The Matrix And Frankenstein Comparison Essay

When reading or watching works of science fiction, it’s easy to cheer for the humans. In many cases, it’s us as a race against the alien creatures or some sort of technology that’s turned evil. Just think of “Alien,” “The Matrix,” and “Ender’s Game.” Work like this gives us as humans hope in ourselves, and makes us imagine that the people in our world can band together to conquer anything if we put our minds to it. But what happens when the humans aren’t the ones being attacked? Both Ursula K. Le Guin’s “The Word for World is Forest” and Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein” have heavy themes hinting that humans aren’t as perfect as we sometimes like to think. In fact, both works point out that humans themselves are sometimes the monsters.

Le Guin’s story seems to relay this theme more upfront than Shelley’s “Frankenstein.” In her book, she describes an Eden-like planet called Athshe. There, most of the world is either forest or water, and is run by a human-like race called the Athsheans. The small, furry green people are extremely peaceful. Although there are different tribes on the species and different language, they never fight or kill one another. Instead, they think the humans are uncivilized because they battle their

own race. It doesn’t take long for the Athsheans to realize that the humans in the story kill them just as easily as they kill their own kind.
The humans land on the planet to harvest trees because lumber is “more prized on Earth than gold” (Le Guin 16). Upon arriving on the planet, the humans show their true monstrous side. The larger, stronger race (who also have more advanced weaponry) captures the species to use as slaves. Upon capture, the peaceful beings face physical and verbal abuse and sometimes death. The women live in fear of being raped by the humans. On page 44, Selver, an Athshean and a main character in the novel, warns his people that the humans “kill us lightly as we kill snakes. The one who taught me said that they kill one another, in quarrels, and also in groups, like ants fighting… they will strike a bowed neck, I have seen it! There is a wish to kill in them” (Le Guin). The Athsheans are called “creechies” by most of the workers, a term that seems derogative by the fact that it sounds more like a creature than the name of an intelligent humanoid species.
Selver can personally attest to the violence of the humans- his wife was raped and murdered by one of the aliens that invaded his home, and when he attacked the man afterwards he was scarred and almost killed. For the Athsheans, they have almost no choice but to fight the humans, even though their kind has never before had a battle. The humans have invaded their homeland, plan on eventually overtaking it with their own species, and they have no issue with killing off the natives. Their reasoning to fight back is more than justified. Le Guin’s writing quickly let the reader know who the real protagonists of this story are, and most of them don’t belong to the human race. When comparing a bloodthirsty alien species to their peace-loving slaves, it’s not hard to decide which one is the monster.
While the humans have more advanced weaponry than the Athsheans, the Athsheans are more advanced in other ways, once again humanizing the species while making the humans seem like barbaric monsters. For one, the Athsheans alone know how to enter the dream-world at will; some are even able to direct their dreams, or follow them to interpret its meaning. Their sense of empathy also seems to be more advanced. As stated before, the species didn’t purposely kill until the humans invaded.
The species also values the female sex more than humans. Human females are brought to Athshean only for sex and breeding purposes, and Captain Davidson, a main character in the novel, tells his fellow human worker, “Don’t go looking for good sense from women and creechies” (Le Guin 20). The Athsheans, on the other hand, value women as equals, if not higher. The women are the leaders of the tribes, and during the battles against the humans they fought along with the men. On page 40, one Athshean says to another when Selver is talking, “I wish he was a woman and would talk sense” (Le Guin). By showing a much greater sense of equality and intellect, the humans are shown as more animalistic and monstrous in comparison.
In Le Guin’s novel, the Athsheans are a much more religious species than the humans. While humans have a long history with religion, their ties seem to be all but cut by the time this book takes place. The humans now accept things like homosexuality and drug use, which is frowned upon in many of the popular religions of today’s world. Additionally, there are no scenes of any human characters praying or actively practicing a religion. In comparison, the Athsheans have gods of their own, although it’s very different that what you would imagine a religion to be like. The gods are men themselves, immortal and imperfect but chosen nonetheless. The only reason they are given such an honorary title is for their abilities to translate their dreams; the name “god” in their language is actually the same word for “translator.” In Selver’s case, his dream starts the war between the Athsheans and the humans and ends with the humans leaving the planet. A human doesn’t have to be religious, and the lack of faith or a worship of gods doesn’t mean someone is a monster. But knowing that the Athsheans to have a religion with gods shows that they are not only able to think about things intellectually but also spiritually, which some may say is a humanistic trait.
Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein” also leaves the reader wondering which characters could be considered a monster.

