Jeffrey Jerome Cohen's Monster Culture

Jeffrey Jerome Cohen is the author of “Monster Culture” who connects society and the monsters that humans make. Cohen explains how the Monster always falls under one or more of the categories, decided by the Monster’s characteristics. These characteristics include the monster who is a cultural body, the monster who always escapes, the monster who always brings crises, the monster who is an outsider, the monsters whose story prevents us from breaking rules, the monsters who represent fear and desire, and the monsters who bring out flaws in society. More specifically thesis five is for the monsters who make sure humans don’t venture out too far. Thesis five monsters make sure humans are afraid to break rules and defy authority. This paper serves as an analysis of a narrative from Wendy Pearlman’s “We Crossed a Bridge and it Trembled: Voices from Syria” using Cohen’s fifth thesis. This literary work is a narrative by a Syrian doctor named Kareem who Pearlman interviewed in Jordon where the Syrian government has attacked medical facilities, health care providers, and patients during a brutal war. Moreover, Dr. Kareem’s testimonial brings up a conversation about “othering” in the way the Syrian government is treating civilians. In this particular situation, the rebels who refuse to conform to the governments harsh rules are the monstrosity, they are the ones being “othered” by the Syrian government. The government was blackmailing and manipulating its citizens into conformity which led to an outrage in 2011 when “the barrier of fear broke”, people started to stand up for what they believe in and say “no”. This continued and the government set out to shut down these “demonstrations” and kill or arrest everyone involved. And so, when the mass amount of injured or dead were transported to hospitals, security agents would come and arrest everyone who was involved. From the Syrian government’s perspective, the health care providers caring for these rebels are just as guilty as the rebels themselves, therefore they deserve the same punishment. Consequently, this led to attacks on hospitals, where there were snipers outside hospitals, firing at anyone in the area. This made it extremely hard for rebels or their families to seek medical care, it made them scared. These rebels represent a fear of breaking the rules, because if they break these rules they could get hurt or even killed. These rebels or so-called “monsters” represent a fear to break the rules and an encouragement to conform, or else there could be dangerous consequences. The circumstances that the community is now under serves as a warning …show more content…
Kareem. This narrative has proved how the victims in many situations are often portrayed as criminals, when in reality there is a much bigger problem going on. Using the seven theses or specifically thesis five is supposed to teach us to not be rule breakers but using it to analyze Dr. Kareem’s narrative shows how we shouldn’t initially conform to rules that are not morally right. Coinciding, this also connects to the topic of immigration, and it helps the reader understand why so many people flee their countries. These refugees and mostly innocent civilians see America as an escape from their dangerous situations, so they come to America to escape a corrupt government whether it is because they have no access to freedom, or doctors, or education, or even just