We are all surrounded by monsters in our daily life. Some monsters are temporary others are permanent; because all us have different monsters we each have a unique monster story. Throughout this journal I will speak about my monsters and monsters that our society faces today; the transition begins at Entry 4. My monsters vary from an animal, an idea, to an act. To some people my monsters may seem foolish but to me it's something that plays over and over again in my head. A couple of monsters that terrorize our society include depression, violence, and power. To get rid of your monsters you first have to understand them. Forgiveness is the key to peace of mind and to living a satisfying life. Entry 1: Snakes are evil. When I was little my …show more content…
cousin and I would go into this construction area where there were piles of dirt and rocks. We always had fun here because we would always slide, throw rocks, or come up with a fun imaginary situation. One day my cousin thought it would be a good idea for me to stand on top of the rocks so that she could take a picture. I posed for the picture like a pro but somehow managed to slip. I fell from an 8 foot pile of rocks but that was not even the worst part. When I looked up I saw a black snake a couple of feet in from of me. I hate snakes so my immediate reaction was to cry. My cousin’s immediate reaction was to run away. I layed in the rocks looking at the snake for 15 minutes until my cousin built up the courage to throw a stick at it. I look back at this situation and think about the metaphorical value. I think that the snake symbolized Cohen’s fourth theses “the monster dwells at the gates of difference.” The snake represented my fears which incapacitated me from moving forward. I could have easily scared the snake off or have simply escaped but instead I choose to empower the presence and power of the snake. This allowed me to see that my fear was truly a kind of desire. I also have a fear of failure. Like most teenagers, failure is something that we are constantly told will lead us into a spiral of bad decisions. When I am faced with failure I often try to take the smallest loss possible which often entails giving up or making questionable decisions. If I am playing a video game and know that I am going to lose, I turn off my system. I remember on one occasion me and my friend Andrew were playing an intense game of FIFA 14 that ended up getting physical. The game was almost over and I had just given up a penalty kick. I remembering thinking about how I would never hear the end of it if he won, so when he was taking a penalty shot I purposely bumped into him causing him to miss. The game ended as a tie. I ruined his chance to win because I saw him as the enemy and a barrier of possible glory. When we see people as the enemy we become a monster ourselves. Through this experience I learned that failing is not a monster but an opportunity to mature. Another fear I have is of the unknown. To me movies such as E.T and Independence day are two of the scariest movies ever made. I fear the unknown because I am relatively new to this planet and do not know a whole lot about it other than what I am told. Also, I feel that there is a large division in people who want to know the truth about aliens, ghosts, etc. and those who do not. Bigfoot is a good example of the unknown. Many people claim to have seen him and many claim that he does not exist. But in reality most of us do not know the truth; yet we still defend our opinions as if it were the truth. The same can be said about ghosts and aliens. Thinking about the Others is scary and thought provoking. It makes you wonder how would we react if we made contact and why we have a pre judged notion of what they act and look like. Entry 2: I was approaching Caesars Palace, one of the most famous and luxurious hotels in vegas. I glanced at everything watching my steps carefully, the magnificent aqua blue water fountain lit up like a firework showing off all the colors of the rainbow. Expensive cars and well dressed people walked by with jewelry that could be seen from miles away. As I walked in I imagined what a life this could be for anyone who could afford the lifestyle. My brother had a friend staying at the Caesars Palace so we took the elevator to go up to his room. As we entered the elevator this well dressed white woman looked nervous and anxious. She was grabbing her purse so hard her fingers could have broke. After a few awkward seconds she scuffed my shoulder and basically ran out of the elevator. My brother and I just stood in silence realizing what had just happened. We didn't speak about the incident until we got back to our hotel that night. I was 12 so I guess my brother thought it was a good life lesson to teach me about how people are assholes and that racial discrimination is still relevant today. This was the first time I had ever been treated as the Other. I stepped off the bus and looked over across the crowded road. The water glistened from the orange glow of the setting sun, and I heard the sound of Spanish music in the background. Immediately, I felt at home. In the midst of this big city, I felt small but not threatened. There’s no comparison between the atmosphere in Hickory, NC, and my birthplace, Itagüí, Colombia. When I visited Colombia for the first time ( I was about 8) everywhere I looked there was people dancing and just having a good time. I went over to a convenience store to buy a soda. Small convenience stores in Colombia are usually covered by bars so if you want to buy something you have to tell the clerk what you want. So for five minutes I try to explain to the clerk that I want a Sprite. I knew spanish but I hadn’t really spoken spanish with anyone other than my family. So I was nervous and frustrated when speaking to the clerk. As I was about to walk away two guys on a motorcycle quickly approached the store. One the motorcyclists stayed on the motorcycle the other one approached with a pistol in his hand. I stood there shocked and terrified. Thankfully he didn’t seem to notice me or so me as a threat. After about 30 seconds the clerk gave them some money and they rode off. After they left I just kind of stood there staring at the sky thinking about all the possible scenarios. After I came back to reality I ran away empty handed and scared. My whole summer in Colombia that year was full of me struggling to be comfortable. I knew that the possibilities of that happening again were small but I didn’t want to take a chance. So anytime I went to the store I always went with someone else. Although, I saw much worse after that robbery. Each year I visit Colombia I feel more and more at home. Another, incident that happened in Colombia was when I walked by a bridge full of homeless people gambling, drinking, and smoking.
