Watching action cartoons was somewhat of a ritual as a kid. After a long week of study and play, I would sit front of the colorful box on Saturday and openly absorb as my favorite superheroes, the Teen Titans, beat up bad guys. Little did I realize, I was being programmed into a way of thinking that would influence my values and behavior for years. In the Teen Titans episode, “The Beast Within,” the creators generalize the term “animal” to negatively stereotype non-human animals, in a similar fashion to how misanthropists stereotype humans. This prejudice creates an inhospitable word for our fellow earthlings. First, a little background of the show is necessary. Beast Boy, a member the Teen Titans, has the power to become any animal …show more content…
at will. Most of the time, he is playful, dim-witted, energetic, and immature. However the Titans love him for his kindness, loyalty, and battle prowess. Due to his frequent metamorphoses into various animals, who often belong to species used for food, Beast Boy is adamantly vegan. These qualities all change after he is doused with strange chemicals in a fight against a villain named Adonis. Beast Boy’s DNA was always unstable from shape shifting. The chemicals fused his human DNA with his animal DNA, resulting in his transformation to a flat, aggressive character who uncontrollably alternates between an unidentifiable werewolf-like beast. The following dialogue between Beast Boy (BB) and his roommate Starfire(S) is one of many representations of his newfound attitude after merging into an “animal”. BB: (Sitting in front of the TV, flipping channels) S: “My favorite program of the television is about to start, may we please watch?” BB: “No!” S: “But you are merely flipping.” BB: “I SAID NO! Now be a good girl and get me another root beer (BURP)!” Beast Boy’s violent personality shift primes the viewer to believe animals are malevolent, selfish creatures who lack reason and empathy.
In previous episodes, his reaction might have been something like, “thanks for freeing me from channel surfing, I’m gonna go make tofu burgers! Want one? They’re gonna be juicy!” But now, in addition to acting like a jerk, he stopped being vegan. The morning after the chemical incident, he woke up to the smell of ham and eggs. Normally he would find the thought of his animal friends dead on a plate sickening. Instead, he steals the animal products from his human friends at the breakfast table and proudly swallows the food in one gulp. This action is immediately followed by a guitar strum that mimics the effect of a drum set playing Ba-Dum Chhhss. While the viewer is supposed to find this hilarious, it worries Beast Boy’s friends who know he would never do that. Society dictates there is a hierarchy to all species. Non-human animals are lower on the social ladder than humans because we stereotype them as savage, unremorseful creatures who don’t have any feelings. This Teen Titans episode compounds the attitude by depicting the “Animal” version of Beast Boy as negatively as they can get away with. The show concludes with Beast Boy drinking an antidote to the chemicals from the lab and returning back to his human form. Along with it, his old personality comes back in this dialogue with Raven(R), another roommate of …show more content…
his. BB: “Ugh! I can't believe I ate meat. I acted like a jerk. I'm sorry.” R: “You weren't yourself.” BB: “Yeah. But that thing, that beast, it came from inside me. And it's still there. I can feel it.” R: “Good. If it wasn't for that beast, I might not be here right now. Having that thing inside doesn't make you an animal. Knowing when to let it out is what makes you a man.” This is the last line of the episode.
