Running head: FINALTAKE-HOME ARTICLE ANALYSIS ESSAY 1
An Analysis of the Articles “The Call of Cthulhu” by Lovecraft and “Blunders of Virtue:
The Problem of Race in Stephen Crane’s “the Monster” by Cleman.
ASU
MCO 240 - Media Issues in American Pop Culture
December 8, 2021
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Introduction
Over the years, monster stories have been passed from one generation to the other in
society. However, most people believe that monster stories and films are meant only to entertain
people and to scare them which in a real sense may not be the case. Monster stories as Cohen
(2007) explain are stories that have deeper meanings about individuals in the society, their ways
of life, believe, the structure of the society and some of the peoples’ desires and imaginations.
Therefore, studying about monsters gives a deeper understanding of some of the underlying
societal factors such as politics, culture, social structures, the economics among other things.
This is clearly illustrated by Cohen (2007) in the first these where he explains about the
monster’s body. He describes it as a cultural body which means that the appearance such as the
structure of the body of the monster is dependent on the society’s believes about such characters.
Therefore, it is not just a monster but it has something deeper about the society it signifies. It is
stated that the monster’s body reflects the nature of the people in a given culture. For instance, it
tells more about their fears and anxieties and it projects various aspects about them. These bodies
are also tied to the time the feeling and the place where they were created. On the other hand,
Cohen explains in the sixth thesis that the fear of the monster portrays some of the human desire.
Which explains why most people in the society love watching horrifying monster movies and
reading stories of the same yet they are scared about monsters. They always have a deeper desire
which despite the fears, they always want to know more. The paper therefore, analyzes the two
articles “The Call of Cthulhu” by Lovecraft and “Blunders of Virtue: The Problem of Race in
Stephen Crane’s “the Monster,” in regard Cohen’s first and Sixth theses.
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Cohen’s First Thesis
The first thesis discussed by Cohen explains the issue of the body of the monster as a
cultural body. It carries a literal meaning which incorporates some of the human aspects such as
fantasy, desire and fear. These qualities are clearly evidenced in most of the articles. One of the
articles under analysis in this paper is “Blunders of Virtue: The problem of Race in Stephen
Crane’s The monster.” This story explains the story of Jimmie and Henry and as explained by
Cohen (2007), the monster’s body shows the desires of a person, fear and fantasy. This is evident
in the article because of various reasons. One of the reasons is that Jimmie portrays self-
effacement which is the major theme in this story. When Jimmie breaks the peony, he is
punished by his father and due to that, he feels the need to efface himself (Cleman, 2002). This
shows how the monster as used in the article represents human desires because it is used in this
case to illustrates what Jimmie felt. The other instance where human desire and fear is shown in
this article is through Henry. In the story, Henry shows an aspect of self-efficacy in the story in a
very graphic instance. It happens when his face, literally, burns away (Cleman, 2002). This
scenario carries the article’s imaginative center because the face burning away is an aspect of the
monastery and it links the story to the monster aspect it addresses.
The monster’s body also shows some of the society’s culture and believes as stated by
Cohen (2007) in the first thesis. In this instance, he explains that monsters are always born a
particular instance in a society which he calls the crossroad and it also ends at a given juncture
but it reappears. According to Cohen, this is a representation of a given moment, place and time
or situation in a society. This thesis is clearly shown in Cleman (2002) when the characters lose
face. Losing face is a strategic aspect that Crane uses to explain how people in the society lose
certain authority, respect or morality. For instance, in the article, the issue of Henry losing face
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shows how he had lost the moral authority he had in the society where he was in charge of
issuing moral judgments from the high. This is shown by the perspectives of Jimmie at the
beginning of the first episode. In the story, Henry becomes a man that is brought down morally
when he had to confront the pains he had caused himself for what his actions caused his wife
(Cleman, 2002). This aspect link to the monster body because the monster’s body loses faces and
sometimes it is brought down but reappears in other forms when least expected. It explains how
people such as Henry maybe respected with a given level of authority but in the end, he is
brought down. Therefore, it shows the human concerns feelings and the issues that face them
over time.
In the article “The Call of Cthulhu” the body of the monster is also described. In this
case, there are two types of structures that describe the sculptures. One of them is explained in
Lovecraft (2013) first part of the article which is the title “The horror in Clay” where after his
uncle’s death, he finds some of his notes stored in a treasure box which inside, there was a
sculpture. The sculpture according to him, had an appearance of an octopus a human caricature
and a dragon. It also had a head describe to have a pulpy and tentacle appearance. The body was
scaly and it had wings. In regard to the Cohen (2007) on the description of the body of the
monster and how it reflects human fears and anxiety, the descriptions in this article clearly show
some of the fears that people had in this society. The death of Thurston’s uncle and him finding
the treasure box and deciding not to show it to anyone else explains how people have fears and
anxiety on how to face life after the death of the loved ones (Lovecraft, 2013). In society, when
one loses a close relative, especially breadwinners, they are likely to have fears on how to face
life. Thurston explains how the creature explained in a monster like description produced sounds
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“the call of Cthulhu” that always scared him. It represents his anxiety and fears of life and how
he could face life on his own in the absence of his uncle.
