I believe that the monster from Frankenstein is a great portrayal of race relations in society back then, and now. Countless times throughout the book there are instances where the monster meets someone, helps someone, or is just noticed by someone, and in every case these people are disgusted by the way he looks and gives him no respect. In each of these instances, the monster is usually acting just like any other human, but the people see his outward appearance and immediately disregard any decency towards him. This could directly relate to how racist white people in America viewed minorities 50 years ago, and even today.
From the very first instant the monster is "born" his creator refers to him as a "wretch" and escapes the monster's presence because he was scared. In reality, I believe that when the monster was reaching out to touch him, he was not trying to "detain him" as Frankenstein put it, but to just try to understand what was going on around him. However, Frankenstein gives him no such chance, and immediately tries to never see the monster again. This could be seen as a way that racist people never give a minority the chance to connect with them, even though the minority may just be trying to be friendly towards that person. Instead, the racist sees this person's skin color, associates him or her with preconceived thoughts, and has no interest in connecting with this person. Another instance of this is when the monster finally approaches the the father of the De Lacy family to try to befriend him. With the father being blind, it gives him no chance to see this monster and associate his appearance with danger. So when they both start to talk, the father seems to at least take an interest in helping the monster out, but when his children see the monster, their immediate response is to attack him instead of waiting to hear what their father thinks of him. This shows that if a racist was blind to skin color, then they could quite possibly connect with a minority because they are just as human as they are. It is not until they, or someone else sees who this person exactly is, when they start to conjure up these racists thoughts again and treat this person with zero respect.
This is why Frankenstein does a great job in showing how the monster in this book could directly relate to race relations in societies. The monster is constantly being poorly treated strictly because of his appearance, whereas in reality, he is just acting like another human being.
From the very first instant the monster is "born" his creator refers to him as a "wretch" and escapes the monster's presence because he was scared. In reality, I believe that when the monster was reaching out to touch him, he was not trying to "detain him" as Frankenstein put it, but to just try to understand what was going on around him. However, Frankenstein gives him no such chance, and immediately tries to never see the monster again. This could be seen as a way that racist people never give a minority the chance to connect with them, even though the minority may just be trying to be friendly towards that person. Instead, the racist sees this person's skin color, associates him or her with preconceived thoughts, and has no interest in connecting with this person. Another instance of this is when the monster finally approaches the the father of the De Lacy family to try to befriend him. With the father being blind, it gives him no chance to see this monster and associate his appearance with danger. So when they both start to talk, the father seems to at least take an interest in helping the monster out, but when his children see the monster, their immediate response is to attack him instead of waiting to hear what their father thinks of him. This shows that if a racist was blind to skin color, then they could quite possibly connect with a minority because they are just as human as they are. It is not until they, or someone else sees who this person exactly is, when they start to conjure up these racists thoughts again and treat this person with zero respect.
This is why Frankenstein does a great job in showing how the monster in this book could directly relate to race relations in societies. The monster is constantly being poorly treated strictly because of his appearance, whereas in reality, he is just acting like another human being.
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