The book begins with Victor Frankenstein’s creation described just as any other scary-story creation would be. “His yellow skin scarcely covered the work of muscles and arteries beneath; his hair was of lustrous black, and flowing; his teeth of pearly whiteness; but these luxuriances only formed a more horrid contrast with his watery eyes, that seemed almost of the same colour as the dun-white sockets in which they were set, his shrivelled complexion and straight black lips” (Shelley 35). The creature was larger and stronger than the average man, and was so frightening that Victor runs away from the room as soon as his creation comes

alive.
After escaping, the creature finds a cottage belonging to a brother and sister (Felix and Agatha) and their blind father (De Lacey). The monster spies on the family, and begins to learn how to speak by observing. The De Lacey family takes in a young Turk named Safie (whom Felix admires) and teaches her to read and write, and the creation learns himself by watching. Through learning how to read and write, the creature shows that he’s more than a monster; he’s capable of intelligence. Some may say that his intellect surpasses that of humans, who most likely would find teaching themselves to speak and write by themselves a much more difficult and time-consuming task.
Much like Victor, the creature has a thirst for knowledge. But also like Victor, he realized that ignorance really is bliss. By eavesdropping on the De Laceys, the creature learns about the human world. But the words induced him to turn toward himself (Shelley 85). He realized that he owns nothing that’s of worth to man, such as property, wealth, attractiveness and companionship. The creature says on page 85, “I cannot describe to you the agony that these reflections inflicted upon me: I tried to dispel them, but sorrow only increased with knowledge” (Shelley). Much like his creation, Victor too feels regrets for the knowledge he’s learned. By not learning the secret to life, he wouldn’t have been able to create the monster he so fears and despises.
The human side of Frankenstein’s creation is easily visible while he is with the De Lacey family. The creature steals food from the family to survive, but feels guilty after he realizes that he is making the poverty-stricken family’s life even more difficult. “When I found that in doing this I inflicted pain on the cottagers,” the monster tells Victor, “I abstained, and satisfied myself with berries, nuts, and roots, which I gathered from the neighboring wood… during the night I often took (De Lacey’s) tools, the use of which I quickly discovered, and brought home firing” (Shelley 78). The monster not only feels guilt when he realizes that he’s hurting the family, but works hard to help the family and ease his conscience. As time goes on in the story, Victor’s creation learns not only human words and speech but also humanistic emotions.
Victor isn’t the only human whom the creature bares a resemblance. Much like Felix, who shows much admiration over Safie, the monster’s main hope is for a companion in life, one who is similar to himself. The want for company is also similar to Walton’s; at the beginning of the book, Walton writes to his sister, “I have but one want which I have never yet been able to satisfy; and the absence of the object of which I now feel as a most severe evil. I have no friend… I desire the company of a man who could sympathise with me” (Shelley 4). On page 104, the monster begs his creator to build him a mate. “You must create a female for me, with whom I can live in the interchange of those sympathies necessary for my being” (Shelley). Much like the other characters, and most humans in life, the monster wishes for a companion, a common human want.
While the creature proves himself to be very human, it’s also important to point out how Victor, a human man, has many monstrous traits. Most importantly is his thirst for revenge. After the creature strips Frankenstein of his companions, including his wife, his son, and his best friend, he too is left without a companion, much like the creature. And with the absence of companionship comes the absence of humanity. Victor vows to kill the monster in revenge, saying that “if it is in my power to seize the monster, be assured that he will suffer punishment proportionate to his size” (Shelley 148). His thirst for revenge is much like when the creature “vowed eternal hatred and vengeance to all mankind” (Shelley 101). Frankenstein’s sole purpose at that point on is to murder his creation, and he chases after his creation until his death. Once again, the monster shows his human side when he finds his creator dead. The creature, crying and standing over his creator’s lifeless body, tells Walton that he is sorry for the death of Victor and everyone else he murdered. “My heart was fashioned to be susceptible of love and sympathy; and when wrenched by misery to vice and hatred, it did not endure the violence of the change, without torture such as you cannot even imagine” (Shelley 164).
Even though humans tend to be a proud race, they’re not perfect. They take pride in who they are and what they believe, but are they really something to be proud of, or do they all have a bit of monster inside of them? Even though these works are science fiction, there’s always a bit of realism to every piece of art. Shelley’s “Frankenstein” and Le Guin’s “The Word for World is Forest” are able to make readers question what it really means to be human, and their works show that the qualifications don’t include belonging to the human race.