ENGL 215

Monsters of World Lit

During the fall semester of 2019, I satisfied my historical and contemporary insights pillar with my Monsters of World Lit class. While this class was more difficult the majority of my other classes, I can say with full confidence that I learned the most from this course more than any other class in the fall semester. I studied old stories about famous monster battles, and analyzed the significance of certain interactions, and the underlying message within them. The most common message from the stories we read was that the true monster was never the monster itself, but more often another character within the story. They are more of a monster because of their monstrous actions, despite their more appealing physical appearance.

With this foundation of a message, my class was assigned a short paper that could be centered around any story we had covered. I chose to write mine about The Odyssey, and Odysseus’s encounter with the Cyclops. The message was that the true monster of the story was Odysseus himself, due to his actions within the story, and the choices he made. Dr. Tracy’s class allowed me to gain many insights on the “true monster” within a situation, and apply it to real life situations.

Artifact: The Masking of the Truth

Author: Nicole Ardovino

Date: 9/17/19