Monsters are Viewed as Creatures Instead of Regular Humans because It's a Natural Instinct
(Heather, Jeremy, Melissa, and Arielle's final group post)We all think of the same thing when we hear the word "monster" whether it be something under your bed or Frankenstein's creation, it's always something hideous and scary.
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Now, why is that? Why don't we immediately think of an average looking human being as a monster? It's actually pure instinct. In the book, Frankenstein's monster was feared, even by it's own creator. It was hideous and ugly, hulking and intimidating and no one wanted it around. This actually comes from a theory called the Predator Recognition Template, or the "snake/raptor/cat" complex, created by anthropologist David E. Jones. About 60 million years ago, our ancestors, known as the Australopithecus roamed the Earth. They had to avoid numerous dangers like the predatory cat, giant snakes, and raptors!
(pictured above: Australopithecus, from: zburian.blogspot.com) Because the brains of the Australopithecus had to retain so much information about their predators, they clumped the physical features of the dangerous animals together, that's where the Dragon we all know of today is said to have come from.
(Pictured above: dragon, from: http://api.ning.com/files) The snake/raptor/cat complex is responsible for this, the dragon looks like a serpent, with the face of a feline, and the talons of a raptor. It is a monster, one that our ancestors became familiar with. The word "Monster" actually comes from the Latin words "Monstrare" (meaning "to show") and the word "Monere" (meaning "to warn"). Generally, we see monsters as dangerous things that can hurt us, because they look scary. Monsters are meant to be warnings, part of our natural instinct to fear any horrible looking thing and regard it as deadly. It is easier to see a dangerous being, rather than pick a dangerous person out of a crowd.
(Background information gathered from www.Salon.com as well as
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