Social Geography and Monstrosity: Frankenstein

Social Geography and Monstrosity Social geography plays a big role in a person 's life. Social geography includes segregation, economics, class, and race. All of these factors play a part in how a person lives and the way they are treated in society. Another factor that affects a person 's society is the way that a person looks. Monstrosity can affect a person 's entire life as far as where they live and even their class. In the novels Frankenstein, The Monster and Native Son, there is a relationship between social geography and monstrosity. The characters in the novels were victims of the relationship between monstrosity and social geography. In the novel Frankenstein, the monster was singled out because of his monstrous looks. The reason he had such looks was because of the unnatural manner of his creation. The monster was created with a mix of stolen body parts and chemicals. One look at the monster would make anyone want to get out of his path. Once the monster came to life he was abandoned by his creator without any direction. He was left to fend for himself and deal with the prejudices that people had without getting to know his situation. The monster also didn 't know how to react to the reactions from people which made him start to commit crimes. The monster said, "I, the miserable and the abandoned, am an abortion, to be spurned at, and kicked, and trampled on" (Shelley 19). This eruption of angry self-pity as the monster questions the injustice of how he has been treated compellingly captures his inner life, giving Walton and the reader a glimpse into the suffering that has motivated his crimes. While the monster was wandering the town he encountered a family, and he learned how to speak by watching them. The monster decided to introduce himself to the family. He decided to do this because the family never turned anyone away that needed assistance. The monster thought, "I dared not think that they would turn them from me with disdain and horror

Cited: Bann, Stephen. Frankenstein, Creation and Monstrosity. Bronfen, Elisabeth. Rewriting Family: Mary Shelley 's ‘Frankenstein ' in its Biological/Textual Context. Journal 1, Volume 1. Reaktion Books. 1994 Howe, Irving. "Black Boys and Native Sons". http://www.writing.upenn.edu/~afilreis/50s/howe-blackboys.html