Another key point of Cohen in her thesis is the use of the body of the monster to store the
memory and trauma of many individuals. This aspect is so that in most cases the monsters
represent a repressed historical anxiety that cannot be forgotten and continues to emerge. To
illustrate, Cleman (2002) sees in The Monster by Crane an act of racial fears in the late
nineteenth century America when the act of disfigurement of Henry is symbolic of the
intolerance of the American society to racial otherness. It thus agrees with the argument
presented by Cohen (2007) that the monster is always reoccurring in cultural crossroads
indicating that tensions remain unresolved. Equally, the representation of the Cthulhu mythos by
Lovecraft (2013) illustrates the anxiety of challenges in the early twentieth century around
globalization and the unknown in unexplored corners of the world. In such a way, the body of
the monster does not only represent personal fear but includes a representation of historical and
cultural trauma in that the body is taken to remind societies of its fears which they can never
fully bury. This body turns into a stage where the struggles of the memory, repression, and
revival are played on, constantly disrupting the complacency of the culture.
What is more, monsters tend to demonstrate the inconsistency of cultural norms and
demonstrate the fact that human desires and anxieties are closely interlaced with ethical
anticipations. Through the story Crane tells, it becomes clear that self-effication of Jimmie and
self-destruction of Henry both indicate the weakness of such ideas like virtue and respectability
and authority (Cleman, 2002). According to Cohen (2007), the monster is used to show the
desire in humans, but more essentially, the desire is not neutral in the sense that it is conditioned
by the cultural restraints that may demonize and at the same time romanticize certain actions.
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The monster by Lovecraft (2013) also disrupts the ideas of human-centeredness, indicating that
the fiction of the control over nature is a sham. The monstrous in contraposition to the human
ideals, these texts demonstrate how cultural values are frequently constructed on the
contradictions which can be reconciled only with the help of re-creation by means of the
monstrous images. In this way, the monster turns into a mirror by which the societies address the
discrepancies of their own ideologies.
The other aspect of Cohen in the first thesis is that monsters have the aspect of exhibiting
the borderline, the familiar and the alien. In the book The Monster, by Crane, we find that Henry
is a respected person in the society but turns out to be an outcast after he becomes a monster and
this demonstrates that people readily turn out to be estranged when order is broken in the society
(Cleman, 2002). According to Cohen (2007), the monsters are revealed at borders, trying to push
the boundaries of the categories within a culture. According to Lovecraft (2013), Cthulhu is the
ideal representative of such threshold since character is a human, animal, and mythological
conglomerate that is not easily categorized. This in-betweenness is threatening as it is
destabilizing definite identities, authority and belonging categories. In such a way, the monster
can be treated as not just the image of fear, but the problem of the strict cultural barriers. Its
hybridity compels any society to be confronted with instability of the same categories they base
their order, morality, and identity. The monster survives in the gray, showing the instability of
borders, their vulnerability to destruction at any time.
The conflict between silence and voice is also spilled over to monsters in these stories.
That monstrousness may kill the ability to communicate or be listened to has been implied in
both cases in the text by Crane, with Jimmie who remains silent following punishment, and with
Henry who literally destroys another person with his hands (Cleman, 2002). However, it is ironic
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that as Cohen (2007) points out, the monster also never goes away forever since he is always
coming back with a voice that cannot be completely silenced. The call of Cthulhu described by
Lovecraft (2013) provides a good example, but it is a frightening one, as it is a kind of
communication that cannot be ignored. The monstrous body, therefore, swings between being
voiceless and overwhelming, of deeper issues as to whose voices are recognized within the
society and others that are denied. By doing so, the monster turns into an allegory of the
marginalized or silenced population, which has lost the authority of culture but is coming back
again and again to get attention. The silence and voice in monstrous representation also ease the
timelessness of the Cohen thesis because it illustrates how cultural apprehension is usually
rallied around inhibition and reintroduction of voice in society which is supposed to be governed.
Historical and Cultural Context of Monstrosity in Lovecraft and Crane
Lovecraft's myths got their start as a result of the cultural upheaval that came with
scientific discoveries, colonization, and industrial modernity, which had all but destroyed the
traditional Western narratives. His monsters, with Cthulhu being the most prominent, personified
the fears of deep existence that man could be something small and weak in a huge, nonchalant
universe. Walden (2017) states that Lovecraft's Gothic vision was heavily influenced by the
science of the day that challenged the idea of man being the center of the universe, and Muller
(2021) identifies the presence of existential despair in his works. These fears were not only
present in the abstract but were very much historically grounded in the period of the early
twentieth-century when the world was unstable, war was likely to break out any moment, and the
global orders were shifting. Nyholm (2021) points out that Lovecraft's fiction was designed to
reveal the boundaries of human understanding, thus putting Enlightenment faith in reason and
order to the test. Here monstrosity, in his works, was not just scary but of historical significance
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as it was indicative of how his culture was struggling with issues of survival, meaning, and
decay. Hence the historical context went on to define monsters as entities of culture, representing
the dread of extinction and becoming irrelevant (Walden, 2017; Muller, 2021; Nyholm, 2021).
