Segregation In Frankenstein And Evie Shockley's Separation Anxiety

Segregation is an issue that dominates both the past and the present, and will likely never go away entirely in the future. While the most obvious forms of segregation in American history is slavery and Jim Crow laws, there are also more subtle forms of segregation that are perpetuated by both segregators and the segregated. Some would say that separation does not necessarily mean inequality; however, Both Mary Shelly’s 1818 Frankenstein and Evie Shockley’s “Separation Anxiety” are meant to convey the political message that separating members of society from each other can be done through either the direct maltreatment of a group of people or by subtly manipulating the idea of “equality” to perpetuate inequality, and are commentaries on how

segregated groups also perpetuate their own segregation.
In Shockley’s “Separation Anxiety”, the separation of black people from white people is meant to perpetuate inequality by disguising blatant segregation as preserving black culture.

The effects of this segregation have been normalized by the citizens of the black communities, which is referred to as the ghetto. One such example of this normalization is when peaches says: “i never dreamed i would want to leave the ghetto. i was born and raised in the ghetto, and i figured if i ever had children, they were gonna be born and raised in the same place” (51). Peaches is resigned at that point to live within the confines of her community, which, when one stops to think about it, is a segregated community where black people are seen as cultural objects of amusements rather than actual members of a society. One such example of this is when peaches describes her job as a “cultural worker” and a “dancer of black dances” (52). While separating races to preserve culture may not have been intended to be malicious, that is what it end up becoming. Similar to when MLK explained that the white moderate was holding back the civil rights movements to most, the people who may have no malicious intent are perpetuating inequality though segregation for the sake of preserving black culture. Likewise, members of segregated groups perpetuate their own inequality by accepting and even embracing the idea that they should be segregated from

others.
Similar to Peaches, Frankenstein’s Monster also experiences a form of segregation; however, his situation is direct rather than veiled. Throughout the book, the Monster is constantly mistreated because he looks like a monster; one example of this is when he decides to approach the De Lacey family, whom he had been watching and learning from for a long period of time beforehand. However, he was rejected and physically beaten by them (110). By being rejected and attacked by people who view him as different due to his appearance, he is essentially suffering from an extreme form of segregation, which leads to very extreme outcomes. For example, when the Monster meets William, who calls him a “Hideous monster” and reveals that he is a Frankenstein, the Monster reacts with violence and strangles William to death (117). The effects of violence committed against him tack together and culminated in him committing acts of violence against others, which makes others view him as even more of a monster, and a continues until there is no compatibility between the two. While his hideous appearance is not his fault and he suffers from the extreme prejudices of those around him, he also contributes to these prejudices by committing acts befitting of the monster that the humans think he is.
At first glance, the two texts do not seem similar; one is about segregation and one is about a Monster that nobody likes. However, they have underlying political messages that are strikingly similar: segregation, whether overt or hidden, has the effect of perpetuating inequality and directly harming the lives of everybody who suffers from it. These effects are more obvious in the Monster’s case, where his life is miserable because he is mistreated by everyone around him. As a result, he starts to view himself as lower than everybody else, describing himself as a “miserable wretch” (80). The effects of segregation in “Separation Anxiety”, however, are similar; due to being separated from the rest of society, the people of the ghetto begin the view themselves as different from white people, to the point where few would dare to leave the segregated walls of their community. This is the goal of segregation; to mold someone’s mind so profoundly that even they begin to accept their own unequal position. Segregation even is perpetuated by segregated groups. Frankenstein perpetuates people’s hatred for him by acting like the very monster they think he is. The ghetto community perpetuates segregation by accepting their positions as producers of culture, simple things meant to amuse white people. That is the overall political message of both texts: That segregation comes in many different forms and is perpetuated through a form of brainwashing that involves making the segregated group believe that they need to be segregated.
One of the most obvious ways that the members of the ghetto perpetuating their own segregation is their belief in a big difference between white and black bodies, which in turn affects their breeding patterns. When talking about health consciousness, peaches exclaims: “why you talking that health consciousness shit? that’s white people madness! black folks’ bodies can survive anything, so long as we get a steady diet of greens – don’t you know your history?” (62). While this line is meant to be taken as a joke, it is the type of ironic joke that is meant to make fun of what other people actually believe; many people within the community do believe that there is a big difference between white and black bodies. This in turn affects their breeding patters, and why so many people are happy enough to go their entire life without so much as seeing a white person, let alone sleeping with one. In a world where everybody is the same race with little to no skin color variation, it would be unfathomable that one would mate with someone outside of their racial group. This becomes the social norm that perpetuates segregation, because the members of the ghetto view themselves not necessarily as unworthy, but just too different to mate with members of other races.
The Monster also perpetuates his own segregation by demanding that Victor make him a female wife to mate with: “you must create a female for me, with whom I can live in the interchange of those sympathies necessary for my being” (118).

From all the injustices he has suffered, the Monster has resigned himself to believing that no human could possibly love him, and his only hope for happiness is for Victor to make him a wife. No thought is given to this female, and Victor wonders if “they might even hate each other; the Creature who already lived loathing his own deformity, and might he not conceive a greater abhorrence for it when it came before his eyes in a female form?” (138). Not only does this accentuate the Monster’s desperation for a companion, but it also further shows Victor’s own hatred for the Monster. He views the monster as so hideous and different from himself, that he thinks that even two members of the same species might hate each other. However, the Monster does not consider this, because he longs for someone to join him in his segregated lifestyle, so they can potentially have children who will in turn be segregated, and so will their children and so on. This segregated lifestyle has become normalized for the Monster, to the point where he does not view it as cruel to introduce new life to the world that would be forced to endure the same pain and suffering that he

has.
In both of these texts, segregation is not solely the fault of the segregator; it is also perpetuated by the segregated. The main political message being conveyed in this case is that segregation cannot be blamed solely on one perpetrator or group of perpetrators. While it is true that segregation is a way to perpetuate inequality by allowing for unequal treatment, it is often accepted or even embraced by the same groups who would suffer from it, such as with groups that call for segregation as a form of black empowerment or supremacy. The main idea is that people oftentimes convince themselves of something that is easy to believe, rather than face the problem. It is easy to believe that segregation is the best route for the ghetto community and the race of Monsters that Victor created, because it could make their lives easier to deal with in the sort run; however, the best route in the long run would be to face the problem and try to remedy the situation. “Separation Anxiety” ends in a hopeful tone when Peaches and Trevette decide to breach the walls of segregation so that they can try to remedy the unjust situation of their community. On the other hand, Frankenstein ends with a hopeless tone, where there is no understanding or effort to understand each other. Both authors draw the same conclusion that, in order to remedy an unjust situation, one must recognize the flaws in both sides and work towards understanding and equality, rather than sit back and allow injustice to persist.