Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.

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Frankenstein.

        People have the ability to be very cruel, and they are cruel towards those who are different.  Their act may be subtle or blatant, against one or two peers or an entire group.  In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, the creature was subjected to cruelty in many sizes.  He was shunned by a family that he had observed and learned from, Frankenstein was cold towards the monster during their first meeting where they were able to converse, and Frankenstein did not keep the promise he had made the monster.  In the “real” world, incidences have occurred involving school violence, peace talks between groups and countries, and promises between friends.

        One of the first cruel acts against the monster moved him quite a bit.  The creature spent many months in a hovel, watching a family carry about their daily lives.  He learned how to speak and carry out many tasks.  One thing he observed was the kindness of the members of the family towards each other and he hopes that they will be kind to him when he reveals himself.  He described his feelings.  “This trait of kindness moved me sensibly.  I had been accustomed, during the night, to steal a part of their store for my own consumption; but when I found that in doing this I inflicted pain on the cottagers, I abstained, and satisfied myself with berries, nuts, and roots, which I gathered from a neighboring wood.”(p.78.) The monster had seen kindness in the family and realized that he had been wrong to take their food, and, in turn, was kind to them by sustaining himself with food he gathered himself.  He began to do some of their chores in the night, and the family awoke to a pile of chopped wood or a path cleared in the snow.  The creature had gone out of his way to make the family happy.  When he ventured to introduce himself, he discovered the cruelty he had not seen in the family.  They chased him from the house and soon moved out, all because of him.  His appearance made them automatically assume he was a dangerous freak.  After they degraded him, the creature was angry with himself.  “Cursed, cursed creator!  Why did I live?  Why, in that instant, did I not extinguish the spark of existence which you had so wantonly bestowed?  I know not; despair ha not yet taken possession of me; my feelings were those of rage and revenge.  I could with pleasure have destroyed the cottage and its inhabitants, and have glutted myself with their shrieks and misery.”(p.97.) His anger led him to want to commit violent acts against himself and others, which he did.  Similar incidences have occurred across the country within the past year.  At Columbine High School in Colorado, two boys were described as being kind and having quite a few friends, but people had ultimately been cruel to them because they were different in their dress and interests.  Those same kind boys opened fire at their high school, injuring and killing many of their peers while others ran or hid in fear, all before the boys took their own lives.  The situations are similar because both the creature and the boys were kind, but were shunned and felt or took out their anger on others.

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        The next incident in the creature’s life was his first encounter with Frankenstein, his creator, which involved speech.  Frankenstein, who was horrified and angry that he had created a beast, said, “Devil, do you dare approach me?  and do not you fear the fierce vengeance of my arm wreaked on your miserable head?  Begone, vile insect!  or rather, stay, that I may trample you to dust! and, oh! that I could, with the extinction of your miserable existence, restore those victims whom you have so diabolically murdered!”(p. 68.)  Frankenstein new little about the creature’s life during the time he had ...

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