Crane the Monster, by Crane, was a work created right after the Reconstruction era. Its
themes and characters were a complete contrast to those of the first one because of the different
cultural contexts or, more precisely, the societal norms of the two times. The new culture was
one of systemic racism, segregation, and the institutionalization of white supremacy. The story,
in part, diminished characters of blackness as one of the monstrous traits revealing the social
fears that can be found in the racial hierarchies. Morehead (2020) states that the West in general
was quite traditional and that monster-like characteristics were included in these traditions that
progressed to the association of monstrosity in the cases of those who were left out socially. In a
similar fashion, Cleman (2002) reveals how the loathsome character of Henry Johnson’s injury
symbolized the façade of the community’s perspective that Black people had no human qualities.
Evans (2018) mentions that the horror genre becomes the cultural scene where the dominant
group’s fear of losing power is vividly portrayed and the character of Henry is that very place of
staging. With his dissenting opinion, the people reveal how monstrosity figured as one of the
pretexts for the practice of discrimination and, at the same time, for the maintenance of the social
order ((Cleman, 2002; Evans, 2018). It is clear from Cohen’s argument that monsters are the
embodiment of the cultural fears that are the core theme of this work when we see Henry
becoming America’s racial fears of the issue. Henry’s connecting theme of racial prejudice with
monstrosity, thus, became a means by which Crane exposed the abominable injustices of his
period.
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The transatlantic cultural climate of the late 19th and early 20th centuries is an interesting
case that reveals how the theme of monstrosity changed in the works of Crane and Lovecraft as
their response to social issues was different. Crane illustrated the incapability of America to
maintain the ideals of Reconstruction, while Lovecraft depicted his anxieties of modernity and
eventual global collapse. Evans (2018) points out that diverse horrors should survive the unstable
period in history when collective anxieties seek expression through symbols. Ulstein (2019) links
Lovecraft’s monsters with early Anthropocene anxieties, and he argues that they represent
ecological doom and planetary fragility. Crane, on the other hand, utilizing the grotesque to
narrate oppression and isolation of the community, implies that fear can be transformed into
cultural critique. Nyholm (2021) also says that as a result of these overwhelming truths,
Lovecraft depicted monstrosity as an experience while Crane used it as a tool to expose
hypocrisy among the society. Historically, the two authors not only point out how the context of
the time affects the characters of monsters but also cosmic insignificance of the ones in the case
of Lovecraft and racial marginalization of those in Crane’s. The use of monstrosity in such
different ways that highlight the detriments of these times to the point where the monsters
become characters who adapt themselves to narrate these fears shows how those fears are unique
to those cultural moments (Ulstein, 2019; Nyholm, 2021; Evans, 2018).
The terrors of Lovecraft reflected one more aspect - intellectual debates about evolution,
degeneration, and the absence of clear boundaries between species. Walden (2017) points out
that Lovecraft was soaking in all the scientific discussions of his day which were questioning the
supremacy of humans, and thus he came up with these disgusting hybrids which not only broke
the cultural boundaries but also the ones between species. Kremer (2015) is of the opinion that
such screenings of the monstrous others laid the foundation for the future portrayal of them as
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characters from science fiction and video games. Muller (2021) is of the opinion that Lovecraft
can be seen as the source of the existentialist movement, his monsters being one of the ways he
showed the collapse of Enlightenment rationality. These stories became popular because they
were the ones reflecting the people’s fears of degeneration and humanity’s doubtful status in the
hierarchy of the natural world. Lovecraft, however, by combining science with horror, turned
monstrosity into a symbol of human identity's fragility and the extent of knowledge. So his
monsters went beyond just an amusement; they were the results of scientific and philosophical
debates (Walden, 2017).
Crane's narrative was, however, a reflection of Gilded Race prejudiced beliefs,
transgressing the boundaries between scientific and religious matters in order to release societal
oppressions. Morehead (2020) underscores how Black bodies were metaphorically tied to
monstrous images and demonization historically, thus establishing a relationship between race
and monstrosity. Cleman (2002) states that Henry's injury represented the manner in which the
portrayal of African Americans in the media had been done through the reduction to the
stereotypes, the downfall of the portrayal of their individuality and their human side. Evans
(2018) states that the powerful cultures/kinds of people that do this the most, put their
insecurities onto those that are underprivileged, thus turning them into monsters, only differing
in their nature. Cleman, 2002) argues that through Crane, the metamorphosis from a well-
regarded community member to a frightful and disdained figure, illustrates the dependence of
white supremacy. The depiction of Henry's past life being of no use to him at the moment when
the townspeople rejected him shows the influence of prejudice in shaping identity and belonging.
By this story, Crane pointed out the systemic injustice in society, playing the role of monstrosity
to reveal social hierarchy's hypocrisy.
