My Life As A Muslim In The West Grey Zone Summary

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Intolerance, reluctant to welcome beliefs, views, or behavior that contrast from one's own. It has not been dissolved and may never be resolved. In the last several decades, we have seen our world look down on those who are different. It could be as little as they dress differently to a different ethnicity. We make assumptions that those who alter our views are the evildoers, and those are monsters. Monsters don't stay the same; they change as times do. When a new fear is created, the monster than shifts.
In Jeffrey Jerome Cohen’s essay, “The Monster Theses,” he analyzes the characteristics of a "monster" and explores the course in which they are created. He interprets monsters creation in six different ways; claiming initially that they are symbols and representations of culture. "The monster in an incorporation of the outside." (Cohen, 460). Cohen defines the monster as an outsider to the cultural world in which they are. "The monster is a difference made flesh" (Cohen, 459), Cohen describes how the difference are what makes us human or "flesh."

In Laila Lalami’s, "My life as a Muslim in the West 'Grey Zone'," the reader is presented with a Muslim who is considered a monster according to Cohen. She lives in a 'Grey Zone,' that separates her from her society. Laila describes …show more content…

Cohen closes his first thesis with this sentence, explaining the monster's ability to be full of energy because of the different secrets that surround the world; when the secrets are revealed, the fear comes to life. Monsters have the ability to change as time goes on, though they are never actually gone from our society. Instead of the monster being erased is merely shifted, "monster are our children"(Cohen, 466), claiming that they are a part of us. Reassuring us that we fear this because it is a part of our

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