Who Is the Real Monster in Frankenstein?
Mary Shelley’s Novel and Its Many Adaptations Challenge Us to Explore Bias and Belonging
In 2022, I found myself reaching back to my childhood’s favorite monster for literary inspiration.
That year’s midterm elections had brought with them another round of angry MAGA candidates promoting the Trumpian lie of a stolen 2020 election. Part and parcel of their rhetoric was—yet again—an attack on immigrants and anyone who just didn’t fit in with their image of “real” Americans.
Trump’s wrathful rallying conjured images of the torch-bearing mobs of black-and-white horror films. I thought about Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley’s 1818 tale—and the inherently political implications of being a “monster” in …