One school of artistic thought dictates that the stories must end with a broad generalization. The generalization here is that Beast Boy’s wrongdoings were animalistic and only humans can exhibit compassion and control. To this affect Alaimo said, “Monster movies… feature human/animal hybrids that rouse the viewers’ recognition of the animality of the human only to conclude by assuring us that we are certainly not animals after all” (Alaimo 2). By placing humans on a pedestal and non-humans below, it makes us feel proud of our human birthright. However, such ego helps us turn a blind eye when we exhibit the qualities we deem “animalistic”. Another hypocritical view on the opposite side of the spectrum is misanthropy, meaning hatred towards humans. The irony is that misanthropes are humans themselves. Speciesism, or discrimination based on species, follows the same logical fallacy. The people who “assure us that we are certainly not animals at all” (Alamo 2), are in fact animals themselves. The truth belongs to neither speciesists nor misanthropes. Every single sentient being has a different personality because we all encounter different experiences in life, no matter how slight. The act of labeling is a misnomer because labels are too narrow to represent all the differing experiences. For example, someone receives a slap and responds angrily. That doesn’t mean that this individual is angry all the time, nor that everyone
within their species is angry. The noun “individual” comes from the Latin word “individuus”, meaning undividable. Since animals are individuals, we must not divide them into any category. The word “animal” should only be used for the scientific definition for a eukaryotic organism from the kingdom Animalia. That is the accurate representation of an animal. Any other generalization compromises their individuality, which leaves them vulnerable to atrocities like vivisection, performance acts, and genocide. Unfortunately, Merriam-Webster dictionary still defines an animal as “a person who behaves in a wild, aggressive, or unpleasant way”. While this definition provides a basis for many works of art like this Teen Titans episode, we must remove it from our language if we are to end speciesism. As humans, we like to think that we are different from animals. However we have more in common than we’d care to admit. We feel positive and negative emotions, we each have different experiences, and we all deserve the right to freedom from stereotypes.
The first representation of the beast that the author portrays is fear. In document A, “... Begin to people the darkness of night and forest with spirits and demons which had previously appeared only in their dreams or fairy tales”. To clarify, the children’s imagination runs rampant without their parents to banish their fears, so their imagination creates something of a beastie-thing. In document
While they agree that the beast is not a traditional monster, it is Simon’s philosophical understanding that allows him to fully realize the meaning of the beast. At the assembly, Ralph plans to discuss the beast, hoping to bring the fear to an end. Simon suggests that the boys themselves are the beast. Later, when Simon encounters the “Lord of the Flies” in a hallucination, the reader learns the extent of his understanding. The Lord of the Flies mocks Simon by saying, “Fancy you thinking the Beast was something you could hunt and kill...You knew, didn’t you? I’m part of you?”(128). Simon realizes that there is something within humans that can cause them to act savagely. However, at the assembly, in an effort to understand what Simon meant about the beast, the boys suggest that the beast could be a ghost. Piggy firmly rejects this idea because he approaches the beast in the same way he handles most situations: logically and scientifically. As Piggy states, “Life… is scientific, that’s what it is…. I know there isn’t no beast- not with claws and all that, I mean- but I know there isn’t no fear either… unless we get afraid of people” (72). Piggy understands fear can have detrimental effects, but he does not yet understand that fear is within every person, and this is the “beast” that can cause people to act without
The creature was also misguided, his treatment from others led to him becoming a monster but he realized this and did the right thing in the end, showing that he was just misunderstood.
Species egalitarianism is an easily outmoded form of communicating treatment of species because of all the questions and speculation it ultimately raises. The equivocation of animals is absurd. We can’t compare them because of all their fundamental differences, and to do so is insulting to all species that fall below the parameters we instill. Ultimately, there is no possible situation in which species egalitarianism is correct.
He did not fear the jungle, and he did not fear the Beast. "Maybe,' he said hesitantly, 'maybe there is a beast . . . maybe it's only us" (89). The Beast takes many forms in the boys' imaginations; once, t...
Millions of years of evolution have taken us from a single cell to a genetically unique animal we now call humans. This progression and advancement has taken us from beings with no language or sense of thought, to what is now an extremely advanced human race, exploring the world as we know it. In Human Dignity, Francis Fukuyama explains the concepts of what makes an animal human. This can be a very hard concept to grasp and even Fukuyama cannot give a clear answer. Fukuyama agrees that there is not solely one characteristic that makes an animal human, it a group of elements, which he calls Factor X. These elements are what should ultimately give animals the right to be treated with dignity, honor, and respect. If animals can develop an advanced
...t the group more than the short-term enjoyment that this new attraction presents. He knows that finding the beast will provide the entire group of boys with emotional security due to the fact that they will literally face their ultimate fear: the beast. Because Ralph values the emotional security of the group of boys, he serves as father-figure. He symbolizes someone who will always be looking out for his peers, through thick and thin, just as any father would.
