World Literature

Chapter 15 quote:

“What did this mean? Who was I? What was I? Whence did I come? What was my destination?”

During this time, the monster had found himself a suitcase with various items one being books. Throughout the chapter the monster tried to figure out who he was by studying the characters and connecting it back to himself in the books he had found. After reading the books, the monster describes his sympathetic feelings towards what he had read. The monster says that he found himself “similar yet at the same time strangely unlike to the beings” he had read about. Just the fact that the monster is able to feel, whether it be things he has experienced himself or not, gives this so called “monster” more human features. The feelings that arouse through his reading made him question his own existence by doing so he demonstrates that he does acquire basic human needs; the need to understand. As mentioned in class, this book was written during the time of the Scientific Revolution and one of the things that came from this revolution was the scientific method. The scientific method is used to be able to answer any questions that arise, that being the case, the monster is able to apply the first step to this scientific method by asking questions like the one quoted above. Only human beings are able to decipher feelings and be curious about the world around them, which is something the monster displays when expressing his feelings towards the reading and his questioning his actuality and his reality.