1

21st Century Literature

Performance Task

“Closed Analysis of a Literature Piece

Under a 21st Contemporary Literature”

“Monster” by Naoki Urasawa

Passed by: Sean Kyle Foronda, 11 - St. Mark

Passed to: Sir De Leon
 2

ANALYSIS

Greetings, reader. I am the author of this analysis of a manga called ”Monster” by Naoki
Urasawa. Are you familiar with words like manipulation, gaslighting, demon, monster, devil, and
other more terrifying words, especially those related to one’s thinking? Are you interested in
genres such as thrillers, dramas, mysteries, and suspense? and even psychological? Well, this
manga suits you. The story revolves around Kenzo Tenma, a Japanese surgeon living in
Düsseldorf, Germany, whose life enters turmoil after getting himself involved with Johan
Liebert, one of his former patients, who is revealed to be a psychopathic serial killer. Some of the
reasons why I chose this manga are because, for me, it is a masterpiece that no other story can
surpass. The author’s making of Johan’s thinking and influence and Tenma’s will and
intelligence, its art style is also unique, and most of all, on how the story ended, and of course,
the use of the background’s elements to truly express Johan’s influence on his surroundings. I
will be reviewing the first chapters because I haven't finished the ending yet and to provide
curiosity for the reader. In the beginning, we can see that Tenma operated on a surgeon
completely successfully. One day, Dr. Tenma ignored his boss’s order and executed the
humanitarian rescue of a man’s child. And that’s how this horrible story begins. After a
successful operation on a man, an old woman and her child approached Dr. Tenma to say that her
husband was brought in first, instead of whom Dr. Tenma performed surgery on. The way that
the woman said, “Give me my husband!!!” is truly heartbreaking due to the fact that there’s no
way to save his husband from the dead, even if she’d scream her lungs out. Days later, Dr. Tenma
was called to perform surgery on a boy who had a bullet in his brain due to yet-to-identify
reasons. While he’s preparing the necessary things he needs for the operation, it was his director
who called him and again gave him a choice as to whom he would save: the mayor who would
die of a cerebral blood clot or the child who had the bullet in his brain. Given that he had
experienced this type of situation before, he was pressured, but in the end, he chose to save the
boy. This choice of his would later cause his life and future to fall apart, causing him to suffer.

After a few years, Tenma was surprised that one of his patients was scared and ran off
from the hospital. Not knowing why, he came to chase his patient with determination to save
 3
him. Finally, after a long chase, after hearing his patient’s voice, Tenma quickly came to where it
came from and found his patient startled, shaking, and somehow in agony. Tenma wanted to help
his patient by approaching him, but Tenma was surprised when his patient said, “Don’t come
here, doctor! You can’t look at him!” Tenma felt panicked as he didn’t know who his patient had
mentioned. Suddenly, a man behind the shadow spoke. “You saved my life nine years ago. I
wonder if you’ve forgotten about me..” Tenma suddenly remembered the boy he had saved nine
years ago from a bullet surgery. “Johan..?” The man behind the shadows said, “You remembered
me..” His patient shouted at the top of his lungs to tell the doctor to run away, causing Tenma to
be more tensed. Johan reminded Tenma about his promotion to head of the surgery department.
“You are in your position today because the director died, right? I’m happy that I could repay my
debt.” Tenma was flabbergasted when he remembered that some of the hospital staff were
murdered that night. “You hated them enough to kill them. I only did what you wished would
happen.” Johan then pulled out a gun from his pocket and shot the patient. After this incident,
Tenma’s life started to become terrible as he was accused of being a serial murderer who
murdered everyone in the recent murder cases. Johan has grown up to be a devilish murderer
called “Monster”. Thus begins his desperate pursuit after Johan. The story then begins to get
darker and darker with each episode, as the author gives a hint as to whether Johan has two
personalities or if he just wants them to be confused. Either way, all of the happenings in the life
of Johan were premeditated and calculated, which he had also done to Tenma’s life. My reactions
to this scene were truly terrified and surprised at how evil a man could be and change someone’s
life just by talking to them and doing things such as making a code that can be encrypted and
giving a hint.

The sum of everything that has been started so far are the beginnings of Johan’s evil
works as well as the pursuit of Tenma to end what he started once and for all. As for the analysis,
here are some of the things that I want to include: the use of elements of the author that greatly
enhanced the story, such as the use of Johan’s hints to either express himself or to confuse the
main characters; the incredible thinking of Johan that can manipulate everyone he faces and has
a heavy influence on others; and many more. The writing of the story’s plot is very thrilling to
read and imagine what’s going to happen next, and the twists of the story and well-written
 4
characters totally go with the flow of the story. As for this story’s ending, I intentionally didn’t
include it so that you would be curious to see and read what is going to happen in the end and
how it ended. How Johan influenced and changed all of the people he faced and interacted with;
how Johan planned his death; and how Johan became evil.

Guide Questions:

1. Who is the speaker in the articles? What perspective is used in the article?
A: In this article, I am the speaker and the narrator. There were many perspectives used in
this story, such as first-person, second-person, third-person omniscient, and more.

2. What are the types of the words used here?

A: There were some literal, metaphoric and a little bit of figurative languages.

3. What are the words repeated that seems to signify something?

A: The word that was very significant to me is the use of the word “Monster.” The author
used that word to identify Johan as a “Monster”. The particular and main reason for this
circumstance is Johan’s doings.

4. What is the recurring theme of the literature?

A: Some of the recurring theme of the literature piece I chose are: revenge, crime, violence,
psychological, man vs man, man vs self, man vs destiny and many more.

5. In the end, what is the key message presented by the author here?

A: The key message presented in this article is the greatness of the story, how far a man could,
and evil doings.

6. Do you agree with the message of the literature? Why?

A: I strongly agree, the reason why is I believe that this story really tries to show and portray
what a child without love can become, whether it be good or twisted.

7. How would you relate the message of the literature to the present context?
A: I would relate the message of the literature to the present by showing the result of a child
without love in this present time and how could they affect someone’s life.