheson’s I Am Legend in 1954.

Matheson’s tale reflects society’s new fear of mob mentality, along with mindless consumerism, as the world was beginning to be dominated by large cities. Jeffrey Cohen stated in Monster Culture (Seven Theses), “‘Monster Theory’ must therefore concern itself with the strings of cultural moments, connected by a logic that always threatens to shift” (6). Monster culture has been constantly changing for as long as humans have recorded history because fear is a natural instinct. Humans will always be looking for something to rationalize their fears and provide tangible evidence to explain strange

circumstances. The monster in literature and art throughout history has served as the best outlet for this rationalization. As the popular monstrous archetype has changed, so has the world’s application of monsters. The worldwide legend of a feared mythological “wild man” creature represents a shift in monster culture to accurately portray a change in the current generation’s view of monsters from fear to fascination in a largely metropolitan society.
To understand how fears have changed, society’s changes must be analyzed. A notable contributor to this is the vast urbanization that has dominated the better part of the past two centuries of human advancement. Urbanization is defined as “the process by which large numbers of people become permanently concentrated in relatively small areas, forming cities” (“Urbanization”). Early on in our country’s history, settlers found that the “new” wilderness of the Americas seemed “so vast and mysterious that it not only appeared limitless, but must also have been unimaginably intimidating” (DeStefano 41). As the country slowly developed, the fears shifted from nature to fear of building large cities, much like the ones they had left behind. However, this view has been shifting back towards the original fear of nature, mainly due to rapidly expanding cities. Because so many people contributed to this expanse, the destruction of nature was inevitable. Michael Dear states in The Postmodern Urban Condition that “Human habitation on a metropolitan scale has only been possible through a widespread manipulation of nature” (149). Therefore, it can reasonably assumed that as the size and number of our cities increases, the size of natural habitats will be consequently decreased. This rapid declination of natural environments combined with increasing populations in and around cities has led to more and more humans becoming relaxed within the perceived security of these cities. Therefore, as the Western society has become increasingly comfortable in large cities, the fear has reversed such that the current generation fears the great outdoors more so than the comfort of city life. Based off of these observations, whatever is least familiar to a given generation is feared the most. The wild frontier sparked fear in the hearts of the original immigrants to the West, leading to communities becoming safe havens. Then, when the vast majority of the population lived in areas that were once uncharted, rising cities were daunting and filled with innovations that conjured terror. Now that society has become accustomed to the modernized realm of cities, a sort of self-inflicted fear of the unknown has come about. As Jeffrey Cohen says, “[Monsters] can be pushed to the farthest margins of geography and discourse…but they always return. And when they come back…they bear self-knowledge, human knowledge” (21). This fear and the inevitable nature of monsters is a reason as to why Bigfoot has become so frightening to modern societies.
Bigfoot, or any legend of a “wild man,” is an ideal example of this change. Dr. John Bindernagel, a wildlife biologist, believes that this wild creature is simply “biological entity that hasn’t been classified”(Bigfoot’s Reflections). Grover Krantz tends to call the creatures “unknown hominoids,” or creature that possibly descends from and hold similar body features to the same ancestor as modern great apes (qtd. in Reichs 1011). The image of this creature is not unique to America, however. Myra Shackley’s book Still Living? helps provide an important fact: “The character of the Wildman…appears in art and literature of almost every culture that has ever existed” (7). There are numerous examples of the “wild man” from all around the world. The Yeti, or ‘the Abominable Snowman” as popularized in Western culture, is a creature that has its roots in the Himalayan mountain range, and is probably the most well-known “wild man” other that Bigfoot. Almost every Native American tribe in the northwest part of the nation have a legend of some monster similar to Bigfoot. Some people make the argument that the modern Sasquatch legend truly began with the natives of the West Coast (Loxton). Moreover, regions such as Australia, Malaysia, and many others have their own version of the “wild man.” The worldwide nature of the myth helps show its relevance in modern culture because it is still around. Because the legend has been around for so long, Bigfoot, Sasquatch and all the other legends are good indications of how society’s views have changed throughout the different popular shifts in monster culture.
While the legend of Bigfoot represents the new fears of Western society, the myth more accurately reflects that society is generally becoming less afraid of the supernatural. Moreover, Westerners are not just less afraid, but they have become fascinated by myths, legends, and paranormal activity. Consequently, these fascinations have begun to drive explorations and discoveries that humans would have hesitant to attempt in the past due to instinctual fears. Due to a number of factors, such as the peace of mind provided by technology, many people are now actively hunting monsters such as Bigfoot, along with other supernatural beings. Evidence of this can be seen in reality TV, as there are countless shows focused on hunting ghosts, myths, legends, and monsters. The people that hunt these creatures are generally shunned for their belief in these beings that society has deemed non-existent. However, as evidenced in the documentary film Bigfoot’s Reflections, these people are regular humans who picked up the desire to hunt and discover something great. This shows that the hunt for Sasquatch and other myths represent the general population’s fascinations and wonders. Modern humans have an inherent enthusiasm to discover new things and solve the world’s great mysteries. One great example of this is the fact that the giant squid, thought by many to be the mythological Kraken, was photographed in 2004 and later filmed in 2006. Similarly, another profound discovery was the eastern mountain gorilla which was considered a myth until it was finally identified inn 1916. New discoveries, such as this one, are being made all the time, and, in turn, they are constantly fueling the fire under the hunt for creatures such as Bigfoot, ghosts, and other legends. Humans have been constantly discovering new species and proving or busting age old myths following the changes to both our natural environment and monster culture in general. However, the expansive amount of information available to the modern world paired with urbanization leaves little of the unknown left for society to base a genuine fear off of. Consequently, societal fears have diminished and are being replaced by feelings of wonder and interest towards legends such as Bigfoot.
This interest in finding Bigfoot has proliferated quickly amongst the Western Millennial generation.

