short essay on monster

Monster Culture (Seven Theses): Reflections on our Fears

How it works

• 1.1 Jeffrey Cohen’s Monster Culture (Seven Theses)
• 1.2 Analyzing Cohen’s Theses with Modern Monster Archetypes
• 1.3 An In-depth Analysis: Godzilla as a Cultural Symbol
• 1.4 The Megalodon: Unleashing the Terror of the Unknown
• 1.5 The Allure of Fear: Dinosaurs as a Prime Example
• 2.0.1 Rereferences

Introduction to Monsters and Their Cultural Reflections

Jeffrey cohen’s monster culture (seven theses).

To help us understand the concept of monsters and why we create them, we are going to analyze Jeffrey Cohen’s essay, Monster Culture (Seven Theses). Need a custom essay on the same topic? Give us your paper requirements, choose a writer and we’ll deliver the highest-quality essay! Order now

In his essay, Cohen argues that the monsters we create reflect our cultures. He provides seven theses that describe monsters in our society and explains how and why they are created. The seven theses help us analyze different cultures using the monsters they create. By locating the origin of monsters and where they come from, Cohen strives to reveal our culture’s values and likelihood. I agree with Cohen’s perspective; monsters are created by cultures to reflect humanity’s fear and desire and represent a cultural moment, and for that, they cannot be killed forever.

Analyzing Cohen’s Theses with Modern Monster Archetypes

An in-depth analysis: godzilla as a cultural symbol.

Godzilla, king of the monsters, is one of the most famous monsters on the planet. Godzilla, also called Gojira, first appeared on television in 1954. Since then, there have been many movie reproductions of him. He also appears in video games, series, and cartoons. Godzilla became an international icon in a short time. He is so popular that there is another movie of him coming out in 2019. Godzilla is described as a gigantic, disastrous, primitive sea creature that looks like a giant lizard, which got empowered and created as the result of nuclear radiation of war back in the 1940s and 50s. Godzilla, as a scary nuclear monster, represents the terror, horror, and panic of the Japanese people about the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

In the article, How “Godzilla” Dances Around That Whole Nuclear Issue, posted on USNEWS, writer Tierney Sneed says, “Gojira” is considered one of the most emotionally potent metaphors for the scars Japan still bore from the bombing as well as the anxieties they carried about the development of nuclear technologies into the future.” (Sneed). Now that we have discussed what Godzilla represents and why it was created, we are able to move on to Cohen’s thesis: The Monster’s Body is a Cultural Body.

In this thesis, Cohen suggests that when people are facing a situation that puts them outside of their comfort zone, cultural-wise, they create monsters to represent that specific cultural moment. Supporting Cohen’s thesis, Godzilla represents the cultural moment of the atomic bombing of Japan and the regret feeling of the Japanese after World War 2. It represents the fear as well as the guilt held by them. This cultural moment was out of the normal people’s comfort zone, so the gigantic monster was created. As Cohen explains, “The monster is born only at this metaphoric crossroads, as an embodiment of a certain cultural moment of a time, a feeling, and a place.”

In the amazing TED Talk, What Fear Can Teach Us, Karen Thompson Walker explains how we can take advantage of our fears and look at them differently. She claims that fear can be an amazing act of imagination, something that can be as powerful as storytelling. She tells an interesting story of the Whaleship Essex. In the story, the sailors’ ship drowned in the middle of the ocean, so they had to move to small whaleboats. The sailors had three options: they knew the nearest islands were about 1200 miles away, but they had heard rumors that these islands were filled with cannibals.

Another option was to sail to Hawaii, but due to the time and season, they were afraid that the storms could break their boats. Their last option was to sail 1,500 miles south, hoping they would face some kind of wind that could push them toward the cost of South America. The sailors finally made a decision. Afraid of getting eaten by cannibals, they decided to route to South America. Two months later, the men ran out of food, and some of them turned into cannibals themselves.

When a passing ship rescued them, only half of the men were still alive. The cannibals created by the men’s imagination had made them choose the longest and the hardest route. As both Cohen and Thompson have explained, people tend to create monsters, either real or imaginary, to represent important moments or feelings in their lives. The Japanese created Godzilla for the same reason the sailors created cannibals: because they hated and feared them. As Cohen states, “The monster’s body quite literally incorporates fear, desire, anxiety, and fantasy (ataractic or incendiary), giving them life and an uncanny independence.”

