Monsters Make Bad People

Well folks, this is the last update until I am otherwise notified.  I’ve had a good summer with you all, and I hope that you did, too.  Anyway, let’s get this show on the road, shall we?

So, on to the third chapter of Thomas C. Foster’s “How to Read Literature Like a Professor”. In this chapter we discuss monsters, particularly, vampires.  In the third chapter, which is cleverly titled “Nice to Eat You: Acts of Vampires”, Foster explains how monsters are the illusion to the bigger picture within literature. In many ways they portray the worst of people, only back then it was voodoo to even mention anything relating to the birds and the bees, alcoholism, you name it. So, monsters were used in place of people in classic literature, acting as symbols, to perform acts of communion.  Yes, there are more ways than one to portray acts of communion.  Like in the last chapter, which described how some authors use food for imagery, this chapter deals with the use of monsters.   

And so, the reader is introduced to something mysterious, something new.  Eye candy within literature.  In this chapter, we learned about attractive, older men that seduce younger women and ditch them later.  Or, as Foster points out, the “vampires” classic novels. You get the idea.

And there’s more than just vampires. Foster points out these “monsters” performing various acts of communion in the following works: “Dracula” by Bram Stakes, “Interview with the Vampire” by Anne Rice, “A Christmas Carol” by Charles Dickens, “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde ”by Robert Louis Stevenson, “The Turn of the Screw” by Henry Jones and his other novel, “Daisy Miller”, “The Metamorphosis” and “A Hunger Artist” by Franz Kafka, “Innocent Erindira” by Garcia Marquez, “The Fox” and “Women in Love” by DH Lawrence and, finally, “A Severed Head” and “The Unicorn” by Iris Murdoch.

So, vampire and monster interpretations are found in all sorts of literature to portray acts of communion that lead to the destruction of themselves and others.  Since using monsters to portray sinful characters was so popular in English literature, today’s authors – especially in pop culture – like to create their own characters as monsters.

My personal favorite monster genre, heavily featured in the twenty-first century through books, movies, comics and video games, is zombies, a mythological undead corpse from Haitian folklore.  Zombies can be interpreted in so many ways. You could compare zombies to people who are absorbed by technology and lack sleep, carrying on sluggishly on minimal rest from the previous night.  Zombies can be interpreted as the newer generation losing itself to technological advances, only to lead themselves to destruction and return to the stone age.  Zombies can also be somewhat similar to ghosts, symbolizing the loss of a loved one and haunting said person.  That person can also be led to their own demise and can dragged down after suffering the loss of a person close to them.  For example, there are characters haunted and/or brought down by the dead in AMC’s “The Walking Dead,” based off the comics by Robert Kirkman.  To name a few, (SPOILER) Andrea loses her sister Amy to a zombie mob, or “walkers”, and Daryl Dixon suffered from the loss of his brother, Merle (notice how both characters had a close connection with their lost one). 

Andrea saying goodbye to her sister Amy

Daryl Dixon putting down his brother Merle

In summary, acts of communion can be portrayed in many ways from food, to vampires, to zombies, and more.