The Allegorical Monster: Unacceptable To Society

Suzan Muzafar
English 242: Professor Sargent
The Allegorical Monster: Unacceptable to Society

The history of monsters is used to reveal the cultural values and tendencies of a society. The integration of monsters in literature is used to exemplify an unacceptable contrast in a particular civilization. These differences can deviate. Being that these creatures are under our scrutiny, these contrasts derive from a particular set of culturally acceptable ideas. The role of the monster is to embody a cultural and racial deviance, causing fear, uncertainty, and a sense of superiority, over them. Its existence appears to have an ideological influence on the inhabitants of the monsters particular civilization. I want to begin by noting that
Therefore, the emerging idea of “blackness,” should not be alienated. The term “ blackness,” can be the embodiment of an unacceptable “difference.” This difference can be cultural, idealogical, and even racial, in the eyes of the scrutinizers. There are forces that frame what societies are taught, namely; intellectual, critical, and political traditions. With these teachings, what is different becomes bestial and intolerant, therefore it is beneath us, and so we treat these abominable creatures in a manner seen fit by the teachings of society. The depiction of monsters, in literature, shifts based on the time period the creature is deriving from. We see this proven true in Homer’s , The Odyssey. The Cyclops is lawless, savage and cannibalistic. He fears neither gods nor humans. His physical descriptions illustrate him to be a gigantic barbarian, with one eye in the middle of his forehead. Upon Odysseus’s arrival, the cyclops appears to not understand the fundamental, “guest- host” relationship, of his
The idea that what is considered acceptable, is based on what we are taught in a particular place and time. Shakespeare’s, The Tempest, portrays a character as unacceptable not only in manners and actions, but through the impact of his physical distinction, in comparison to what would be considered “ natural,” in his era. This idea is equally utilized in Homers, The Odyssey. In each piece of literature we find that the relationships between the “monster” and the rest of the civil society is lucid in that the monster is a delinquent. There are, and will always be a particular set of acceptable morals and standards in a society. And to be able to conform harmoniously in such a society, one must avoid their scrutiny and abide by their