I found this spot to be fascinating and exciting. It looked like a casino with no doors; it was amazing. People were having a good time some were drunk, others were high as a kite. In areas like these you should never go alone or stay very long so whenever I went I would go with my older brother Alex. Alex is strong, athletic, and has an intimidating large structure so I knew no one would be messing with me or him. However, these homeless people do not mind asking you for money or food. At the time I had just enough money to buy some ice cream for me and my brother. Plus I really didn’t feel like sharing with someone who looked like they were living just fine. However, there was one gentleman that asked who had something particularly odd about him. I thought it was just drugs but somehow I knew that was not it. After me and Alex walked passed dozens of homeless guys begging for spare change. We got our ice cream, stayed there for about an hour and then walked back. While, we were walking back we noticed there was a lot of commotion close to the bridge. Because me and my brother are curious and have to pass by that way anyways we figured why not take a look. As we approached we could see a body in the middle of the road. This is not strange in Colombia but there was something familiar about that body. I told alex to try to get closer to see if it was someone we knew. When he came back he said “It’s just the weird homeless guy that was begging for money earlier.” I immediately felt a cold chill and a sudden sentiment of guilt. I knew the guy probably died from hunger or some weird disease. As we walked back to the house I could not stop thinking what if we could of made this guys last moment the best moments of his life or at least enjoyable. This was one of the few times in my life I have realized that I treated someone else as the
Other. Entry 3: Frankenstein is one of the scariest monsters ever created. He has no emotion, no family, or friends. Frankenstein is a product of a damaged household. Victor Frankenstein saw his creation as a scientific miracle not as a person. He didn't understand why no one accepted or cared for his feelings. So he never developed feelings for anyone else. This caused him to kill without having regret. Frankenstein is a prime example of the Other he is different and not human so society thinks he must be destroyed. This made me think about how friendly we are to outsiders. Entry 4: The word monster has several definitions. My definition of a monster is someone or something who does not allow individuals to fit in because of their personality, actions, or appearance. Some might define a monster as something hideous or extremely large, an abnormal structure, or something/someone evil. Monsters are often associated with being lonely, depressed, and violent. People often associate these words with monsters because they do not feel empathy for the monster due to their behavior or appearance. Monsters can often be traced to a tragic incident that has affected someone deeply, leading to people defining them as monsters. Prisoners are often seen as monsters. They are seen as monsters because they have often committed crimes that are not socially acceptable. Some of these crimes include drug possession, embezzlement, immigration, and bribery. After people commit these crimes they are often outcasted from society. This only builds anger and violence for those who are incarcerated and creates a problem when they are released. This is also why they go back to a life of crime. This has made an impression on me because of the way we treat people who have been incarcerated. We treat them as the Other even if they committed their crimes several years ago and have served their time. Depression is a monster in today's society. Teenagers and adults become depressed because they struggle to find happiness within themselves. They see other people's joy as a sign that they are weak or unwanted. This often leads people to make irrational decisions and become isolated; which is unhealthy and dangerous for many people's cognitive growth. Depression is one of the leading causes of drug abuse. When people begin to use drugs or isolate themselves, people begin to shift their perspective. The victim then becomes the monster.
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 Ted Genoways’ article “Here Be Monsters,” written in 2005, he elaborates that minds will envision the unfathomable visions regardless. He later supports it by saying that it will lead to creating the fear that monstrous events will happen. Genoways believes that we must grasp the realism of the problems that consume this world to overcome them. This short story comes from the “Virginia Quarterly Review,” which is a magazine created for discussions, reviews, poems, and more. This specific, analyzing article intends to inform and spur discussion. It focuses on improving the world rather than within the self. “Here Be Monsters” is an agreeable writing. The point made is that if there is no action taken, then we will unfailingly fear the threats and retract from those whom we distinguish as dangerous. This piece of writing is a valid impression with supporting philosophies that contains relevant explanations.
“The only motive that there was was to completely control a person… and keep them with me as long as possible, even if it meant just keeping a part of them.” Using this statement, Jeffrey Dahmer offers his insight about what made him the cruel, demented being people have known him to be for the last 25 years. Many questions still remain, however. How do we, in society, define the term “monster”? What makes a monster? What shapes our perceptions of monsters, and how do these perceptions change over time? Several centuries passed between the time of Grendel from the epic poem, Beowulf, and the Milwaukee Monster, Jeffrey Dahmer, for instance. Grendel is a creation of the Anglo-Saxons, whose culture
If someone had previous knowledge of a crime, are they just as guilty for not reporting that a crime was going to happen as the person(s) that actually perpetrated the crime? This question was a major point of discussion and the major driver of the plot in the book Monster by Walter Dean Myers. In this book, 16 year old Steve Harmon is being tried for felony murder for participating in a robbery perpetrated by James King, Bobo Evans, and Osvaldo Cruz that ended in the death a Alguinaldo Nesbitt. Although the jury found Harmon innocent in the end, the readers still learn that Steve knew that a robbery was going to happen. Also, scattered throughout the book were bits of evidence that alluded to Steve’s involvement in the robbery. Therefore,
Late autumn has arrived and with it comes the dark magic of Halloween--and, of course, the
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.