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Religion deepened the cultural connotation of monstrosity in the works of both authors,
giving them a conceptual system to connect the monstrous to symbols that represented threats to
spiritual and social order. Morehead (2020) points out that in the West, monsters were frequently
depicted as parallels with shematics, the grotesque, and the breaking of the divine hierarchy in
which they were gods' lesser creatures, thus showing them as theological and cultural dangers.
Lovecraft borrowed this idea from legend, yet, reversed it, mocking religious systems by playing
down the cult worship of Cthulhu as the dark alternative of sacred ritual and so eliminating trust
of divine harmony and exposing the fragility of religion (Lovecraft, 2013). Walden (2017) reads
this as a kind of gothic theology where one of the monstrous features is the absence of the
terrifying divine order, and so suggesting that the cosmos is neutral towards our morals and
beliefs. In opposition, Crane’s story makes use of religion for the purpose of self-destruction by
accusing the moral scandal of the townsfolk who hid their racism and segregation behind
religious practice and who thus used piety as a veil for other injustices (Cleman, 2002). Both
authors, therefore, aligned monstrosity with religion: Lovecraft to show cosmic chaos and Crane
to reveal social immorality. Religion, thus, functioned as a cultural vehicle for the creation of
monsters who were the embodiment of people's issues with morality, order, and spiritual collapse
(Walden, 2017; Cleman, 2002; Morehead, 2020).
Similarly, through the cultural lens of horror as performance, Crane and Lovecraft’s
depiction of monstrous characters can be viewed as part of a larger ensemble of societies’
portrayal of fear. Ulstein (2019) postulates that Lovecraft’s monsters represent one of the
contradictions of human nature - our attraction to annihilation both ecological and existential -
thus suggesting that horror is the simultaneous reflection of dread and fascination that results
from collapse. Nyholm (2021) takes this notion further by adding to it the fact that readers of
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cosmic horror are pulled in by the desire of testing their nerves in front of the incomprehensible,
however, they do it through the distancing that allows them to be at the same time with the
monster and far away from it. Evans (2018) also cites horror’s role as a cultural performance,
exposing that in this case, the genre represents a stage, where audiences can fantasize about the
forbidden or risky matters without the danger of the imagination and the spectacle acting as a
shield. Although Crane’s piece was more realistic and did not involve cosmic dread, it still
worked similarly by presenting readers with a less direct way to interact with the racism horrors
through the use of systemic injustice, which was converted into the monstrous trope that revealed
societal contradictions (Cleman, 2002). In this way, in both examples, thriller/suspense genres
not only mirror but also performative community’s interaction with the themes of fascination and
aversion, order and chaos. The most important thing about monstrosity is that it becomes a
cultural lens, which shows contradictions and thus gives a symbolic framework for the ones who
otherwise would not be able to talk about their fears.
Both authors' legacies serve as proof that cultural contexts of monstrosity are still alive
and kicking in their works, thus, their works continue to be recognised as a source of reference
for today's audience. Kremer (2015) explains how Lovecraft's cosmic horror has not only shaped
science fiction and horror cinema but also the storytelling techniques of competitive gaming,
wherein motifs of insignificance and overpowering forces are endlessly recreated. Muller (2021)
interprets this point even further by suggesting that the reason why Lovecraft is still so popular is
that he was the one to depict existential dread in such a manner that it strikes a chord with
contemporary concerns about environmental collapse, technological dominance and the loss of
human agency. While Crane’s use of monstrosity as a metaphor for racism might have come
from a different era, it is still very much alive and kicking in today’s talks about systemic
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exclusion and injustice, providing a basis for studying the ways in which prejudice has become
an essential element of cultural norms (Cleman, 2002). Morehead (2020) points to the use of
monstrosity as a metaphor for oppressed peoples as the main reason for its continued existence,
and explains that social anxiety is the cause of projection of fear on the bodies or communities
that are labeled as potentially disruptive to the establishment. In spite of their historical
differences and distinctive literary genres, the two authors similarly created monsters that force
readers to deal with their deep cultural insecurities. Their works are still potent because
monstrosity is one of the factors that embody the conflicts that have never vanished completely,
thus, they reflect the ongoing struggles of identity, morality and the need to belong (Morehead,
2020).
Cohen’s Sixth Thesis
The other thesis that Cohen is on the fear of monsters portrays a type of desire in life. The
monsters and the places they are found always have horrifying descriptions which signify that
they are forbidden places. For instance, in the article “The Call of Cthulhu” this aspect is clearly
highlighted. It is in the second part of the article that the issue of “The Tale of Inspector
Legrasse” is revealed (Lovecraft, 2013). In this section, Thurston meets a police officer called
John Raymond who also had an encounter with another sculpture whose description fits what
Thurston had found. Then, Raymond goes on to explain how the sculpture was found. He
explains that it was found during a search party that was meant to find missing people where
women and children were found disfigured in a forbidden area (Lovecraft, 2013). This deeply
explains what Cohen (2007) explains in the sixth thesis that human fear of monsters marks the
forbidden places, alters ego, it entices in a dangerous way, raises questions but people still love
them. Even though the police officer and the search party were scared, they were entering into a
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forbidden area because of their desire to know if the monster that killed the women and children
really existed. They are scared by they feel the urged to satisfy their fantasy. It relates well to
how people take monster and horror films today. People, despite the fears of being scared, they
still watch and read the monster stories to satisfy their desires and fantasies of knowing more
about the monsters.