The Megalodon: Unleashing the Terror of the Unknown

The allure of fear: dinosaurs as a prime example, understanding our fascination with scary creatures.

The Indominus Rex ends up escaping its gate and starts killing people and destroying the park. The opening day of the park was filled with people who wanted to see the new dinosaur. They wanted to be scared and thrilled at the same time. When scientists made the new hybrid dinosaur, they knew it was going to be insanely strong and scary. In fact, it was their intention to do so because the scarier it is, the more people would enjoy it. But why are people attracted to monsters when they are scared of them?  Why did the scientists in Jurassic World decide to make a new breed of a scary dinosaur when they knew it could kill and destroy it?

The fascinating writer Matt Kaplan explains to us why we love scary stories and things in the introduction to his book, The Science of Monsters: The Origins of the Creatures We Love to Fear. Kaplan states that monsters are creatures we usually run from and are scared of, but something about them is enchanting and addicting. He adds, “Something deep inside monsters fascinates us.” Kaplan compares monsters to spicy food. Both can make you cry and sweat, yet we still eat spicy food and are interested in monsters. Kaplan uses scientific examples to support his claim. He mentions research done by the psychologist Paul Rozin and a team of his colleagues at the University of Pennsylvania.

The research asked 108 males and 135 females multiple questions about whether they liked certain things or not. One of the questions was if they like spicy food; the average score was 55.5, which means around half of the population likes these types of food. Another question that was asked to the same participants is whether they like mouth burns, sweating, and tearing eyes. Over 50 percent voted as these being a pleasure to them. This shows that most people enjoy the negative impacts of certain foods (spicy in this case).

Rereferences

• Cohen, J. (1996). Monster culture (Seven theses). In J. J. Cohen (Ed.), Monster theory: Reading culture (pp. 3-25). University of Minnesota Press.
• Sneed, T. How “Godzilla” dances around that whole nuclear issue. USNEWS.
• Wikipedia. Megalodon.

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Home — Essay Samples — Psychology — Archetype — What is a Monster?

What is a Monster?

• Categories: Archetype

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Published: Jan 31, 2024

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Table of contents

Definition of a monster, monster themes in literature, the evolution of monsters, monster archetypes, monsters in folklore and mythology.

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10 of the Best Novels and Short Stories about Monsters

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

Literature is full of monsters whose names and appearance have passed into general circulation: we all recognise Frankenstein (even if, as pedants will be quick to point out, Hollywood has made us confuse the ‘monster’ with his creator), Dracula, and the Minotaur, among many others.

But what are the best stories about monsters, whether short tales from myth, epic poems, modern short stories, or long novels? Whether they’re from the realm of modern fantasy fiction or ancient mythology, the following ten monsters are all iconic in their own way, and deserve their place on this list, we reckon. So, without more ado, let’s open the pages of this online bestiary and discover ten of the greatest monster stories ever written.

1. Homer, Odyssey .

Homer’s epic poem was first set down almost three thousand years ago, but it remains one of the most influential monster-heavy stories in Western literature.

Here, we encounter the Cyclops Polyphemus – a one-eyed giant on the island of Sicily – as well as the pair of monsters, Scylla and Charybdis: respectively, a vicious monster with six dog heads and a powerful whirlpool that can suck ships below the surface of the sea. Thanks to his cunning, wily Odysseus manages to outwit the monsters he encounters, or avoid becoming their lunch, but his victories usually come at a terrible cost.

2. Anonymous, ‘ Beauty and the Beast ’.

In the version most familiar to readers, the titular Beast – who is extremely ugly – tells a merchant that he will eat one of the merchant’s daughters in retaliation for a crime the merchant committed.

But when the Beast meets ‘Beauty’, the man’s beautiful daughter, he takes a shine to her – and she, gradually, warms to him. Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve’s 1740 telling of the fairy tale helped to popularise it, but the germ of the story is much older.

3. Anonymous, ‘ Three Billy Goats Gruff ’.

The tale of the Three Billy Goats Gruff is well-known throughout the world, but what is less well-known is that the story has its origins, not in French or German or Danish literature, like many other fairy tales that are well-known to English-speaking readers, but in Scandinavian literature – which explains the centrality of the troll, a goblin-like creature commonly found in northern European folklore. The story is about three young billy goats trying to cross a bridge which is guarded by a fearsome troll.

