The Outsiders | A Hood Project

Phosphorescent’s music video entitled Songs For Zula encaptures the experiences of love and heartbreak. They describe this seesaw of a relationship as “cage like;” something that is impossible to escape. The scene holds a meagerly dressed woman hostage in a setting that looks like one out of the stone age. At the same time, you can tell that this scene is filmed from a modern perspective but relates back in time.  This relationship is intended to show that these feelings of love and despair relate back to as far as we can imagine in time. “See the cage, it called. I said, come on in. I will not open myself up this way again.” This quote reflects the scene in totality. The woman is bound by chains and is trying to break through in ways a barbarian would only know; to smash them with stones. She is stuck, as if she is caged with no escape.

The second part of this lyric, “I will not open myself up this way again.” Is reflected in the same scene but uses the same activity for a different meaning. The woman is trying to break her shackles, but at a point you realize that she is not determined to completely break free. Once she breaks free she will have to open herself up again, and that is something she is unsure of. Although she feels as if this relationship of love and heartbreak is impossible to escape, she still has to decide. Will I break free or will I remain in this cage? The choice she ultimately makes is to break free. Not escaping this feeling, but starting anew.

F1- Paper

In this first assignment I ask you to think about how the literary can help us think through the real. Ultimately the assignment requires that you identify in (or infer from) Frankenstein some theory about youth, adolescence, growth, development, monstrosity, or a related theme. I then ask you to use (apply) this theory to help us think through a contemporary depiction of the monstrous adolescence. This assignment has two parts:

In this first part you will use specific parts of the novel in order to pose a theory about adolescence and monstrosity.

In order to pose a theory, you need specific textual evidence to show us how you are deducing this theory from the novel.   If you do not show where in the text your ideas are coming from, you cannot receive full credit.   The best papers will be very specific in their claims and in their use of textual evidence. This means that a good paper won’t just say that the novel purports that ambition in the young becomes monstrous (with general references to when Frankenstein is ambitious).   A good paper will look specifically at how the scenes in which Frankenstein’s ambitiousness seems monstrous and take note of how the narrative always includes some description of how Frankenstein has become disconnected with nature. The good paper will walk its readers through this pattern (with specific examples), and then the good paper will posit what it is that makes connection to nature so important (in the narrative—not just to the author of the paper). You might notice that the most important part of nature is the changing of the seasons (maybe someone else might think it’s the presence of sublime beauty).   The good paper will then argue that ambitions that isolate the developing youth from nature and it’s important shifts in seasons puts the developing youth at becoming monstrous. And the best paper will do all of this, but it will also offer some specific definition of what it means to be “monstrous.”

The second part of this paper requires that you use this theory to think through a contemporary (within your parents’ life time) depiction of a monstrous youth. For instance you might find an article about the Littleton shootings, which describes the youths as mostly into computers and video games and disconnected with exercise, the outdoors, or what was going on around them. You might highlight the way the same article connects this isolation from nature to the youth’s desire to pain their faces white and their nails black and to look monstrous. Your Frankenstein theory can help us take note of the fact that even though there is no solid causal connection between playing video games and painting one’s face white, the author of this article makes such a connection relying on the unspoken assumption about relationship between nature and healthy development that we can see interrogated in Frankenstein.

Important: For this part of the assignment you must choose a specific text, depicting a juvenile monster. You are not describing the event or applying the theory to prove anything about the event. What you are doing is using the theory to think about the way we think about and the way we imagine monstrous growth. Your text may be a news article, photograph, song, poem, video, etc. The only thing to keep in mind is that in the same way you had to use specific examples to derive the theory from Frankenstein, you must also use specific examples in this text to show how we can see that theory at work in this contemporary text.

Formatting: This paper should be double spaced, 1-inch margins and 12 point Times New Roman font with page numbers and your whole name listed in the footer. While there is no set rule, I imagine that you might spend 2-3 pages on establishing the theory in Frankenstein and 2-1 pages applying that theory to your reading of another contemporary text.

F1-Paper Grading Rubrics:

Argument Articulation

Do you clearly state what the theory is that you are deducing from the novel? Are you clear about how this theory helps us think through the contemporary text?

Engaging Texts

Did you use specific examples to articulate the theory you see emerging in the novel? Do you explain how those examples put together get us to the theory you see in the text? Did you use specific examples to show us how the theory applies in the contemporary text? Do you explain how we should read the quotes in a way that shows the theory at work in this contemporary text? Do you use proper citations?

Language

Do you use clear, complete, and active sentences? Do you adhere to rules of capitalization and correct punctuation? Do you spell words correctly?

Structure

Are your introduction and conclusion focused and doing more than warming up and cooling down. Do you present your points clearly and in a strong, productive order?

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/

Reading Frankenstein, the constant theme of monstrosity shows up throughout the novel. However reading the scene where William is murdered and Justine is accused of murdering him, brought about the thought that knowledge itself can be a monstrous thing and is also dangerous. A chain of cause and effects, it was the forbidden knowledge of bringing inanimate objects back to life which created this monster Frankenstein – which led to the death of his beloved brother and the death of Justine. However in Justine’s case, it was the knowledge of the locket in her possession which caused her to be tried. This knowledge which led to assumptions led to the unfortunate fate of Justine. It is also this knowledge of Justine possessing the locket which brought fear into her own “friends” and caused them to turn into monsters themselves. “Several witnesses were called who had known her for many years, and they spoke well of her; but fear and hatred of the crime of which they supposed her guilty rendered them timorous and unwilling to come forward.”

Although not recent, this entire scene/incident reminded me of the Salem witch trials. How many innocent people were accused due to the fear that were instilled into them from the knowledge of “witchcraft.” How friends easily turned their backs on one another due to assumptions, he said/she saids, and how the accused just MIGHT be guilty. This led to many innocent people being hanged and the hysteria of witches/witchcraft brought out the monsters in everyone.

http://www.history.com/topics/salem-witch-trials

“Cursed be the day, abhorred devil, in which you first saw light! Cursed (although I curse myself) be the hands that formed you! You have made me wretched beyond expression. You have left me no power to consider whether I am just to you or not. Begone! Relieve me from the sight of your detested form.’”

This quote from Frankenstein takes place during the scene when Victor Frankenstein sees the monster he created after the murder of his brother. He is equal parts horrified at his creation and horrified at the fact that it was he himself who has created such a monster.

The excerpt I chose reminded me of a documentary I once watched on PBS about the counterculture movement of the 1960’s. It described how the  the young adults participating in the movement were participating “the age of selfishness, anti-authority”. To me, this reaction is remarkably similar to Frankenstein’s horror at what he created in his monster. Parents of adolescents who were politically active in the 1960’s were horrified at what their children were becoming–wild, unrecognizable, uncontrollable and weird, it was a real-life Frankenstein situation. In that sense, it was a very real disgust over one’s “creations”, and it changed history.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75p0EOzowpw