Monstrosity In Timothy K. Beal's Our Monsters, Ourselves

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Monstrosity is the unknown. Monstrosity drives fears. Monstrosity is a word that people put their fears into. Monstrosity reveals that in human nature, people have a strange desire to fear. One way or another, everyone fears something, whether they know why or not. A monster is a frightening creature, most of the time fictional or of the supernatural, but not invariably. In the passage “Our Monsters, Ourselves” by Timothy K.Beal, in paragraph six, he defines the Latin verb Monstrare as meaning “show” or “reveal”. Monsters indisputably show people what they are afraid of as human beings. In the same text by Timothy K. Beal, in paragraph eight, it states “...monsters undoubtedly reveals our desire to find a scapegoat for our fears and anxieties” …show more content…

Humans fear monsters because society enjoys feeding the minds of the ones who do not know any better. Causing a spreading of societies opinion on what is suppose to be the guidelines for what is frightening and what is not. Society has spread the idea that whatever surpasses the line, created by them, of monstrosity needs to be cast out as monstrous or a monster. For example, the L’Ange du Foyer a surrealist painting by Max Ernst, the painting seems to be of a creature with few human like qualities. Angel of the Home, as it is known translated, has more horse like qualities, or monstrous if you will, something that is not normal to ones everyday life. To the naked eye, this painting looks frightening, demon-like, grotesque even. But when you look at the title, it implies that it should be an angel of some sort. This further conveys how things are not always how they seem to be because people do not take time to understand them. However, when an individual does not fully understand something they look for a more eminent power to understand it for them, then proceed to have the higher power tell them what to understand and believe, and that is how our society is based on propaganda. Minds are filled with the more popular opinion, and less of ones own beliefs because they no longer try to find a different solution. Another thing that surpasses the line of monstrosity would be what people look like, and “The Elephant Man” is a

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