Much of Frankenstein tells a story of brooding angst in the years of adolescence. A loneliness is present within his own family. “I closed not my eyes that night. My internal being was in a state of insurrection and turmoil; I felt that order would thence arise, but i had no power to produce it,”(Shelley digital Chapter 4 p. 482). Victor is shown to have recurring unhappy thoughts that he himself cannot explain. While Victor creates an actual physical monster, he himself represents one that society would label as “monstrous” as he is pigeon holed in a social construct that prevents growth. Victor would appear to lead a perfect life, as his parents are both relatively happy and healthy as he is himself. However, Victor ‘ s hatred for his parents is deep rooted and complimented by his parent’s sharing a love that he feels omits him. This is a concept in which many teenagers feel, they feel as though they are an object of love as opposed to being an actual participant.
The suicide of Leelah Alcorn is one that is relevant to the arc of Victor’s story. Leelah was a Transgender teen (born Joshua Alcorn) living with Christian parents who were extremely critical of her lifestyle choices. She took her own life by stepping in front of a tractor trailer truck. In a way, Leelah’s uncontrollable feeling of being a “woman trapped in man’s body” was a discovery that made her quite happy. However, her parents wrote her off as going through a phase. This is quite similar to Victor’s ark, as Leelah is excluded from her parent’s love and understanding. As Lellah describes, her parents made no attempt to form an actual understanding of why or how she felt this way.
As such, her mother had only sent her to Christian therapists who would tell her she was wrong while ignoring her emotions. Because of her decision she was punished, in turn illustrating a severe lack of understanding also present in Victor’s arc. Leelah stated that her reason for the suicide was that she felt a loneliness within her own family, a loneliness that allowed Victor to create the monster that eventually ended his life.
Source:
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/progressivesecularhumanist/2014/12/transgender-teen-commits-suicide-cites-christian-parents-in-blog/
What I like is that you are specifically interested in the monstrous effects of parents being dismissive of their children’s passionate inquiries. I find the comparison between Victor Frankenstein and Leelah Alcorn very interesting, and I wish you had of said more about gender or even about their contrasting choices for dealing with their alienation (i.e. Victor chooses to create life and Leelah chooses to end a life). I’m also interested in your choice to compare Victor and Leelah rather than the Monster (who cannot abide life in his body) and Leelah. My concern though is that you tend to make some big (not so substantiated) claims and generalization as you go along. You say that Victor hated his parents. Where do you get that he hated his parents? You need to have some textual evidence to support that claim. Similarly you kind of immediately interpret for us that sending Leelah to a Christian therapist was a sign of the parents not caring and punishing Leelah. Perhaps it was; I don’t know, but there’s nothing inherently in it that allows us to interpret that they didn’t care or that they wanted to punish Leelah. Nothing of what I’m saying invalidates the disconnect between these two children and their parents or their sense of alienation, but what I’m saying does suggest that you need to be more careful about your claims.