12th April 2018

End of the book

Victor was self destructive, but he blamed it all on the monster?
When someone tries to become a god or thinks that they can control nature, it punishes them and then destroys them?
Death was the only way either of them would ever feel peace again.
The monster almost wanted Victor to find him, with all of the clues he left… yet he never allowed Victor to get too close, he taunted him for months.
It got to a point where the pair simply hated themselves but continued to take out their fury on the other.
The ship that Walton was on stayed trapped in the ice.. perhaps this was a sign that they should stop, that the sufferage of monster and creator should end.

As soon as the crew decides to head home, Victor dies: I think this is because he knew that without the ship he could no longer pursue the monster to get his revenge, therefore he had no reason to live and simply let death take him. – this shows how consumed he had become by what he had done

When Walton sees the monster the first thing he notes is how ugly he is. Yet again we are made to focus on how the monster looks.
Without Victor the monster has no purpose in life? this is interesting. Up until this point all we got to see was the hatred that they shared. Although there were moments throughout the book where each showed a weakness for the other, the monster had longed for Victor’s approval and acceptance, but it was never given.

The monster actually cries over the body of his creator, he has lost his only ‘relative’ / someone who shared the knowledge of his existence or his origins. (until Walton) Someone who shared the misery of his creation – it destroyed both of them-
Maybe Victor didn’t begin the creation of a companion monster just because of the threats, perhaps it was out of instinct to make the monster happy (parental instinct)

The monster is ‘lost in darkness and distance’ we never actually saw the monster die, which begs the question, is he still alive? (if you don’t actually ‘see’ a character die or or see their body, they probably didn’t)
Darkness and distance sound like the words the monster used when he first woke up? about how there was darkness, he was trapped in the dark?
The monster is going to go to the mountains and die, he shares the same comfort of nature with Victor.

Victor and the monster were actually very alike?
The monster is really an exaggeration of Victor’s being?
Victor wanted to be a god, but he essentially created a god?? (Super strength, agility etc, the power to see humans for what they really are?)

Elizabeth was the embodyment  of victor’s innocence, his family the only thing anchoring him to his humanity, as more of them were killed, his innocence was taken away and his humanity degraded.

After Elizabeth was killed, so was Victor’s father, his other brother becomes his only living relative (who we were never really introduced to)
The first to die was his mother and the last was his father. – How is this significant???

The death of his mother triggered the need to find the cure of death? Which in turn led to the death of everyone else.

  • Random idea (got this idea from a movie, not sure it it has any actual standing) – “Self destruction” people self destruct, (not literally) but at some point in their lives, a something within their subconscious makes them do something that essentially will destroy them, this could be a simple mistake or a wrong choice that they make. This could link to metal illness, (ignoring genetics which can influence how vulnerable you are too disease/illness).
    If someone makes one bad life choice, this could lead to a life of increased hardship which could possibly cause depression or suicidal thoughts. In that moment where they made a mistake they essentially self destructed. Humans are genetically predisposed to destroy themselves, this links to Darwin’s theory of evolution (where only the strong/desirable live to carry on the species)
    The more intelligent someone is, does this make them more likely to destroy themselves or cause the human race harm? therefore is intelligence actually a good thing?

As humans we seek commonality, acceptance, companionship. In this book I believe that this trait is shown to be a flaw

Join the conversation! 2 Comments

  1. Bella, some perceptive and mature thoughts here. The questions you ask are questions I ask myself every time I read this book. I believe that neither character is blameless nor are they fully to blame for the way things turned out. I think when we come back to this next term there will be some very interesting conversations come out of our classroom.

    Nice thinking.

    Reply
  2. I think Victor was disappointed in himself and at times blamed the monster, occasionally realising that the murders were his fault. I doubt the monster lived as his character arc has come full circle. Is this idea of self destruction from the movie “Annihilation” ? This idea is very interesting and I believe humans do have a tendency to self destruct their own life.

    Reply

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