They have developed a general apprehension towards the world they live in, as observed by Nancy Wadsworth in her analysis of the Western Millennials’ perception of fear. She says that “most Millennial students, regardless of background, suspect there is something wrong with the reality they’ve inherited” (5). Following this assumption, it is fair to conclude that Millennials are generally eager to find and solve what they believe to be “wrong” with the world. The Millennials also grew up surrounded by events and news that have radically intensified fears, such as the terror attacks of 9/11, graphic stories of conflict in the Middle East, and the constant threat of a nuclear war. In a commentary on the effects of technology on Millennials, Elijjah Anderson says, “The constant stream of violence we see in movies, news and everyday life on the Internet has rendered us desensitized, apathetic and despicably self-absorbed.” This helps explain why Western Millennials are not as afraid of a mythological creature lurking in the woods or many other monsters for that matter as our ancestors. The hunger to discover and solve the world’s problems among this age also shows why the Pacific Northwest was the perfect region for the legend of Sasquatch to become most notable. This area’s “nature assumed heroic proportions,” as described by the earliest settlers to inhabit it (Schwantes 477).

The expanse of wilderness that existed posed the perfect breeding ground for a “wild man” legend. While the original settlers of the northwest spread the legend, there were few that actively sought out the source in the same way that Westerners have been for the past few decades. Both the fears and, more noticeably, the fascinations, of the Millennials are represented in the myth of Bigfoot and it is easy to conclude that this monster is the defining fear of our generation.
The growing fascination and lessening fear in monsters in general does not bode well for future generations in terms of general awareness. Etymologically, the Latin word from which monster is derived, monstrum as well as monere, mean “"that which reveals” or more notably “that which warns” (Cohen 4). Throughout the vast majority of history, societies across the world have been using monsters to rationalize fears and provide tangible explanations for some unexplainable events. Humans have also often used the fear they gain from monsters as a warning of often all-too-real threats to their own well-being. For example, humans’ distant ancestors quickly realized that the night time was when most predators chose to hunt for their prey. To avoid being killed, they developed an instinctual fear of the dark to protect themselves and created images of what might be lurking in the night as the earliest forms of monsters. As the current and future generations continue to become desensitized and fascinated by monsters, they further progress the degradation of humans main method to justify being afraid. The urbanization of Western culture is certainly not helping as it kindles contentment towards the current state of being. The world is always changing and many times it does so without any sort of warning; therefore, society should constantly have a healthy dose of fear, rationalized by monsters, to ensure adequate preparation to deal with these changes. Overall, Western ideology about the general monster paradigm changes along with the general shifts in cultural fear. Consequently, Society needs to actually use apprehension towards monsters instead of being absorbed and delighted in the face of danger.