`` Strange Creatures `` By Susan Blackmore

In the 2014 article The Devil in Disguise: Modern Monsters and their Metaphors, published by The Geek Anthropologist website, author Emma Louis Backe talks about the “monsters” surrounding pop culture and their hidden significance and meaning. Author Emma Backe an Anthropology and English major explains that explains that with each “monster” we see an underlying threat to human life as we know it. She states that pop culture has taken these images and made them a reincarnation of our fears. That these creatures are symbolic of incurable disease, indestructible beings, the undead, loss of humanity and extinction. Emma claims that we have moved from dismissing and ignoring these fears to confronting them in a more literal and real way. In the

“The loss of the creature” is a strong essay in which the writer, Walker Percy has expressed his vision of world in a different way. He makes an argument about how having prepackaged idea about something, can create a symbolic complex in individual’s mind, causing them to lose the true essence behind it. Percy presents examples after examples making them connection of how one has lost an experience through various symbolic complexes and by the means of trying to achieve that experience. Percy writes that understanding can be reached through the true experience. People can only have a true experience of something if they can get rid of all the social biases and prejudices, and experience it by ignoring everything one has already heard about

The idea of what a monster is and how it pertains to modern day society has fascinated readers and writers for decades. Before taking this class, I was aware of what a monster is and the function it served in today’s society. Furthermore, after taking this class, I am now aware of what a monster truly is, and what really separates a monster from a regular person. The piece of text that I mainly chose to focus on and elaborate closely to demonstrate the aspects of a monster is appropriately named, Monster, by Walter Dean Myers. The reason I chose this piece of literature is because, Monster thoroughly elaborates what a monster is in todays society and how it functions in the modern day world. In this essay I will elaborate on

“Fear and euphoria are dominant forces, and fear is many multiples the size of euphoria” - Alan Greenspan. New York author, Alan Greenspan, here is explaining that the threat fear presents is really no different than the state of intensity caused by euphoria. In Andrew J. Hoffman’s anthology, Monsters, there is substantial evidence that both fear and euphoria are inflicted upon men, by female monsters. The two threats men typically face against women are temptation and emasculation. Thus, in mythology and folklore, female monsters exemplify the impulse of desire (sexually) for men, and male weakness. These are creature that are lusted after and yet, still feared because of their power. Men find female monsters both fearsome and euphoric and will always threaten their dominance and control.

Individuals begin to feel isolated when they pretend to be someone they are not. In the modern age, individuals feel the need to be someone they are not in order to fit into the mainstream. Turkle states, “After an evening of avatar-to-avatar talk in a networked game, we feel at one moment in possession of a full social life and, in the next, curiously isolated in tenuous complicity

There is such kind of monsters, remain their appearance as a human, yet the things they do can only describe as monstrosities. They are not monsters in books and literature, a fear of unknown or sexual desires. People were, or still are facing actual brutal violence or psychological terror from those monsters. More importantly, the monster being talked here is one of our kind. They are human, yet described as “inhuman”, under the inhuman category of Stephen T. Asma’s book On Monsters, a bloody history, a dark past of humanity have been introduced as a monster. It is Khmer Rouge’s infamous security prison S21: the representation of the massacre took place in Cambodia in 20th century and this kind of monster, unfortunately, is still relevant to the world, even till this day.

When looking for things to do in our lifetimes, we tend to look at what other people do in order to take inspiration and do whatever they did for ourselves. However, there is a point where instead of naturally discovering what life has to offer for ourselves, we instead rely on how others experienced it and use that as a guide to shape our expectations for something. In Walker Percy’s writing “The Loss of the Creature”, he explores a concept he calls, “loss of sovereignty”. What he means by this term is that people will surrender free thoughts of their own and rely instead on what other people's brains think, then live off others thoughts instead of their own. To add explanation, people surrender their own thoughts and expectations, Percy says, “The consumer is content to receive an experience just as it has been presented to him by theorists and planners. The reader may also be content to judge life by whether it has or has not been formulated by those who know and write about life” (3). This shows that if the person experiencing something new in this world for the first time, they will fear that they would not know what to look out for. So they rely on others, especially the so-called “experts” to guide the road for them instead. The overall message Percy argues when it comes to Part I of “The Loss of the Creature” is that people will not let their own natural thoughts dictate what they personally think about experiencing something and instead, use others experiences to

Everyday an individual encounters an act of cruelty, whether it is physically, emotionally, or verbally. On the other hand, there are those who inflict harm intentionally or unintentionally on others as a result of being dissatisfied emotionally or psychologically. Such individuals become labeled either to be good or bad by society. However, a person as a whole cannot be good or bad; it is their actions that are vile. Similarly, in “The Possibility of Evil” by Shirley Jackson, Miss Strangeworth reveals her cruelty through writing letters while, in “The Snake” by Ervin D Krause, the uncle shows his cruelty through his behaviour towards the boy. Thus, all individuals expose their cruelty through their immoral actions.

