The monster that I examined in the first assignment was Stripe, the gremlin in charge of the chaos that occurred throughout the Gremlins franchise. In these films, Stripe's intentions and life goal is to terrorize a mogwai, or a being in his previous form, named Gizmo. Gizmo is a peaceful creature and is characterized as having a heart of gold as he does what he needs to survive and in his interactions with the humans preset in the movie. As a child, this movie was one of my favorite movies, and until recently I was not aware of the clear correlation between race issues in our world and their corresponding issues in the Gremlins franchise. This monster and his background fit rather well with Cohen's fourth thesis(Thesis IV: The Monster Dwells at the Gates of Difference).
To expand upon the where Stripe stands in terms of Cohen, one can draw immediate conclusions about the relationship between Stripe and Gizmo through many different lenses. One lens would be through a religious lens. Being that Stripe was previously a mogwai, it can be considered that both creatures were born in a similar way, but developed different personalities as they aged. A correlation can be drawn in a similar way as Cohen references the The Middle Ages and the accusation of Jews of crimes ranging from the bringing of the plague to bleeding Christian children to make their Passover meal. Both Judaism and Christianity began in a similar way, and each developed into a distinct religion. It was at this point where the Jews took on the target of xenophobic misrepresentation and as a result can be considered to be Gizmo in the relationship. This is not to say that either religion is more right than the other in their belief system, but just as Cohen draws this correlation to monsters, similar correlations can be made.
Overall, Gremlins is a great movie and Stripe could seemingly be viewed through many other different lenses in addition to the one I used above. While he is not strictly a monster in the traditional sense, a monster designed to scare children and to terrorize the just character in the franchise is pretty scary without full exposure to the politics and the ideologies associated with such politics where one can draw such conclusions.
To expand upon the where Stripe stands in terms of Cohen, one can draw immediate conclusions about the relationship between Stripe and Gizmo through many different lenses. One lens would be through a religious lens. Being that Stripe was previously a mogwai, it can be considered that both creatures were born in a similar way, but developed different personalities as they aged. A correlation can be drawn in a similar way as Cohen references the The Middle Ages and the accusation of Jews of crimes ranging from the bringing of the plague to bleeding Christian children to make their Passover meal. Both Judaism and Christianity began in a similar way, and each developed into a distinct religion. It was at this point where the Jews took on the target of xenophobic misrepresentation and as a result can be considered to be Gizmo in the relationship. This is not to say that either religion is more right than the other in their belief system, but just as Cohen draws this correlation to monsters, similar correlations can be made.
Overall, Gremlins is a great movie and Stripe could seemingly be viewed through many other different lenses in addition to the one I used above. While he is not strictly a monster in the traditional sense, a monster designed to scare children and to terrorize the just character in the franchise is pretty scary without full exposure to the politics and the ideologies associated with such politics where one can draw such conclusions.
Great choice of monster! I too am a fan of the Gremlin movies. You made an interesting correlation between the Jewish-Christianity cultures and Gizmo and Stripe's relation. I had not thought about Gremlins in a religious perspective, so I was very intrigued by the association you made. I would like to further expand on your analysis in this comment. Both Gizmo and Stripe are not normal pets in our society. It was interesting that Stripe was only considered a monster and not Gizmo even though he is equally exotic and different. Based on the values of our society, the movie had made a villain out of Stripe due to his destructive behavior, and made Gizmo a victim. Similarly, society tends to view anything different from their culture or religion as the villain and place themselves as the victim, even though both are equally unique. It would be interesting to re-watch the Gremlin series with Cohen's theses in mind.
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