Empiricism litters the landscape of “The Monster” by Toby Litt with every step this monster takes towards discovering the truth of reality. Reality for this being is solely created by mere sensory experience and by random acts of recalling the past. This perception of reality the character unforgettably carries around is ridiculed throughout the story with humorous repetition. Furthermore, humor stands out in “The Monster” by Toby Litt by repetitively mocking Empiricism through the life of a narcissistic monster----an ironic life, since it pursues self-awareness with a memory leak.
Majority of this short story consists of actions the creature commits that leads to his existential perception. Unfortunately, this monster consistently ignores …show more content…
Incongruous Juxtaposition is unknowingly used by the monster when it tries to discover morality with its perception of reality “In hope, sometimes, the monster thought of its belly as a big round fruit. But just as often, in despair, the belly’s roundness was that of a merd.”(251). Here, the belly is referred to both as a fruit and a merd in two different sentences; however these two words are contradictory----merd is accepted as bad, whereas fruit good. Further, the belly of the monster is a metaphor for his arrogance “The monster could not see its own feet because its belly, which was huge, got in the way.”(249). In conjunction with the use of incongruous juxtaposition and this metaphor; the monster considers his arrogance good, or bad solely on his current emotion. Towards the end of this novel it mentions “the long journey into the away-from-this-tree self. No. One day, one day of that sort, would never come.”(250). This refers back to the tree situation where the monster could not remember one tree after the other. However, it also is used to compare to the whole of its life, inferring it won’t change under its current reality.
In the end “The Monster” by Tobby Litt is undoubtedly a satire of empiricism in reflection to the immense amount of prominent irony and hyperbole, as well as various silly metaphors. If not for the well-intended
Majority of this short story consists of actions the creature commits that leads to his existential perception. Unfortunately, this monster consistently ignores …show more content…
Incongruous Juxtaposition is unknowingly used by the monster when it tries to discover morality with its perception of reality “In hope, sometimes, the monster thought of its belly as a big round fruit. But just as often, in despair, the belly’s roundness was that of a merd.”(251). Here, the belly is referred to both as a fruit and a merd in two different sentences; however these two words are contradictory----merd is accepted as bad, whereas fruit good. Further, the belly of the monster is a metaphor for his arrogance “The monster could not see its own feet because its belly, which was huge, got in the way.”(249). In conjunction with the use of incongruous juxtaposition and this metaphor; the monster considers his arrogance good, or bad solely on his current emotion. Towards the end of this novel it mentions “the long journey into the away-from-this-tree self. No. One day, one day of that sort, would never come.”(250). This refers back to the tree situation where the monster could not remember one tree after the other. However, it also is used to compare to the whole of its life, inferring it won’t change under its current reality.
In the end “The Monster” by Tobby Litt is undoubtedly a satire of empiricism in reflection to the immense amount of prominent irony and hyperbole, as well as various silly metaphors. If not for the well-intended