Asma, Stephen. On Monsters :An Unnatural History of Our Worst Fears. New York: Oxford University Press, 2009. Print.
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.
Monsters! They are under the bed; They might be in the storeroom. Those things in the basement, the attic, and as well be the relic in the mirror, the chilly eyes gazing toward you for despising. The creatures here and there inspire heroes: the community’s bravest crowd to ascend. The authors, Brandy Ball Blake and Andrew Cooper described monsters and showed where there could be hiding in their book, “Haunting Boundaries.” For this essay, the storyline behind the monster in the book, “Coraline” would be my focus because the monster brought out the story of Coraline, the girl who displayed bravery and faced her fears against her other mother. The other mother is the monster in the book of Coraline written by Neil Gaiman. A creature that inspires
Culture is the embodiment of human traits that go beyond societal norms while nature is the traits humans were born with. In the seven theses essay “Monster Culture,” Cohen explains the aspects of culture in society and the human condition by portraying them as monsters from different cultural eras and places. The monster is multidimensional, different, and constantly evolving. In the perspective of nature, the monster is the enemy. It threatens the very concept of what nature, tradition, and normal is. However, who is to say what is natural and what is not? Is something different yet that has existed as long as the victim a threat? Pollan’s article “Why Natural Doesn’t Mean Anything Anymore” suggests that nature is no longer applicable to
Monsters are the physical embodiment of fear. Monsters are the physical embodiment due to a wide variety of reasons. The most important being: Monsters’ apparent invulnerability/incredible strength, represent the bad part of society, most often look ugly, represent evil/nightmares itself, are intelligent, and some deviate from the norms are the reasons why monsters are the physical embodiment of fear. Monsters’ incredible characteristics are what strike fear into the hearts of others. In many myths, monsters are a weakness to societies. For instance, the heroes of Rome fight these monsters in order to overcome them which is the symbolic overcoming of weakness by the community. The fear monsters represent is primarily human fear as monsters are generally on good terms with animals and human fear is far deeper than animal fear.
The key figure in the novel Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley, is a monster who “was benevolent and good; [but] misery made [him] a fiend” (Shelley 84). The monster is originally created to possess love, kindness, and other human characteristics, but after years of solitude due to his inhuman ugliness, his life is left in ruins. Humans’ normal response to being alone or feeling like no one cares about them, is to curse others and the world. The monster has the same reaction after he is physically and emotionally rejected by society and his creator. Frankenstein explores the journey of a monster and how he deals with his human emotions when he is let out into the world to fend for himself. The monster’s response to his isolation from society is
We live in a world where creatures have abilities that can blow our minds, however we are ignorant of this. We live in a world where a constant power struggle is occurring between these secret species, a struggle that most human beings have no inclination of. We live in a world where people who know the truth are sworn to secrecy, and those proclaim this truth are considered crazy and locked away; to be sane is to be ignorant. Well, that is what I would love to be true. In actuality, I am fascinated with the topic of monsters; I love them all: lycanthropes, Frankenstein’s monster, witches, fae, necromancers, zombies, demons, mummies, and my favorite: vampires. This fetish has been manifested in the movies I view, the televisions shows I watch, and the books I read. When my obsession with reading is crossed with my obsession with monsters the result is a bookshelf containing more vampire novels than most people would consider healthy. I have discovered that every vampire novel varies vastly; no two books are ever alike. For example, the Twilight Series, the Anita Blake Series and the Vampire Chronicles Series have different legends and lore, different relationships between vampires and society, and different genres, theme, and purpose; this array of novels display most clearly the range of audience for vampire genre can cater.
Poole writes this piece in order to expose the truths of American history. He wants his readers to know the good, the bad, and the ugly and wants them to have their history not just be a part of their past but rather, a piece of them they will carry with forever. He also aims to show that the monsters of are past are not just a figment of our imagination; they are a connection to history. Chapter one focuses on both the repulsion and obsession that Americans experience when confronted by monsters or the unknown. Poole reveals that monsters have been around since the beginning of time and are a result of the fears and anxieties found within society. Chapter two emphasizes that the fears of exploring new worlds along with mysterious stories of
When asked to envision a monster, everyone would have different ideas. Some would speak of beastmen with large horns and sharp teeth. Some would imagine a swarm of hive-minded insects that surround their victims to drain their lives. Some would find that their demons as shapeshifters that disguises themselves as familiars or loved ones, only to stab their targets in the back and consume their soul. These sort of creatures aren’t seen in reality except, perhaps, in a videogame or a horror novel. Instead, everyday, we are burdened by the “monsters” that are expectations, challenges, and our own minds. These obstacles aren’t ones we can physically fight, but ones we must overcome. As for myself, I would imagine an invisible voice that clings to