“”I need you,” I told him. “I need you much more than you could ever need me. I need to know what to do with my life. I want to run away, but go where and do what? I’m needed here and I know it, but I fell that all i’m doing here is choking myself. I need someone to tell me what to do. I need you to tell me, to show me. I’m not here, I can just give something small. That’s all I have to offer. It is the only way that we can chip away at that much. You— you can be bigger than anyone you have ever met.” (193)

This passage is one of the most important points of the book. Up until now Grant has been trying to teach Jefferson how to “be a man” so he can walk to his death with his head held high. However, he has not been able to get through to Jefferson. Jefferson still acts like he is the hog that the white folk called him. In this passage we see a shifting of roles and responsibility. This is the point where Jefferson finally starts to understand the implication of what becoming a man in these circumstances would be. Grant needs him, his godmother needs him, and his community needs him. His defiance in the face of the white folk could break the endless cycle of abusive their people have faced for generations. Grant understands this, and he also see’s that despite all his efforts to become educated and respectable he is only making small strides for his people. Mr. Pichot, the men at the prison, and a few other white folk in the novel call Grant professor, but it is evident in the language that they don’t actually convey any respect for him. He is aware of this and it’s what makes Jefferson’s transformation all the more necessary. If he can face his death like a man, and defy the white folks exceptions it will be a much more tangible blow than what Grant has been able to accomplish. This is the passage that Grant conveys his feelings about this too Jefferson. We are left uncertain as to whether or not Jefferson has understood what Grant means “I cry, not from reaching any conclusion by reasoning, but because lowly as I am, I am still part of the whole. Is that what he was thinking as he looked at me crying?”. (Side note, we of course do find out by the end of the novel Jefferson understood and committed himself to that self sacrificing role, I say self sacrificing because although he was going to die either way he had a chose in what manner he went out, it would of been easy to die as a hog, it was hard to die like a man and defy the white man’s expectations.)

See below for passage in question.

The first thing to establish is who is talking, and to whom is he talking to. In our case the Monster is telling Victor Frankenstein, his creator, what happened to him after he was created. The perspective here is extremely important, it sets the tone for the text, the monster is reflecting, and repeating his past experiences. I think that this journey into his memory could be a false image. I mean this in the sense that instead of someone else telling his story and perhaps revealing details to us that the Monster is ignorant of, he is telling us what he truly believes happened. He speaks of it fondly, and thus must remember it fondly, even if that was not the case. This perspective is not objective, and the idea that it might not of happened the way he tells his story is an important thing to consider. In addition, this passage describes the beginning of him exploring his new senses. The initial feelings, thoughts, and ideas that come with new sensations can not be taken at face value, for they are but the first layer.  For instance he describes something that he has no knowledge of “the orb of night had greatly lessened” this orb is the moon, but he doesn’t know that, how can he.

Shelley uses personification to create a human like image of the Monster, he breathes, he talks, reflects, thinks, and experiences life as though he was human, yet he is not. He is provided with several human necessities, water, and shelter. He has the ability of emotion “I was delighted when I first discovered that a pleasant sound, which often saluted my ears” but he cannot emulate these emotions for himself, he tries to learn from the birds but his horrified at his own attempts, there is also a sense of irony here. He hears these euphonious sounds and wishes to recreate them, yet his own attempts “frightened” him. The irony here, as does the personification, serve as ways to humanize the Monster, and create a sense of amiability between him and the reader. We don’t perceive him as the gruesome mismatched body that he resides in, but more like a child taking it’s first steps, or a more accurately, a child attempting to speak his first words. We feel sorry for this monster that cannot even create a sound that he enjoys, instead he may only sit in silence and listen. Though, as we previously noted, this is from the Monsters own perspective, and perhaps the birds that fluttered around him were cawing instead of singing. Reading just this passage would lead the reader to believe in an innocent monster, one simply marveled by the world around him. We know that this is not the case, he like the rest of us leaves this child like stage and is forced to encounter adulthood, and all the woes attached.

“Several changes of day and night passed, and the orb of night had greatly lessened, when I began to distinguish my sensations from each other. I gradually saw plainly the clear stream that supplied me with drink and the trees that shaded me with their foliage. I was delighted when I first discovered that a pleasant sound, which often saluted my ears, proceeded from the throats of the little winged animals who had often intercepted the light from my eyes. I began also to observe, with greater accuracy, the forms that surrounded me and to perceive the boundaries of the radiant roof of light which canopied me. Sometimes I tried to imitate the pleasant songs of the birds but was unable. Sometimes I wished to express my sensations in my own mode, but the uncouth and inarticulate sounds which broke from me frightened me into silence again.