Frankenstein Carnivorism Analysis
The recognition of the similarities between the species contradicts the cultural assumption that flesh consumption is native to the human diet.
Shelley establishes the monster as a human-animal hybrid to deconstruct the binaries that consumers rely on to remove the absent referent and justify the consumption of meat. Frankenstein creates the physique of his monster using body parts from “the damps of the grave,” as well as “the dissecting room and the slaughterhouse” (Shelley 34). The creator constructs the monster from both human and animal carcasses, resulting in an animated representation of the similarities between Homo sapiens and herbivores. In the article “An Already Alienated Animality: Frankenstein as a Gothic Narrative of Carnivorism” Jackson Petsche supports …show more content…
In the Book of Genesis, God establishes the native inhabitants of the Garden of Eden as herbivores by stating “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food” (Genesis 1:30). Although God grants the Homo sapiens sovereignty of the animal sphere, he initially nourishes the human body with a fruitarian diet. Similarly, when the monster requests for Victor to create another member of his species, he describes the genesis of the homo sapiens’ inceptive nature by stating “I do not destroy the lamb and the kid to glut my appetite; acorns and berries afford me sufficient nourishment... the picture I present to you is peaceful and human” (Shelley 103). The correlation between the Garden of Eden’s plant-based ailment and the monster’s vegetarian diet conveys the proposition that the original inhabitants of human society rely on crops for sustenance. The monster and Eve’s herbivore diets prove vegetarianism to be the natural, primordial diet of humanity in a theological
Shelley establishes the monster as a human-animal hybrid to deconstruct the binaries that consumers rely on to remove the absent referent and justify the consumption of meat. Frankenstein creates the physique of his monster using body parts from “the damps of the grave,” as well as “the dissecting room and the slaughterhouse” (Shelley 34). The creator constructs the monster from both human and animal carcasses, resulting in an animated representation of the similarities between Homo sapiens and herbivores. In the article “An Already Alienated Animality: Frankenstein as a Gothic Narrative of Carnivorism” Jackson Petsche supports …show more content…
In the Book of Genesis, God establishes the native inhabitants of the Garden of Eden as herbivores by stating “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food” (Genesis 1:30). Although God grants the Homo sapiens sovereignty of the animal sphere, he initially nourishes the human body with a fruitarian diet. Similarly, when the monster requests for Victor to create another member of his species, he describes the genesis of the homo sapiens’ inceptive nature by stating “I do not destroy the lamb and the kid to glut my appetite; acorns and berries afford me sufficient nourishment... the picture I present to you is peaceful and human” (Shelley 103). The correlation between the Garden of Eden’s plant-based ailment and the monster’s vegetarian diet conveys the proposition that the original inhabitants of human society rely on crops for sustenance. The monster and Eve’s herbivore diets prove vegetarianism to be the natural, primordial diet of humanity in a theological