In the article “Blunders of Virtue: The problem of Race in Stephen Crane’s The
monster.” The aspects of the six theses are also evident. The fear of the monster shows the deep
desires of human beings to discover more about the unknown and the most troubling issues in the
society. One issue that this article by Cleman (2002) addresses is the problem of race. Like the
monster, most people, especially African Americans fear racism. Most of them live in denial to
the point of creating a veil that keeps them of the realities of what they go through due to racism.
However, in most cases some are bold enough to face it head on despite the fears. Since Henry is
at the center of the story and he is a black man portrays the fears of black people while facing the
monster which is racism. In the story, Henry is facing a form of self-effacement and a demotion
as he is morally brought down. For instance, in the story he is referred to as the “…little more
than a stock literary negro,” which is a stereotype that most of the townspeople have against him
(Cleman, 2002). They are totally blind about some of his greater kindness to humanity he had
shown most of them through his services. In this story, the African American people are
considered as people who have no value to society and that their true identity lies in having
nothing and no influence in the society. This is true given that when Henry turns into a faceless
and characterless person in his society, everybody includes the doctor and the townspeople seem
quite okay about it. They regard his plaque as a what was true about him as a negro. Therefore,
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the fear of the monster in this story refers to the issue of racism that African American people
have tried to confront despite its fearful effects on their lives.
The sixth thesis introduced by Cohen also informs about the role of monsters as warnings
and temptations, something that attracts human beings to the things they are not supposed to
touch but still want to feel. It is this duality that has been brought out so vividly in the story The
Call of Cthulhu where cultists who admire the creature are simultaneously terrified of its vast
destructive ability but are also coveted with its promise of freedom of more typical human
constraints (Lovecraft, 2013). Their practices in secluded, prohibited destinations reflect the
statement by Cohen (2007) of the monsters to signify places of possible danger and the attraction
of transgression. The penetration into such spheres is against the cultural codes but it fulfils the
curiosity and the urge of prohibited knowledge. This contradiction is the reason as to why
humanity constantly comes back to the monstrous in literature and in the popular culture. The
tendencies in modern horror consumption are not different, with fans eagerly consuming content
that scares them since they are as such stories offer them relief against everyday life. The
monsters are, thus, not merely frightening; they are also fascinating so as to provide a kind of
vicarious experience of taboos and cultural anxieties. Dread and attraction co-exist in harmony
so that monsters are never disposed of. The horror of Cthulhu is a good example of how the fears
of culture may both drive away and attract so that the monster is kept in the middle of the human
fantasy and desire.
The other expression of the sixth thesis by Cohen is in terms of social drive of facing
monstrosity. Not only does Henry disfigurement in The Monster by Crane arouse fear, the moral
boundaries of the community are also broken (Cleman, 2002). Excommunicated Henry upon his
metamorphosis, the townsfolk bolster their racial assumptions, and make identity out of
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otherness. Nevertheless, as Cohen (2007) postulates, monstrosity disrupts the notions of
belonging, and the deformed body of Henry represents the fear of engaging with racial otherness
as well as the repressed desire to demarcate themselves in relation to the racial otherness. Henry
turns into an ironic character: undesirable and frightening, but necessary to keep the town with a
feeble feeling of order. The monster makes communities demonstrate the most fundamental
anxieties, exposing the hypocrisy of the values. The town turns its back on Henry and this shows
that social identity is created using fear, yet in the process highlights that they rely on the
monstrous to define themselves. They present monsters as reflections of cultural insecurities in
this sense, so that communities cannot deny the truths they do. The appearance of Henry adds to
the perception of the reader that monstrosity is not only personal, but also highly social, as it
changes the manner communities identify themselves.
The other idea proposed by Cohen is that monsters force humans in moral and existential
issues that they would not prefer to face anyway. The Call of Cthulhu brings out the tensions
between knowledge and ignorance in how Thurston chooses to hide the truth about knowledge of
the creature (Lovecraft, 2013). To divulge the monster would ruin humanity in terms of control,
whereas concealing it will bring ethical issue on speaking the truth. According to Cohen (2007),
monsters represent questions and not answers, they bring out hurries concerning power, morality
and responsibility. The existence of the monster is, thus, something that drives humans into the
matters of which they can never solve but only find their way. The same can be witnessed in The
Monster by Crane when nobody accepts Henry after he is disfigured (Cleman, 2002). They
prefer to forget him than deal with the racial bigotry his life brings about. In both instances, the
monster forces the advent of unpleasant realities, either of cosmic insignificance or institutional
racism. Fear of becoming like monsters is so much more fear of moral responsibility. The fear
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that people have about monsters is not only about what they are but about what they say about
the weak human side, bigotry, and collaboration. Monsters reveal the issues that human beings
repress, and cultures recur and recur in the narratives, the arts and social discourse. They remind
the societies that morality cannot be left underground.
