Title: Monsters
Author: John Moralee
Date of First Publication: 2000
Place of Publication: Hideous Progeny
Type: Short story
Characters: Victor Frankenstein
Themes: BYRONIC HERO; MAD SCIENTIST/MONSTER; RACE/POLITICS; ANDROID; POSTHUMAN
Critical Summary: Monsters reimagines Mary Shelley’s character, Frankenstein, in an alternate take on history. During a war between Hitler and the Americas, the protagonist, Christian, begins an internship underneath the scientist, Frankenstein. He is introduced to hideous work, full of decaying bodies and torture of Jews and black people. Despite his repulsion to the lack of humanity of the work, he accepts the internship. He is fueled by the need to replace memories lost in battle in order to save his father from his blank state. After his internship completed, Christian is moved to a top secret facility where they are developing viruses meant to turn people into slaves. He is successful in creating the perfect virus but his morals make him keep it a secret, hiding the success from Frankenstein. When he hears Frankenstein is likely to support a nuclear plan during the war, he attempts to destroy the virus. He is caught by another scientist who he infects with the virus. He wakes up weeks later and hopes that his plans to stop Frankenstein and force peace among the world had worked.
The Byronic hero is seen through Christian’s character. While he participates in terrible experiments, his motivations are well intentioned in a need to help those who have lost something in the war. Ultimately it is his morals that cause him to step up and make a change by directly defying Frankenstein’s orders. He shows that his morals aren’t the same as Frankenstein in the way he objects to the use of Jews and blacks as guinea pigs. The mad scientist theme shines through with Victor Frankenstein’s fascination in human anatomy and its limits. He loses control of any humanity he has left and instead, focuses on what he can achieve.
The Posthuman theme can loosely be seen by Christian’s questioning of humanity throughout the short story. Much like Victor Frankestein, he questions whether what he has done is right. It is this questioning that ultimately leads him to make a change and sets him on a course of action that marks him as a hero. Lastly, Race/Politics is a theme that permeates the work. The novelette centers around a war where Jews and blacks are used like cattle, being reduced to nothing in order for the Germans to advance in the war. They are treated as animals, dispensable and without true value. They are spoken of as less than human.
Administrative Notes: Brenda Paramo, CSUF; Matthew Vu (editing)