4. Mary Shelley, Frankenstein .

Shelley’s 1818 novel has been called the first science-fiction novel and is certainly a new take on the Gothic horror genre, which by the early nineteenth century was so well-established that it was being parodied by Jane Austen (in her Northanger Abbey ). ‘Frankenstein’ is, of course, the name of the student ( not a doctor) who creates the monster, rather than the monster himself (although ‘creature’ is the term that’s preferred over ‘monster’).

Created from various human corpses and brought to life, the unnamed creature is shunned by his creator and turns violent and resentful as a result of this mistreatment. Shelley’s novel is one of the first examples of a ‘monster’ being treated in a sympathetic way: see later entries on this list for more recent examples.

5. Bram Stoker, Dracula .

Alongside Frankenstein , this 1897 novel by the Irish author and theatre impresario Abraham ‘Bram’ Stoker is probably the best-known ‘monster’ novel of the nineteenth century. The vampire novel was well-established by the 1890s, but Dracula took it to new heights – with Stoker’s vampire being cultured, educated, and alluring, possessing a seductive charm. Of course, it is this charm which makes him so dangerous …

6. Kenneth Grahame, ‘ The Reluctant Dragon ’.

Grahame is best-remembered now for writing The Wind in the Willows (1908), but he also wrote other novels and stories, including other works for children. This 1898 short story is his best-known shorter work, and is also written for children. Like Borges’ story below, it broke new ground in treating the monster in a sympathetic light: in this case, a dragon who is well-read and loves poetry. It is also a new take on the famous myth of St George and the Dragon.

7. Jorge Luis Borges, ‘ The House of Asterion ’.

The tale of the Minotaur – the creature that was a man with the head of a bull – is well-known. The Minotaur was kept in the Labyrinth on the Greek island of Crete. The Greek hero Theseus famously slew the Minotaur, and was able to find his way back out of the Labyrinth thanks to a ball of thread that Ariadne had provided him with.

But in this very short 1947 story by the modern master of the form, Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986) narrates the story from the Minotaur’s point of view, withholding his true identity until the final few sentences.

Is the Minotaur, the offspring of a lust-filled queen and a ferocious bull, a victim rather than a villain? He has been shut away from society and isolated from the rest of the populace, and his only hope of escape now lies with the redeemer he expects to arrive and deliver him from his existence …

8. J. R. R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings .

The Balrog is a tall, fearsome being with fiery whip-like tentacles. A Balrog carries Gandalf down into the depths in the Mines of Moria in Tolkien’s classic fantasy novel (often wrongly labelled a ‘trilogy’, it’s actually one novel divided by Tolkien into six, rather than three, books). The prospect of being caught up in a creature’s tentacles is bad enough, but when those tentacles seem to be made of pure fire, the thought is even more terror-inducing.

9. Angela Carter, ‘The Lady of the House of Love’.

One of the stories from Carter’s 1979 collection The Bloody Chamber , this tale inverts the genders of the Dracula story and focuses on a female vampire in Romania, who lures young men to her mansion in order to feast upon them. Set just prior to the outbreak of the First World War, the story focuses on the latest young man to encounter the ‘lady of the house of love’ – but will he be devoured by her?

10. John Gardner, Grendel .

Grendel is actually only one of three monsters found in the anonymous Anglo-Saxon poem Beowulf , but he is undoubtedly the most famous (the other two monsters are Grendel’s mother and a dragon which – spoiler alert – succeeds in vanquishing the hero).

In a classic fantasy novella from 1971, John Gardner told Grendel’s side of things , making a far more sympathetic character out of the monster than we find in the original poem. It’s hard to describe what Grendel actually is, since the original poem doesn’t describe his features in clear detail. However, he’s usually assumed to be some sort of giant.

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“Monster” by Walter Dean Myers: Characters & Style Essay (Book Review)

Alongside with his poems, in 1999, Walter Dean Myers presented an excellent drama novel, Monster , about one 16-year-old black kid, Steve Harmon, who was charged with felony murder. One of the most attractive features of this book is its structure and style of writing. Monster by Walter Dean Myers essay shall provide an analysis of the characters of the book and author’s style. The reader is captivated from the very beginning of the story, as it is similar to the beginning of the famous Star Wars .