The sixth thesis by Cohen also stresses more that monsters represent the cultural taboos,
making real what the societies do not want to discuss in an open or open manner. According to
the story by Lovecraft, cult worship on Cthulhu is grotesque since it disobeys all religious and
cultural values by worshiping disorder instead of order (Lovecraft, 2013). This taboo worship is
a portrayal of fears of cultural decadence as well as an interest in the idea of discarding
conventional forms. Cohen (2007) observes that fear of monsters reflects the taboo and it is a
manifestation of the fears that societies have suppressed. Similarly, in Crane, The Monster, the
rejection by Henry is a symbol of how race has played as a taboo topic in the late nineteenth
century America (Cleman, 2002). As long as entrenched hierarchies existed, to recognize that
Henry was a human being would destroy them, and thus his disfigurement is a justification of his
unworthiness. Monsters are therefore metaphors of taboos in the society, they represent the type
of thing that societies do not want to encounter. Through fulfilling these taboos, monster
narratives enable the reader to interact with the topics that are still suppressed in society. The
monster is an enabling, though frightening route to cultural anxieties. The taboo subjects are
returned to the cultural imagination, through fear and fascination. In this way, monsters become
a necessity as the unspeakable is personified and the monsters compel the societies to struggle
with what they otherwise repress.
The other lesson of the sixth thesis by Cohen is the weakness of human control and
certainty being revealed through monsters. In the Call of Cthulhu, the monster is the power
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beyond human knowledge and power (Lovecraft, 2013). The more characters strive to discover
forbidden truths, the more they get to know their vulnerability. When human order is challenged
with the indisputable power, it falls apart. The same thing happens in The Monster, whereby
Henry is transformed and this affects the authority of the town (Cleman, 2002). According to
Cohen (2007), the monsters are evidence of fears of inadequacy and loss of power over and this
can be illustrated by the way Cthulhu destroys the illusion of humanity to power. His appearance
reveals the weakness of their ethically superior position, the insecurity masksed by bigotry. The
fact that the community needs to marginalize Henry depicts the fact that they could not control
what his mutated body was representing. Both the Lovecraft and Crane demonstrate the
weakness of the human systems by the monsters likening them to vulnerabilities. Forbidden
knowledge and racial intolerance, both express the how very easily human power fails under the
burden of monstrosity. Fear of monsters is, thus, not as much the fear of the entities, but the
understanding that, in fact, human order is impermanent. In their inability to be controlled, and
their vulnerability, monsters constantly remind the societies of their precarious positions to
power.
Cohen emphasizes on the inevitability of monsters returning by making it clear that both
fear and desire can never be bound indefinitely. The Call of Cthulhu ends with the horrifying
thought that the monster will come to life once more and this shows that human attempts to
oppress it are only provisional (Lovecraft, 2013). The monsters are too loud to be quiet since
they represent the anxiety of culture that has endured the times. Cohen (2007) reiterates that
monsters never get caught, since the terrors that they symbolize are reborn in nyew ways. It is
the same case with Henry in The Monster as his mutated body haunts the town despite being
rejected (Cleman, 2002). His life turns into an open wound of racial prejudice, demonstrating
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how the efforts to forget about fear merely guarantee its reappearance. The monster in the two
works lives on due to the fact that the fears within society are not addressed: the cosmic
insignificance in Lovecraft and the systemic racism in Crane. The lack of power of monsters has
become trivial due to the cycle of suppression and return: monsters are the things that the society
does not want to discuss directly. Returning in various manifestations, the monsters make sure
that the cultures should keep dealing with the repressed fears. The reason they are still there is
that questions they pose cannot be answered forever. In this regard, monsters are eternal, having
constant fears that never actually go away.
Contemporary Relevance of Cohen’s Theses in Popular Culture
The ongoing applicability of Cohen's ideas is evidenced by how they are used to the
modern manifestations of popular culture. In fact, monsters remain those giving the reflection of
society's deepest fears and desires. According to Holtorf (2016), popular culture is increasingly
becoming a reflection of the fears of the modern world, and it is playing a significant role in the
way spectators accept the world as a global village, the issues of race, the pace of technological
development, and changes of identity. Storey (2021) expresses that no cultural item can entirely
separate itself from being an ideological carrier, and thus it becomes a symbolic area where the
themes of power, fear, and belonging, with which societies are struggling might be represented.
Shah (2021) not only agrees with this point but also supports it by stating that popular culture
and social problems are so intertwined that the former outlines the ways of self-awareness of the
individuals and the comprehension of the communities to which they belong. Burke (2017)
points out that these developments have not only been there in the modern period but since the
early modern Europe, where cultural productions have taken the role of expressing and managing
collective anxieties through performances and stories that often used explicatures of monstrosity.
