The Devil's Backbone Analysis

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

In The Devil’s Tongue, author Stacy Schiff describes the Salem Witch Trials, specifically Tituba’s testimony throughout the trials. The theme of the story is how both society today, and during the trials in 1692 draw conclusions and point fingers at the innocent. Schiff makes an example out of the Boston Marathon bombing, specifically how the innocent Sunil Tripathi was blamed by thousands of people to be the marathon bomber, although the FBI later revealed that the true suspects were Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev. In this article Schiff attempts to explain two things, how the witch epidemic gathered momentum, and how it came to be known as a satanic plot. Schiff provides a powerful argument, despite lacking evidence for her points, by writing in a way that creates an emotional response, and appeals to the readers logic.

During the early 1700s, a traveler met a man in the Massachusetts forest. However, this was no mortal human, but the devil. “Young Goodman Brown” and “The Devil and Tom Walker,” two short stories, both start out this way. Washington Irving wrote the latter in 1824, which tells how Tom Walker profited by working for the devil. In 1835, Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote “Young Goodman Brown,” which describes Goodman Brown’s encounter with the devil. Despite minor deviations between their themes, the two stories share ideas regarding the devil, specifically his appearance and connection with man’s depravity. overpowering minor deviations between their themes. [MAYBE DELETE THE LAST HALF OF THE THESIS, AND ADD SPECIFICITY TO THE FIRST HALF (WHICH IDEAS OF THE DEVIL ARE SIMILAR?)]]

The very first few sentences of the entire passage heavily set the mood. The narrator describes the plague and the affect upon the country. "The “Red Death” had long devastated the country. No pestilence had ever been so fatal, or so hideous." This quote heightens the mood to a terrifying point, bringing in the realization that the plague has killed many and is continuing to do so. This is just one of many quotes from the passage that create an effect that affects the dark mood of the story.

It all comes back to two young kids they were acting strange they were not them self people believed that they were possessed by the devil they were thought to be witches. how did the devil become associated with witches and witchcraft?

A recurring type of story is one where someone sell their soul to the devil

Asma states, "Monsters can stand as symbols of human vulnerability and crisis, and as such they play imaginative foils for thinking about our own responses to menace.” This means that human weaknesses and fears are represented through monstrous figures, and these fictional situations provide perspective into how we react in fearful environments. In our current society we fear many things, including but not limited to failed or corrupt governmental systems, the afterlife, the unknown, and captivity, which makes this claim valid. Although we may not realize it, these fears are embodied by the horror monsters we see in popular culture. Society shares common fears, and often times the most prevailing fear is reflected in the most popular characters at any given time. Monsters are the fictional representations of society’s dark subconscious, exploring not only why the author’s statement is accurate but what we actually fear.

Monsters and the Moral Imagination by Stephen T. Asma is an exploration into why, as of recent, society has become so fascinated with monsters. Asma considers a vast amount of reasons why this surge in interest could have come along, such as; “social anxiety in the post-9/11 decade, or the conflict in Iraq” (Asma). Another possibility is even the fall of the economy that occured around December 2007.

demon, Screwtape, addressed to his nephew, Wormwood. Wormwood is assigned his first “patient” and it is his skilled Uncle Screwtape’s job to help him through the process. A patient is the demon’s human that they are assigned to keep away from God and to constantly face with temptation. Screwtape receives reports from Wormwood each week and then responds with advice and techniques. Screwtape highlights many different ways to keep us from following God, especially with limiting our understanding of “real” to mean only the material (23). In other words, demons don’t want us to think about the spiritual world around us, only about real materials lacking the meaning of the purpose of life so that we don’t ask questions about what will happen to us after death.

In ‘’the Masque of the Red Death’’ the feeling the author Edgar Allan Poe is trying to give is he wants the readers to feel scared. In the story there are multiple places that Poe is trying to show that it is scary. For example, ‘’ there were sharp pains, and sudden dizziness, and then profuse bleeding at the pores, with dissolution.” This shows that Poe is trying to make it scary because hearing that this sickness could make you bleed at the pores just puts this awful scary image in the readers head. The Red Death is portraying tuberculosis so when people read this they know that this is a real disease and people actually get it so it makes them worry about if they can get it or not. Another example would be “there were twelve strokes to

The devil can appear in any shape or form. He has been personified throughout history in literary works such as in Joyce Carol Oates’ ‘Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?’, Nathaniel Hawthorne’s ‘Young Goodman Brown’, and Steven King’s ‘The Man In The Black Suit’. In each he has

The narrator states the old man has a staff in his hand and describes it as a snake. Hawthorne explains the staff “might also be seen to twist and wriggle itself like a live serpent” (Hawthorne 2). This description symbolizes the sly and treacherous character of Brown’s companion much like the devil himself. The final story “The Man in the Black Suit” by Stephen King displays a more supernatural look of the devil. King describes the man by adding that “His face was very long and pale...very tall...wearing a black three piece suit...long fingernails that ended in not a fingernail but a long yellow claw” (King 829). By declaring these few statements audiences can conclude there are now arising questions surrounding the strange man's appearance. To add to the suspicion, King conveys the character as having eyes that “...were the orangey red flames of a wood stove...his eyes were completely orange- an orange that shifted and flickered” Along with King even exaggerating the character “...knew right away he was not human…” (King 829), the colors orange and red are known to symbolize fascination, blood and fire feelings and nouns the devil would associate

The movies “Pan’s Labyrinth” and “The Devil’s Backbone” were directed by Guillermo del Toro. There are a lot of similarities and differences amongst the movies. Some similarities between the two movies are that the main characters of both movies are orphans (Ophelia and Carlos); the movies put emphasis on the innocence of children and the main characters which would be Ophelia and Carlos interact with the supernatural. They interacted with monsters, ghost and fairytales. The two movies have both fantasy and gothic aspects within them which makes them hybrid in nature.

            Storytelling has been around for thousands of years. Many stories, like urban legends, were past down from generation to generation. These legends were believed to be based on true events. Though some are terrifying, a few even went as far as to end in the person’s death. Although horrid, legends like, Sadako, The White Death, and Cow Head, only affect those who have been told.

The character of Satan in this story can also be related to other tragic heroes throughout history.