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Samantha Perez
Pro. O' Connell
English 102
March 20 , 2014
th

Who is the Real Monster?

Often when encountering something new and different we become frightened of it.
Instead of finding out more about it, we tend to mark them as freaks or monsters. They can
different from in every possible way or is just have one small insignificant difference yet we will
still fear them. Those who are different from what is considered normal are ostracized,
mistreated and even abused. It is easy to say that we who are normal are the real monsters. In
stories such as St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves by Karen Russell, Lusus Naturae
by Margaret Atwood and the film Frankenstein it is prominent just how cruel those who are
normal are to those who are different from them and it is evident that they are not the monster,
we are the monster and it is us they should be afraid of.
In Frankenstein, the monster created by Victor Frankenstein is treated very brutally
by everyone he encounters because of his looks. Even his own creator responds in fear and
disgust to him, as well as the people in Ingolstadt. Upon seeing his face they assume because of
his disfigurement he is to blame for the plague. He is attacked by them and is even almost
murdered, because he looked different from them they assumed he was to blamed for the plague.
This indicates that had he looked more like them they would have never even bothered him.
After this he is aware that he is different and will always be treated this way. As a result
he lives in hiding, avoiding people. But when he is hiding in a forest he comes across a family of
farmers. He first sees them struggling with their crops and decides to help them. He continues in

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secret, to help them various way. Through this he earns the family love and friend despite them
not seeing him in person, they even leave out a plate of food and cookies for him. Despite these
acts he does not want them to see his face. Remembering the way he was treated before he
knows he will be treated the same regardless of all he did for them. The monster learns to fear
normal people. One day he reveals himself to the family, the blind grandfather. He treats him
kindly, because he cannot see his face. When he feels his face, the grandfather is not frightens, he
pities the monster. But when the rest of the family sees him they treat him the same way others
do by attacking. The family decides to abandon their home because of him. Before when they did
not know how he looked the family had him on a pedestal. One look at him made them change
their minds within seconds. This part of the film, in fact the entire movie goes to show just how
inhuman normal people are to those who are not.
Likewise in the short story, Lusus Naturae by Margaret Atwood the protagonist is
mistreated by her family due to an illness she has. The protagonist has Porphyia, a disease that
caused her to disfigurement. Her teeth turned pink, her nails red, she had excessive facial hair, a
lusus naturae or freak of nature as the doctor called her. Her family instead of trying to help
her is more concerned for their own wellbeing than hers. Once she'd held my head under water
in which dirty clothes were soaking, praying while she did (Atwood 225). Her own
grandmother even tried to kill her once in order to get rid of her. Her mother defended her saying
She had the best intentions at heart (Atwood 225). Her disease makes her so unwanted her
family proffered her to be dead. At the dinner table there is a discussion about what they will do
with her, as if she is a thing not a member of their family. Her sister worries that she will not find
someone to marry her because of her sister. Her entire family fears the ramifications of her
disease more than anything else. Showcasing that anyone different from society will not only

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mark you as a freak but also whoever as any association with that person will also be treated the
same. In this case if anyone would have to find out about her sisters diseases no one would want
to marry her sister, despite her being perfectly healthy person. This makes the protagonist and
other lusus naturaes like her more isolated because no one wants to or will want to be known
as the person who is related or friends with that freak. At the end of the story her family fears
become true. When the town realizes she never died they go to her house with stakes and torches
to kill her. Her disease makes her so different from them that they decide to kill her rather than
help her.
Again in St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves by Karen Russell the girls must
learn to adapt a new way of life in order to fit in. The girls are half human and wolf, thus making
both of their kind reject them. The wolves do not accept them because they are human, the same
goes for the humans. The humans see them as this wild uncivilized group. The girls are seen as
not normal by both groups leaving them in limbo. The wolves no matter what the girls do will
never be accepted as one of their own. While the humans will only accept them if they become
like them. These girls go to school where they must forget and abandon their wolf side and
become more human or more normal. Implying that the only way you can be accepted by society
is by changing into what they think is normal.
This also happens in today's society. People with any form of disability are often abused,
bullied, and neglected because of their disability. In Nancy Mairs essay, On Being A Cripple
she discusses how being how being disable or cripple as Mairs prefers to call herself is like and
how it can affect others around you. One particular point that stood out to was when she
discussed how Multiple Sclerosis (MS) affects your relationship with your partner and family.
She stated that many relationships do not survive such a disease, and that sometimes its worse

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for children whose parents have this. She said that children are often ashamed of their parents
with MS because they are different from others. Again just the very idea of being different scares
a child. So much Mairs goes on to say that child neglect their parents by telling them about
important dates and refuse to be seen with them in public. Emphasizing on how just how extreme
some will go just to avoid being associated with someone who is different. Children know the
repercussions that come along with being different. At such a young age we learn that being
different is a bad thing and to never be in contact with someone who is different. Otherwise we
also will face the same bullying, teasing, abuse and isolation that they face. Which is why like
Mairs said some will go to the extreme and even deny their parents if they are different because
they are afraid of what normal people will do them.
In Chris Lucas essay, Abnormal Normals he talks about just how odd it is be normal.
Lucas talks about that there are so many things odd about being normal. He makes several good
points, such as when he points that different cultures have different norms. With that being said
who can say which culture is right or wrong if we all different. Can norms really exist if we all
come from different places? Another point he makes is when our thoughts and feelings goes
against what is considered normal we are encouraged to change them anything that is not not
normal must change into what is. Similar to when in St Lucy's Home For Girls Raised by
Wolves when the girls had to change in order to become accepted and normal. He also brings up
the statistic that on average most families have 2.4 children. Therefore any family that has more
than 2.4 children is considered different. How can a norm dictate what a normal family? As
many know families come in different shapes and sizes. Its strange to think that being normal is
more desirable than different yet being normal is odder than being different

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Whenever a person is different from what is considered normal they are often treated
cruelly. In some cases they are called freaks or even monsters just for having the smallest
difference. When the truth is it us those who are normal, who are the real monster. We abuse and
isolate those who are different from us. For many reason, because we are scared, confused but
that does not justify the monstrous way we treat them. It is no surprise that people who are
different fear us and go to such great lengths to hide and appear more normal. We have to learn
to accept one another and as clich and easy as it may sound it something we have yet to actually
learn. Until we do we will always have to types of people, the normal and the freaks fearing one
another.

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Work Cited
Atwood, Margaret. Lusus Naturae. The Norton Introduction to Literature. Kelly J. Mays
New York: Norton, 2013. 95-118. Print.

Mary Shelley's Frankenstien. Branagh, Kenneth. Tristar Pictures, 1994.

Lucas, Chris. The Abnormal Normals.

http://www.calresco.org/lucas/normal.htm. 1986

Mairs, Nancy. On Being A Cripple

http://thelamedame.tumblr.com/post/30938417648/on-being-a-cripple. 1986

Russell, Karen. St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves. The Norton Introduction to
Literature. Kelly J. Mays New York: Norton, 2013. 95-118. Print.