FINALTAKE-HOME ARTICLE ANALYSIS ESSAY 20
However, what is different is the scale and the speed with which cultural texts travel around the
world, the digital media's arrival has not only been a change for the better in the circulation but
has also allowed for the very quick production, distribution, and reinterpretation of monstrous
imagery. Monsters are still the main characters of today’s media world as it can be easily seen in
horror movies, video games, and streaming shows, where the creatures are the ones who
represent the forbidden desires and unresolved cultural contradictions.
Modern horror films are a perfect example of Cohen’s assertion that fear is inescapably
linked with attraction, as the audience, in a rather paradoxical way, voluntarily subjects itself to
such stories that are basically made to unsettle and disturb them. Storey (2021) claims that a
large part of the attraction of pop culture lies in the very same thing that it can be both a source
of the greatest desires and fears all at once, thus bringing the audience to a place where it can
safely experience and feel these contradictions. Shah (2021) also notes that horror is still one of
the most popular and profitable genres, from which global entertainment hardly ever has losses,
thus its continued use in satisfying collective cultural needs. Manning and Adams (2015) point to
the fact that the consumption of horror is most often an autoethnographic process where the
audience members envision their own experiences in the monsters of fiction and view these
stories through the angle of their own personal and social realities. These events affect audiences
on a symbolic level and add to the effectiveness of horror as a medium that can both criticize and
satirize the issues it deals with. Knowingly or unknowingly, horror movies, as the examples of
these films, are those very monsters that through their endless oppression of the society’s
anxieties become embodied in the narratives that now become not only survivable but even
visible and consumable by the masses.
FINALTAKE-HOME ARTICLE ANALYSIS ESSAY 21
Monstrosity is also a central element of the television culture that has deepened not only
in the long-form series, but in the shows that blur the line between fear, family entertainment,
and serialised drama. Cohen (2017) points out that one of the main characteristics of the popular
media is its constant renewal through adaptation of older cultural forms to meet the new
anxieties of the audience. Moreover, television has been shown to be particularly successful in
this process. According to Shah (2021), the omnipresence and easy access of television put it in a
unique position to incorporate horror in the daily cultural practices, thereby ensuring that
monstrous narratives are not only available for niche audiences but also distributed in
mainstream discourse. Storey (2021) is of the opinion that popular culture often confronts the
dominant ideologies, and in the case of shows which are very popular like Stranger Things or
The Walking Dead, monstrosity becomes the means through which the fear of surveillance,
authoritarian power, and social collapse are investigated in the manner which all the diverse
viewers can understand. Unlike films, these programs do not only show monsters but integrate
them into ongoing serial storytelling, hence, creating unresolved arcs that allow the viewers to
come back as they want to reengage with the same fears that are not fully contained. It is through
this great characteristic of television horror that monstruosity is not relegated to isolated
narratives but is kept as a dialogue within the everyday culture. As such, television is an
exemplar of how monsters keep popping up at cultural crossroads, as they are the living
embodiment of the anxiety one cannot get rid of.
Video games are a new domain which openly show the presence of Cohen’s theses,
where the players are in direct contact with the monster-like figures. Kremers (2015) argument
about the inheritance of the Lovecraftian terror is today extended to the gaming world where new
games like Bloodborne and Resident Evil recreate the cosmic and biologic monstrosities is
FINALTAKE-HOME ARTICLE ANALYSIS ESSAY 22
contemporary. Besides, these games do not simply reflect Lovecraft’s themes of insignificance,
but they also permit players to participate in dramatize confrontations with the incomprehensible,
thus, the cultural endurance of his influence is being reasserted. They are proof that the
interactive worlds transform the old horror legends into participative experiences that are the
closest to the human nature of the fear in a personal and performative way. Storey (2021) states
that popular culture is very flexible - it can be transferred from one medium to another and still
keep the same essence, but it may become different depending on how the recipient (audience)
interprets it. The case of video games is an example of this feature of popular culture as games
convert spectators into players who have to make a choice on how to face the monsters that
appear in the game by using certain mediums, taking a certain action, and getting certain results.
According to Shah (2021), the gaming cultures can be called experimental platforms
where the collective anxieties are being processed, whereas the players are given a chance to try
different survival strategies, moral choices and different characters under various extreme
conditions. Holtorf (2016) adds that the mass media today makes branded cultural experiences
turning the interactive commodity nature. Thus, Cohen’s thesis is fully supported with examples
of video games which not only keep the players witnessing the horrifying creatures but also let
them go face the monsters and get engaged. The interactive and immersive nature of gaming is
one which keeps the existence of monstrosity as a living cultural phenomenon.