While going through life's experiences we often get wrapped up in the non-important things rather than what is actually important. We tend to worry about how we can savor a moment instead so sitting back and actually enjoying or learning from it. A life experience that we may all have in common would be school. When it come to school students become bombarded with tons of books and work that they never really get the chance to fully understand the true meaning. Many students are driven to become the best student they can be . The author of “ Achievement of Desire”, Richard Rodriguez, was portrayed to be somewhat like the students explained above. He was so caught up in being the best that he lost himself and who he was. This ties into some of the ideas mentioned in Walker Percy’s essay “ Loss of the Creature”, due to the fact that Rodriguez may have lost his identity. In part one of this two part essay,

Mopping unsanitary floors on hands and knees but looking out the window seeing joy-filled kids. Behind cold steel bars in a lonely cage, however able to relate to other prisoners who have faith for the future. The Monster masterpiece by Walter Dean Myers puts Steve Harmon—a sixteen year old black kid in jail—on the hot seat for the crime of robbery and felony murder of an innocent man named Mr. Nesbitt. On trial are two men--Steve Harmon and James King—that not only have a chance to be given a minimum sentence of 21 years and 3 months but a maximum sentence of life in jail. While being called a Monster by the prosecutor, Mrs. Petrocelli. this dark time for Harmon results in having no true place to escape where only doubt runs through his mind. However, the progression that Harmon makes, not only in jail but during the trial with his defense attorney, Miss O’Brien, allows us to understand that during many situations, doubt and hope intertwine.

Racism has been a problematic in society since anyone can remember. Even though we have equal rights in this country, individuals still use racism to belittle people who do not fit their idea of what is ‘‘normal’’. In literature, this aspect of our culture is present to show students how to address it. The novel ‘‘Monster’’ is a good example of material the teacher can commonly explore this problem. This essay will demonstrate how teachers can use the crime novel, ‘‘Monster’’ by Walter Dean Myers, in the classroom, to enhance young adults’ critical capacities. It is possible if the teacher makes the students concentrate on a sole theme, Steve’s trial through racism. By going more in depth, this essay will illustrate how the teacher should proceed in teaching the students about racism, how these classes will proceed, and what examples the students should find.Analyzing RacismAnother manner of using the book ‘‘Monster’’ by Walter Dean Myers is to comprehend what is unsaid in the novel. The teacher can use this to teach the young generation about how this injustice called racism is present and that we must put an end to it. He / she must begin by learning about racisms’ effects on students before giving the class. The teacher could use tools such as the book ‘‘Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together? And Other Conversations About Race’’ (Tatum, 2003) to aid in the comprehension of ‘‘racial identity and the experiences of students of different racial backgrounds’’ (Franzak,

The peers that surround an individual influence their decisions, actions, and personality to the point where their self is manipulated. The term peer pressure is applicable, but the slight daily changes of being around similar people can morph and distort what it means to be oneself. Peers can project themselves onto each other and the individual can become lost as each member fits oneself into a piece of the group. Sadly, this conformity is limiting as being true to oneself is tossed aside to be part of a larger group, but this often limits the potential of its members. Self -actualization can only be achieved through a right hemisphere perspective and a foundation of social awareness and self-analysis.

People often contradict themselves; they say one thing and then do the complete opposite. The contradictions on human’s lives lead to a competition of how they spend their time. Talking about memes and their similarity to genes, Blackmore says, “Genes act only for themselves; their only interest is their own replication; all they want is to be passed on to the next generation” (35). Genes compete between themselves to be passed to the next generation. They only worry about their objective of being successfully passed on without caring about the other genes or whether they will be good for that generation. Blackmore also says, “Remember that the same shorthand applies to memes as to genes. We want to say that memes are ‘selfish’, that they

Proponents theorize that memes are a viral phenomenon that may evolve by natural selection in a manner analogous to that of biological evolution. Memes do this through the processes of variation, mutation, competition, and inheritance, each of which influences a meme's reproductive success. Memes spread through the behavior that they generate in their hosts. Memes that propagate less prolifically may become extinct, while others may survive, spread, and (for better or for worse) mutate. Memes that replicate most effectively enjoy more success, and some may replicate effectively even when they prove to be detrimental to the welfare of their hosts.[4]

With the Imitation theory “IT”, Danto is disagreeing with Socrates in that art is not just mere imitation. Socrates believed that art, like a mirror, shows us a duplicate and accurate image of the appearance of something. However, Danto does not agree completely with this imitation theory because if it were true then, “mirror images are art.” Danto goes on to say that a lot of artists did try to imitate nature in art, but with the invention of photography “mimesis was quickly discarded.” The goal of art being to imitate then was incorrect.