Steve Harmon is the writer, director, and main character of Monster. Such a decision to present the story from one person’s point of view, divide characters into good and bad ones, appeal to the facts from one diary only, and use not a standard form of narration is unique indeed.

The style chosen by the author of this story takes several pages to get used to. Monster writing style attracts the attention of the reader due to the contrasting mix of such strategies as controlled development of thoughts and stream of consciousness, which create unique tone and mood in the story. However, such a manner of writing influences Meyers’ development of the theme only in a positive way. Why did Walter Dean Myers write monster in the format of a screenplay? It may be assumed that, by doing so, he wanted to show the feelings of the characters and the development of the conflict at the same time.

Monster is interesting to read because it provides the reader with a chance to create his/her own impression about the main character. The writer does not tell you what to think, but let you make decisions and conclusions independently. During the whole story, it is not mentioned whether the main character is good or bad.

It was pointed out that the character is surrounded by bad people, with bad guns, and bad intentions. Kathy O’Brien is Steve’s defense attorney, and she does believe that Steve is guilty and tries to prepare him for the worst. “Both you and this King character are on trial for felony murder. Felony murder is as severe as it gets. Sandra Petrocelli is the prosecutor, and she’s great. They’re pushing for the death penalty, which is really bad” (Myers 12). Family members also support Steve, though the ending of the book shows complicated relationships between them. Thus, in Monster by Walter Dean Myers, characters provoke ambiguous emotions in the reader.

Steve, as the author of this script, realizes that he is too young to be sentenced to death or spend about 20 years of his life in jail. “They’re pushing for the death penalty, which is really bad” (Myers 12). He also understands that this case will be rather challenging to win because of two simple reasons: (1) even his attorney, O’Brien, finds him guilty, and (2) he is a young black man that makes him being concerned with numerous crimes and larcenies.

He tries to prove that he was just in the wrong place and certainly at the wrong time. (Jones 190) He cannot accept such a reality and decides to do everything possible to evade this likely verdict. He decides to escape if necessary, even if it costs him his life.

O’Brien’s decision to turn away from Steve after the verdict was announced makes all the readers think about why she did it. What made her turn away? Was it the right decision? Maybe, she saw something wrong that even made the screenwriter title this story as Monster .

Young adult literature is one of the most significant steps up, which allows comprehending and analyze various themes from different perspectives (Suen 41), Monster is the story about the importance of making choices in life, possible challenges, and consequences. This book is one of the most brilliant messages to young adults.

It underlines a straightforward truth that only a person, himself/herself, is responsible for all choices he/she makes. The consequences of any decision will undoubtedly affect both the life of the person, who makes a choice, and the lives of other people. This is why it is crucially important to realize such significance and make wise and well-weight decisions.

Works Cited

Jones, D. Painless Reading Comprehension. Barron’s Educational Series, 2004.

Myers, W. D. Monster. HarperTemest, 2001.

Suen, A. Picture Writing. Writer’s Digest Books, 2003.

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IvyPanda. (2018, June 25). "Monster" by Walter Dean Myers: Characters & Style. https://ivypanda.com/essays/monster-by-walter-dean-myers-the-significance-of-personal-choice/

""Monster" by Walter Dean Myers: Characters & Style." IvyPanda , 25 June 2018, ivypanda.com/essays/monster-by-walter-dean-myers-the-significance-of-personal-choice/.

IvyPanda . (2018) '"Monster" by Walter Dean Myers: Characters & Style'. 25 June.

IvyPanda . 2018. ""Monster" by Walter Dean Myers: Characters & Style." June 25, 2018. https://ivypanda.com/essays/monster-by-walter-dean-myers-the-significance-of-personal-choice/.

1. IvyPanda . ""Monster" by Walter Dean Myers: Characters & Style." June 25, 2018. https://ivypanda.com/essays/monster-by-walter-dean-myers-the-significance-of-personal-choice/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . ""Monster" by Walter Dean Myers: Characters & Style." June 25, 2018. https://ivypanda.com/essays/monster-by-walter-dean-myers-the-significance-of-personal-choice/.

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