A Journey to the Monster Inside

The other day I was asked the question: "What is your favorite book?" Well, I thought about it. I have many books I love, but what is my favorite book is a little bit harder to discern. Many people will immediately say the Bible, Koran, Torah, or other religious books. Others will say the book they are reading right now. There are so many oks books to choose from, but I have discovered that my favorite book is a definite classic...it is also a rather different kind of story. Mary Shelly wrote and published it anonymously in 1818. After all, women were not suppose to be writers nor educated at all. However, this tale is considered one of the best shocking and horrifying stories of all time. Many know its name and have seen various movies about it, but how many of actually read it is what I find astonishing, for in speaking to people, I have found not very many have. Okay, the name of the book, Frankenstein or The Modern Prometheus. Yep, this is my favorite book of all times. So why is a horror story about the legendary monster my favorite? Simple, it's about the building and suffering of a monster. You see, I have my own theory of the monster which I feel Mary Shelly was talking about. I believe that she wasn't talking about the literal building of a monster; I believe she was discussing the building of the monster we are each born with - the monster inside - of as Sigmund Freud spoke of the id. The id is defined as "the dark, inaccessible part of our personality, what little we know of it we have learned from our study of the Dreamwork and of the construction of neurotic symptoms, and most of that is of a negative character and can be described only as a contrast to the ego. We approach the id with analogies: we call it a chaos, a cauldron full of seething excitations.... It is filled with energy reaching it from the instincts, but it has no organization, produces no collective will, but only a striving to bring about the satisfaction of the instinctual needs subject to the observance of the pleasure principle." (Sigmund Freud, New Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis[1933]Penguin Freud Library 2 p. 105-6) Christians call this the original sin and other religious beliefs say approximately the same thing; that humanity is born evil....It is this internalyzing of the monster that I feel Shelly was writing about. When the book begins it is in the nature of a lotter written by Captain Walton who is setting out on a expedition to the Artic in order to gain fame. The ship he is commanding is iced in and as they try to break out of it, they save an emaciated man who claims to be chasing after a monster. A monster they have observed in the distance...The man is Victor Frankenstein and he then tells his story of the creation of the monster and the subsequence murders of his young brother, his newly married wife, and his best friend whom he says were done by the monster. Furthermore, the death of a yound servant maid is on his mind as well, for she is tried, convicted, and hanged for the death of his young brother - though Victor believes the monster did it - her conviction being obtained to the finding of a locket in her dress pocket which belonged to the young boy. This is the basis of the story. It is filled with claims by Victor that the monster has done all these murders...but couldn't the reality be that it was Victor who did them. The only person to see the monster is Victor, except for the men on the ship in the artic and a small family that the monster finds and lives under their cottage. Yet, even this can be shown as the men on the ship actually seeing Victor in the distance. Since he was emaciated, he could have been thought to be some sort of monster from afar. And the small family? Victor was sick for 4 months and suffering from delusions; could this not be a figment of his own imagination? For the monster is supposedly finding and educating himself under the family's cottage for approximately the same amount of time. In all reality, Victor was actually trying to control the monster he had become during this time; unfortunately, he needed help and refused to tell anyone the real reasons for his sickness. In the end, everyone Victor loves has been killed by the monster and in revenge, he takes on the quest of killing it. Captain Walton narrates the ending and he tells his sister and the reader that Victor died on board the ship. That night, the monster came to Walton and tried to enlist Walton into helping him, but Walton, unlike Victor, turns away and rejects him. So does this make the monster a real creation? No, to me, the monster speaking to Walton is his own monster from within him; for Walton was only concerned about going to the Artic and recieving fame. He did not care for the lives of the men who were serving him or the lives of their families and his sister's life. After hearing what Victor had been through and speaking to the monster as well, Walton becomes a changed man, giving up the fame he sought and turning the ship around saving both him and the men. You see Walton saw the truth about Victor and the monster and he realized that he was becoming a monster as well. This is why the book is my favorite. Mary Shelly realized that we all have monsters inside us; it is the way we control the monster which stops us from becoming a monster on the outside. Some of us are born with the inability to control the fiend. We are missing the electrical current to contain it from rearing its ugly head. The reality is that we are missing a chemical in our body which does this. This is a major cause of mental illnesses - a chemical which is missing in our body's system. The comic book hero, "The Incredible Hulk", was written as a means of understanding bipolar illness. The "Hulk" is the monster which breaks forth in a bipolar individual and creates the impression of two separate people. The same is true about "Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde"; it too looks at mental illness and how a person is altered by a chemical mixup. People who suffer from mental illness are not really monsters; they are the result of a loss of chemical which prevents them from stopping the demon we all fight with on the inside. Unfortunately, we see the results of that inability and declare them monsters. The reality is they need help, but until they either want the help or are brought in to get help nothing will change. Even more disturbing is the fact that a number of health insurance companies will not pay for the treatment of mental illness, even though people have thought it is a part of their health insurance. Alas, the sufferers of mental illness are still discriminated against due to society's stigma of mental illness. The truth is we as a society do not want to face the realitites of mental illness. This only occurs if we are actually affected ourselves or to someone we love. You see, I'm a sufferer of depression. I feel that monster try to unleash itself quite often. But I have medication that helps me control it. But I'm not the only one who suffers from mental illness. So does my daughter. She calls it her werewolf, which she fights to control. She was diagnosed with severe depression and social conduct disorder. It didn't just appear out of nowhere, she was born with it. She's missing that chemical that stops the werewolf from breaking out. Now, since being diagnosed, going through counseling and anger management, she too is on medication which helps control the werewolf. Once in awhile it breaks through, but we are able to contain it now through all these health services we are able to get. This is why "Frankenstein" is my favorite book. It shows the battle between the monster and Victor. Mary Shelly looks at how Victor loss the battle due to his not getting the help he needed. Furthermore, the book shows the real life struggles of the mentally ill and the need for affordable care and understanding. More importantly, "Frankenstein" is a part of all of us. The monster is the id, the original sin, the evil that is found deep within our souls. We look at it and hide ourselves from recognizing the reality of it from ourselves; but when something occurs which we consider as a society is hidieous and evil, we call the person who did it a monster. In one respect that person is a monster - for the switch to control did not work and the beast was released and that is what "Frankenstein" is. The monster which Victor released and lost complete control over. "Frakenstein" is a journey to the monster inside and we need to face our monsters in order to face ourselves by acknowledging who and what we are. For those of us that need help, we need to get it, so that we are not overcome by the monster inside. In order to do this we need help, encouragment, love, understanding, and most important the strength to break down the societal stigma which threatens us with prejudice, discrimination, and fear.