Mary Shelley's Frankenstein
After reading Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, I was able to apply many things
that we learned in class to this story. The most obvious of which would definitely be the concept of
reification, or othering. We see this most plainly in the way that the people in the novel react to
Frankenstein, solely based on his looks. Because he is different, the peasents, and not even his
own creator, want anything to do with him. This concept takes place around us every single day, whether it is on the grounds of skin color, religion, looks, or beliefs. Reading this book for the first time in this class, I was stunned at how different it was than all the other Frankenstein movies I have seen, and because this story was new to me, it offered me a fresh perspective of the monster and his creator. The novel has spawned countless movies, books, and variations of the original tale. These books range from nearly exact replications of the novel, for example, the movie Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, to the seemingly completely different, like Jurassic Park. I think that this is a completely necessary book to read if you are interested in the concept of reification, or if you simply like a good monster tale.
