Outsiders In Frankenstein

Sebastian Baum
Mrs. Acres Scott
ENG 3U1
12/8/2014

The Sociological Implications of Extraterrestrials and Outsiders on Society in
Frankenstein and Close Encounters of the Third Kind Two novels, written more than a hundred years apart, explore the social acceptance
(and
rejection) of outsiders in an established society. Like Richard E. Yinger once said, “If we ever discover life forms in a biological sense, the implications will be largely sociological for our planet.” In many cases, novels explore the sociological and mental consequences (the good and bad) of extraterrestrial life and supernatural outsiders in society. One prominent novel that displays this is Mary Shelley’s
Frankenstein
(1818). Victor, the scientist, creates a being that sadly gets rejected by society and even its own creator,
In both novels, the main characters each neglect their families, suffer mental trauma, and have an obsession over something.

To begin, in
Frankenstein
, Victor thoroughly neglects his family for two whole years without having any contact with them, while he is creating the creature. In the midst of creating the being, he says, “And the same feelings which made me neglect the scenes around me caused me also to forget those friends who were so many miles absent.”
(Shelley 45) Victor does not think that it is important to stay in touch with his friends and family, and thus suffers even more when he is sick after the successful creation of the monster. When he succeeds in bringing the creature to life, he is disgusted by it, neglects it, and abandons it. The monster says, “I, the miserable and the abandoned, am an abortion, to be spurned at, and kicked, and trampled on.” (Shelley 231) The creature is not loved by Victor, or anybody else that it encounters, which is part of it’s motivation to retaliate by committing crimes and making Victor miserable. Likewise, in Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Roy Neary also rejects his family in his pursuit of the ‘aliens’ and ‘UFOs’ . He is fired from his job, and constructs a
Lastly, Frankenstein, and Robert Walton are obsessed with their own single­minded pursuits. Victor is obsessed with pushing the boundaries of science, and Robert is obsessed with finding a passage to the North Pole/ the Northwest passage. In Victor’s pursuit of knowledge, he doesn’t stop to think about the consequences of his actions; he says how he was “Attacked by the fatal passion.” (Shelley 54). This eventually causes his downfall, and the deaths of many of his friends and family. In Walton’s obsession, he puts his crew’s lives at risk by continuing on their journey. He says how he and his crew
"voluntarily endured cold, famine, thirst, and want of sleep." (Shelley 3) Walton is obsessed with continuing forward, even whenever he knows that he and his crew have a very low probability of being successful, and ultimately of surviving. Similarly, Roy Neary forms an obsession with the UFO’s that he witnessed that one night. After the strange event, he spends his days up on top of the garage roof, neglects his family, and his mental state becomes questionable. He is obsessed with