Class theme

The monsters we create. What does that mean exactly? At the end of the road, one has delved into the myriad of monsters that plague humanity, and they exist at every level. Nothing is free from taint—not the individual, and not the system that controls them. The one certain thing is that neither can exist without the other. In the novel Invisible Man, the nameless narrator realizes that even though he is victimized and rejected by society, his attempts to leave it to its own destruction are futile, for society holds the key for his existence and meaning as an individual. Without society, he waxes irresponsible and selfish, but with it, he at least struggles against it to reaffirm his values of justice and worth of every individual. And society at large cannot do without the individual, as the Brotherhood learns. Without the individual, an organization cannot run smoothly, can be doomed to be nothing but history as individual move on with their lives and leave the organization with its outdated ideas behind. Without the individual, the organization loses more of its conscience, and is eventually rejected by individuals. Monsters can be things to dance with on the edge of a knife, always a balancing act. But monsters can often be the consequences of good intentions, spoiled by ignorance of human nature. The Poisonwood Bible can illustrate this, with the Price family entering the Congo with the idea that they would civilize the heathens. But instead, the family members learn that they themselves are the savages and morally ambivalent. They learned that the civilization they brought was not beneficial to their neighbors, that in fact, it was used as a tool by Western nations to subjugate and bleed their respective colonies clean of resources. Some monsters arise because of tragic ignorance of one’s own culpability. In Frankenstein, Victor Frankenstein never really understands his own responsibility for the monster. He created it, and did so not because of pure ideals or a pursuit of science but for human desire to conquer death, to better his own situation. Having created the beast, he instead shirks responsibility for its care and instead continues to try and live his old self-centered life spent caring for his own wants and needs. He blames the monster, blames others for their actions that led to his beloved ones’ deaths, but never really blames himself. Irresponsibility is a major root of the monsters we create. We, the irresponsible, have never really known the world, and expect it to be black and white. And if it is not, we assume superiority and rush in on white horses and good will to save the world. We, the irresponsible, create the monsters of pollution, crime, imperialism, and refuse to see our culpability in them, pointing fingers at other men in blame—politicians, ambassadors, officials. But who were the ones who sent them to conquer? Who were the ones whose materialism caused the poisoning of the earth? Who were the ones who fled from the deteriorating streets to the safer suburbs? It started with society, and its values of materialism and imperialism. It started with echelons of powerful elites, who shaped the world for their own gain. It started with the individual, unit of all human organizations, who invested in society’s wrongs in order to experience privilege. The individual has to admit responsibility first, for any change. So it was in Invisible Man, The Poisonwood Bible, and Frankenstein. (It was the monster, ironically a more rounded human being than his own creator.) The individual is the spark of change. The individual is the heart of darkness. Within us are the seeds for our redemption, and our destruction. We are the monsters we see in the dark. We are the seraphs we seek in the light.