Growing up with glasses was never an easy venture. Constant taunts and nicknames throughout my elementary years kept me bitter for most of my childhood. I always perceived my eyesight to be a horrible deformity that separated me from my peers through an invisible boundary. Though my classmates never ran screaming from me when they laid eyes on me, my low self esteem was fed by my self imposed judgments.
Reading about Frankenstein's creature has kept me reminiscing on my early years as a four-eyed outcast. My worries were childish, and of no comparison to the horrors that Frankenstein's creature experienced, yet I find that I can relate to his experiences very much.
Have you ever wondered why we as humans tend to cast out those who are not like us? People born without limbs many times suffer through the same experiences that Frankenstein's creature suffered through--of being gawked at and whispered about. Though in today's society, people with deformities are not treated in a hateful way, but rather a cautious one, I still wonder whether by instinct we would react this way. For example, when I was in kindergarten, there was a small boy whose arms stopped at his elbows; beyond that, there was nothing. I remember sitting two seats behind him and watching him with amazement as he struggled to pick up his pencil with his elbows. As I conversed with my mother about the small boy in my class with no arms, she scolded me fervently and told me to never stare at him, and to treat him the same as everyone else. If it had not been for my mother, my childhood ignorance would have led me to continue to stare at him too long everyday in class which could have very well made him feel very uncomfortable. Need we, as humans, a constant reminder of how we should treat others who have physical differences from the rest of us? I would hope not.
The hatred with which the human characters in Frankenstein treated Frankenstein's ceature with, helped me to reflect on my own character. True, Frankenstein's creature was a little more than just a human with a slight deformity, but despite the fact that he was horrible in appearance, the family (De Lacey, Felix, Safie, Agatha) could have been a little kinder to him. I wonder whether I would have had the same reaction as that family. Would I have been as emotionally weak as Agatha, and have fainted at the sight of such a horrible creature? Or would I have ran away screaming like Safie? OR, could I have been able to find the courage to approach the creature the way Felix did, and have tried to harm him? Truth be told, if i'd been in that position, I could have very well embodied all three of those characters. However, I would like to think that if I had been in that position, I could have tolerated the creature's appearance for a moment, long enough to discover whether he was there to harm my family and I or not, and give him a chance to speak for himself rather than judge him by his appearance.
4 comments:
Your post totally brings back memories for me when I was in Elementary school. Because I had a really bad speech impediment, I was put into Special Ed. classes for all four years. I was always surprised that my friends didn't want to associate with the kids with disabilities because of the way they looked. I love the way you connected Frankenstien to this. It's really made me reflect on how people treat others just based on their looks.
I'm curious though if it is not those with the deformities that have the true problem. Sure they may have the self esteem problems, and issues fitting into society, but they can eventually learn to deal with their problems. I feel as though it is those without the deformities that really have the problem. Those who pick on people with glasses, or speech impediments can not seem to get over their own "normalness". They as average people, that make fun of those with differences are really those who should be picked on. They are the ones who are different. Because they are the rare few who don't have to wear glasses, or take special classes means they are the ones who should stand out. Each person is made special, and that should be celebrated rather than punished.
Speaking from experience of being the smallest one in all of my grades.
--Ashley Plover
If you think about it those who pick on others for being different are the ones with the problem, some of them pick on others out of jealousy because they have a quality they want. Sometimes because they have problems at home, but most of the time those that pick on others are the ones with the problem.
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