The narration “Where Our Monsters Come From” provides an overview of different types of monsters and how humans perceive them. The author’s explanation of the present-day anomalies compared to the beast from the past and nature monsters reflects the societal anxiety and scientific progress by modern desires to enable created monsters to dominate the world. At the beginning of his narration, Braudy talks about the Halloween season and the various elements such as ghosts, ghouls, and goblins associated with it. With all the assortments of lurid paraphernalia, they consider Halloween as fun, even though the seasonal terrors experienced contain a profound message. Since the monsters’ history dates back to the ancient Celts, current monsters’ contemporary anxieties are assumed to be the souls of the dead that revisited the earth.
After the book’s appearance in Wall Street Journal in 2016, monsters’ classification becomes used to provide entertainment to readers and enlighten them. Accordingly, monsters are grouped into four variations. Moreover, each type of monster creates a fear in people to the many scientific and social advances that exist. To some extent, the scientific aspect of advancement threatens humans by instilling some fear and anxiety. Braudy concludes that monsters from nature such as the Hydra, the Sphinx, the Minotaur, the Godzilla, Hulk, and the Chimera, populated the natural environment, thereby awakening some fears beneath the ordinary environment. The normal monsters take any form to protest against enlightenment ambitions, thereby turning nature into human purposes. These monsters remind humans that they cannot fully understand their environment since there are underlying secrets.
According to Dr. Frankenstein, he creates the second type of monster to discover the secret of life and death. The beast which is capable of doing both good and evil, attempts to fit into the modern human society to dominate the world. As Frankenstein tries to build a monster that can be manipulated, it still becomes a challenge since it might turn against its creator. People familiar with monster stories, human desires, and cruel deeds are thwarted after each encounter with a monster. The monster can fit into the confines of particular societal or scientific anxiety.
In ideal world, when one pictures anything monstrous, he or she cannot quickly recognize the type of monster and make sense out of it. Like Michael Dylan’s in the Haunting Modernity different contributions to anthropology provide an insight into the changing narrations of Tanuki in reconsidering our monsters and what these monsters say about us. Psychologically, the monster from within is an atypical monster living inside us. In the scientific world, any reasoning comes from inside under the influence of the beast within.
The author categorically talks about the last monster – the monster from the past. Literary monsters that humans are exposed to from childhood linger in their imagination due to fear’s personalization. Most humans use past fears as a basis for courage development in the present. The monsters adapt and mature depending on the leader’s maturity to maintain a fear-imagination balance. Many parents have expressed their dislike for the controversial picture books provided to children that might represent the monsters in young adult fiction.
Interestingly, the universe of monsters constantly expands by incorporating classical elements of monsters. Frankenstein, together with the monster creature, are both referred to as spiritual beings. However, the figurative animal in the story is also referred to as the devil since the devil was once an angel displaced due to corruption and evil deeds. In mythology, monsters have always provided challenges that the human race must conquer despite the spread of fear. Monsters will fall into categories depending on their form and functions. For instance, Sphinx never uses violence but is recognized as a partial lion, making it strong.
Work Cited
Braudy, Leo. “Where Do We Find Our Monsters.” The Wall Street Journal, 2016. Web.