A group of children creating a society is destined to corrode. In the beginning of the novel a little boy asks the older children what they are going to do about the “beast.” Although the older boys do not believe the thought of the island being inhabited by a beast, it does mark the start of their paranoia. As their paranoia rises, the children begin to wonder if there really is a beast on the island. "They talk and scream . . . as if the beastie, the beastie or the snake-thing, was real” (52). In this quote, Ralph, Jack, and Simon talk about the beast and whether it is real or not. The beast had created a fear that made
The narrow ways of men continue to put constraints on that which is acceptable and that which is different. Similarly, the things that are repulsive, scary, hideous and vile. Humans have a constant need to categorize things they do not understand, so they attach a label to everything. The Creature's father and creator Victor Frankenstein berthed him to life with out a name. This is possibly the saddest aspect of The Creature's character. Viewed this way a perspective on humans as compassionate and caring individuals is distorted to show people as cold and inconsiderate. Attempting to define difference, humans socially segregate distinction and inconsistency.
Another of the symbols that was used to present the theme of the novel is the beast. The boys believed that the beast is an external source of evil. Though, in reality, it represents the evil present within them, which is causing life on the island to worsen. Simon begins to realize this even befor...
The last decade of the twentieth century in America saw a rise in programs for human’s “self betterment.” A popular form of betterment is that of the inner animal. Interest in Native American animal mysticism, vision quests, and totem animals have increased dramatically in the past few years. No forms of media have been spared; Calvin Klein’s supermodels come on during sitcom commercials to tell viewers they need to be a beast, or to get in touch with their animal within. In the last decade of the nineteenth century, however, animalism was viewed not as a method of self-improvement but as the reprehensible side of humanity that lingered beneath the surface, waiting for an opportune time to come out and play. In Frank Norris’ novel McTeague, humans are no better than the beasts they claim to control. They cage and torment defenseless creatures, but cage and torment themselves far, far, worse. McTeague, Trina, Zerkow, and Marcus are animals in thin human’s clothing, walking the forests of McTeague, waiting for the opportunity to shed their skin and tear each other apart, while the real animals of the world continue leading lives far superior to their human counterparts.
to reassure and respect him. The beast also confesses that he is lonely and disliked (Shelley 105). The creature’s confession indicates the impact prejudice can have on a victim. Though he
The beast symbolizes the growing fear that lies dormant, deep in the children’s souls and turns the boys into uncivilized beings. William Golding uses the beast to instill fear in the souls of the boys. While everyone is scared of the beast and questioning what it exactly is, Simon suggests something else. He agrees with everyone that the beast might just exist. But unlike everyone else, Simon comments, "maybe it's only us.” (Golding 89) This comment shows that the beast might just coexist in their bodies. The beast is just made up and not real, and only a product of their increasing fear of the unknown. The fear of the beast activates their primal instincts and makes them lose all grasps of civilization. Without the mindset to survive, the boys struggle to find food and build shelter efficiently. They slowly lose everything they had when they came to the island. The boys are acting like Native Americans in a sense because their actions resemble the Native Americans through the chanting, dancing and face painting to represent power and fierceness. The settlement on the deserted island triggers the fear that lies deep in them. Each person on the island comb...
In chapter five, the beast was made-up and did not exist. Many of the boys were afraid of it. Ralph called a meeting because he saw the boys were having problems with their fear of the beast. It is Jack who states, “If there were a beast I’d have seen it. Be frightened because you’re like that- but there is no beast in the forest (Goldberg, p. 83). Symbolism for the beast changes in the novel from a real beast that they think exists to realizing that the beast exists within them. It is Simon in chapter five who states that perhaps the beast exist within them. He states, “What I mean is … maybe it’s only us (Goldberg, p. 89). Simon felt that the beast does not really exist but evil exists among them.
The evil inside all of the boys is what causes them to show actions of evil. It causes people to think maybe the beast is a representation of the evil inside them. Simon states, “‘maybe it’s [the beast] only us”’ (Golding 89). This backs up the idea that the beast could potentially be the evil. Arnold states in his article, “The beast is an externalization of the inner darkness in the children’s (man’s) nature” (Johnston). This justifies the idea that the beast is the evil inside of them. The beast is just a way of putting their evil into a figure. They use the beast and other objects like the parachutist to let evil take over them. The evil in them is shown through figures that the boys are taken over by fear of. (Johnston)