Loving Creature Into The World example essay topic

The challenges of race, class, and cultural privileges are frequently questioned, and how a person is perceived by society often is decided upon by these aspects. Although it is an everyday occurrence that a person is judged by what color their skin is or how much money their family has, it is a topic that most feel too uncomfortable to examine. However, Mary Shelley had the courage to verbalize the pain and suffering that results from oppression and judgment. She lets the reader delve into the mind of the subjugated, and in doing so she allows them to challenge the traditional ideas of cultural privilege, race, and class. It is proven that looks determine the way a person is perceived by the contrasting relationships the creature has with socially accepted people and then with the blind man who can only judge the creature by his personality. While developing different views of the monster from his looks and then strictly from his personality, Shelley digs deep into the heart of oppression, resistance, and cultural stereotypes.

Societal rejection can led to psychological problems beyond repair. When the creature realized that he was not the same as everyone else it caused him to become hostile and eventually homicidal. He said that he was created to love, but when he was treated solely with rejection and detestation it created hatred inside of him in which he could not control. "My protectors had departed, and had broken the only link that held me to the world. For the first time the feelings of revenge and hatred filled my bosom... I bent my mind towards injury and death".

(134) The creature's only will to live had been the hope that the De Lacey family would accept him despite his differences in appearance. When this hope was shattered and the family refused him of the only societal interaction he had ever known, the creature snapped. He recognized the moment when he realized the De Lacey's were never coming back to the cottage as the first time he ever felt revenge and hatred. This loathing was only brought on by the rejection he felt from society. If the family could have accepted the creature in spite of his ugly looks, he could have led a happy, prosperous life. A life where vengeance and detest were not variables.

This proves that race, class, and cultural privilege are the deciding factors of a persons status and how they are treated in society. Shelley challenges this idea by placing an innocent, loving creature into the world and showing the affects that oppression had on him and how he was forced to retaliate. Shortly after the creature realized that his only tie to the world was cut and that he was experiencing hatred for the first time, he decided to try and fill his hunger for human interaction by abducting William and forcing the little boy to love him. The boy's reaction to the creatures appearance showed that even at a young age humans are trained to believe that only a certain type of person can be accepted". 'Let me go,' he cried; 'monster! Ugly wretch!

You wish to eat me and tear me to pieces - You are an ogre - Let me go, or I will tell my papa'... Hideous monster! Let me go". (138.) Some think that children are pure and innocent, but in reality the child was as judgmental as any adult. Children are taught by their elders that race, class, and cultural privilege are how you are to determine societal rank.

Parents believe that their children are not critical and that the corrupt ideas of the world have not polluted their children's minds. Shelley confronts this global idea, and in doing so she affirms that it is prevalent, however, she is trying to show that verbal stereotypes that the children's role models say are being passed down to these kids and affecting their innocent view of people. Shelley attempted to show exactly how the creature was feeling and how he was affected by the terrible conditions in which he was living in when the creature says: "I am alone, and miserable; man will not associate with me; but one as deformed and horrible as myself would not deny herself to me". (139.) The creature is not socially accepted because he is 8 feet tall and terrifying looking, yet, when he was innocent to the shady ways of the world he had an enormous heart that was ready and waiting to be loved. The readers see the unjust ways that the creature was exposed to, and if the moral of this story was conveyed correctly, the audience is now seeing the story and hopefully their life from a new perspective. The only thing the creature wants is a companion who understands exactly how he feels and who would love him for who he was, and not hate him for what he didn't look like.

In the novel Frankenstein, Mary Shelley does an excellent job at challenging the traditional ideas of race, class, and cultural privilege. She allows the readers to view life from a perspective that most do not get to see. It is one that is completely rejected by society strictly because of differences in appearance. The creature was made to love and have a genuine heart, but after such hatred was imposed upon him he could not control the revenge and abhorrence that soon followed. After little William screamed at the creature and denounced any self worth that he previously had, the creature didn't know any better than to kill the boy.

Because of the discrimination that he faced, the creature had never been loved before. This lack of love denied him of the ability to tell the difference between right and wrong and the ability to lead a normal life. Shelley affirms that these traditional assumptions are existent, but at the same time she challenges the integrity of all mankind through the way the creature was treated.