The tension socially between those who either abide by the law or enforce the law, and those who commit crimes and are considered to disrupt society are present throughout the entire text. When Wendell Bolden is being questioned by the prosecutor, Petrocelli, Myers uses one of the statements Bolden makes to create a connection between illegal activity, lower-class neighborhoods and hidden motives corresponding with the lower class and cigarettes. “Bolden: I got some cigarettes from a guy who told me he was in on a drugstore robbery up on Malcolm X Boulevard. I knew a dude got killed, and I was thinking of trading what I knew for some slack.” p. 48 The first thing to correspond with the cigarettes in these two sentences is the illegal activity, the robbery. Bolden also states that he is aware of the more serious crime, the murder. The next thing to tie the lower class with the negative notions is the mention of the low income neighborhood, Malcolm X Boulevard, immediately after mentioning the robbery. What should also be noted is that Myers decided to go with Malcolm X Boulevard, a neighborhood named after one of the most historically powerful people in the African American community. The use of Malcolm X’s name in this moment forces rotten perception towards black people. Furthermore, Bolden admits that his reason for testifying that he had been sold the cigarettes is merely for his own benefit, potential “slack” on an assault charge.
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Frankenstein
A reoccurring theme for the first couple of chapters in Frankenstein seems to be death. While it does not seem obvious at first, it is hinted at as being the inevitable. Victor had a free and blissful childhood, much due to the allowance of his parents. However, Victor’s open mind leads him to question everything, specifically things in regards to nature and its cause. His happiest thoughts happen when he is young. As he gets older, at the end of every wonder regarding natural mystery, the recurring answer is demise. The deeper Victor is in his personal studies, he subtly lets the reader know that he is aware of his fate. Victor states, “I feel exquisite pleasure in dwelling on the recollections of childhood, before misfortune had tainted my mind and changed its bright visions of extensive usefulness into gloomy and narrow reflections upon self.”
The death of Victor’s mother reaffirmed what he already knew about destiny. This ultimately led Victor to slightly shift his direction of interest. He was still fascinated with nature, but more so it’s relation to mortality.
The unknown and the secret are scary. The outcome for the unknown is death, both literally and symbolically. To be dead is to lose your humanity. Victory loses his humanity the more he indulges in the science. The more he focuses on creating the monster, the more out of touch he becomes with society.
To further assert the idea that the unknown is scary. The monster goes to make friends in chapter fifteen, hoping that they will look past his physical features. Instead, he was attacked and ran off.
I believe one of the ideas the author is trying to convey is that, what is unknown will get deserted and left to their own fate. “Monsters” in our society are those that do not fit the norm. The norm is created by the popular; heterosexual, able-bodied, white male. If you do not fit in any of those groups, you are considered a monster. If you do not fit in ALL of those groups, you are DEFINITELY a monster.