The facets of the monstrous in the legal and political arenas are reflected in the same way
in contemporary popular culture, where laws and media are two sides of the same coin, and they
together define public understanding of fear. According to Chase (2017), law and popular culture
are two sides of the same coin and mutually influence each other, while monsters in literature are
often used as symbols of social problems, in this way, legal regulations become a solution. In
FINALTAKE-HOME ARTICLE ANALYSIS ESSAY 23
this mediation, the portrayal of monstrosity is one of the ways to proclaim certain policies or
discourses as legitimate and, thus, keep existing ideologies, redefining who should be feared and
who needs protection. Besides, it also shows how the image of the legal institutions is changed in
the same way as the picture of the monstrous beings, i.e., these institutions can be the source of
corruption, oppression, or abuse of power. Storey (2021) refers to this point by saying that the
ideological contents of the popular culture have a significant influence on the public attitudes
toward the authorities. These ideas are prevalent in mainstream entertainment and consequently
profoundly affecting the viewers' understanding of the governances' legitimacy and the justice
system. Shah (2021) links this interaction to the most immediate social problems, wherein
monstrous imagery is utilized as an accessible route to crime, deviance, and social disorder. Pop
crime dramas and the dystopian films rely heavily on the device of monstrous villains to rouse
fears of lawlessness and surveillance in the audience. The cases of monstrosity become a kind of
cultural shorthand for the worries that surround power, justice, and authority.
Monsters in popular culture are one of the elements that help to determine identity and
the sense of belonging. Manning and Adams (2015) pinpoint how characters in popular culture
are used by individuals as a mirror to their own lives when they practice autoethnography. This
process allows audiences to realize the aspects of their day-to-day lives that are represented in
the creatures of fiction thus enabling them to reflect upon themselves through plots that bring out
the issues of exclusion and difference. In this way, popular culture becomes a space of symbols
where the experiences of the marginalized can be portrayed without directly showing them, thus,
delivering the perspectives which are usually silent due to the dominant discourse. Storey (2021)
argues that the cultural repertoire often challenges the identity of the audience, thus, demanding
that they confront the paradoxes of race, gender, and class. The contradictions are not only
FINALTAKE-HOME ARTICLE ANALYSIS ESSAY 24
theoretical but inseparably linked to the realities of life in which the monster becomes a symbol
for fears of cultural hybridity, changing gender norms or disputed class hierarchies. Shah (2021)
concurs with the point that monsters are often representatives of the marginalized or excluded
groups and at the same time, they personify the culture’s fear of difference. The depiction of
hybrid, liminal, or “othered” monsters in films and TV shows mirrors the fluidity of identity
categories, which is in line with Cohen’s argument that monstrosity gavens is at the edges. Nor,
therefore, can viewers by association ofaly these characters, they are reconfirming their own
doubts about those within and those outside of the society whom they consider as belonging to
contemporary times further thus questioning whom they belong to and whom are excluded.
The link between consumerism and branding is one of the new aspects of contemporary
monstrosity that is directly related to consumerism and branding. Holtorf (2016) states that
brands are becoming an increasingly important aspect of cultural products and that monsters are
being transformed into branded characters that help consumers to identify themselves. We can
see this in the pattern of how creatures such as Godzilla or Dracula become more and more
detached from their initial stories to be global characters, logos that can be used, and, ultimately,
franchises that generate money. In addition to films, their figures are also spread through toys,
clothing, and collectibles, which are monsters that have been easily integrated into the consumer
culture.
Essentially, the fashionable or pop culture which is The storey (2021) states, is deeply
woven into the capitalist system and has a significant role in shaping the desires of people by the
consumption of fears. In this light, consuming monsters is no longer a simple act but a ritual
where the audiences show their sense of belonging and cultural literacy by buying branded
products and experiences. Shah (2021) notes that artistic productions like horror and monstrous
FINALTAKE-HOME ARTICLE ANALYSIS ESSAY 25
imagery are very much a part of advertising, merchandise, and theme parks, thus fear, the main
theme, has been found to be marketable. Such marketing does not necessarily obliterate the
power of monster culture; on the contrary, it proliferates the monster’s everywhere, thus
habituating humans with the monstrous. Besides that, they are no longer just one kind of fictional
creatures but are also economic forces that affect different industries and create new ways for
people to participate in the consumer culture.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the two articles portray most of the theses explain by Cohen discusses.
However, the strongly supported ones were the first thesis that explains about the body of the
monster and how it is not just a body but an illustration of the fears and the anxieties of the
people in the society. In the first article “Blunders of Virtue: The problem of Race in Stephen
Crane’s The monster.” The self-effacement of Henry and Jimmie and the facelessness of Henry
explains portrays some of the monster’s appearance. However, it stands for the deep fears and
anxieties of what people go through in the society. The article also explains more about the sixth
Cohen’s thesis which explains that the fear of the monster shows the human desires of the
forbidden things that face humanity but despite the fear, they tend to face it. The issue of race is
one of them that through Henry, the plight of African American people in facing the monster,
racism, is highlighted. When it comes to the second article “The Call of Cthulhu,” the sculptures
encountered by the John Raymond and Thurston have a scary structural description that
according to Cohen’s first thesis explains the anxieties and fears that Thurston, Raymond and the
people in the area had about their lives. The article also supports Cohen’s six theses because it
explains how Raymond, Thurston and the search party feared the monster which is the fears and
desires they have about life but they gather the courage to face it despite its consequences.
FINALTAKE-HOME ARTICLE ANALYSIS ESSAY 26
Therefore, the two articles allowed for the deeper understanding of Cohens’ first and the sixth
theses.
FINALTAKE-HOME ARTICLE ANALYSIS ESSAY 27
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