My Monster and the 7 Theses

Cohen's article brings about 7 ideas or characteristics that monsters share when being considered "monstrous". Although many of them could connect to my monsters (figures of my imagination from a reoccurring dream) the fifth of his seven theses connects most directly. In this thesis, he claims that monsters are a sort of "border patrol". They can be used to keep us from exploring lands, areas and ideas unknown to us. In many cases, their terror is enough to keep us from wandering too far off the beaten path, both in a physical, land-based way and in light of our ideas, morals and actions. In my dream, I would pass a physical line dividing my family's "homeland" and a foreign, monstrous territory. As soon as I would pass this line and cross over into the unknown, the monsters would appear and enforce their terror upon me. Although I knew the consequence of stepping past this border, I would do it anyways in order to fulfill the task of fetching the newspaper for my father. This makes me wonder if I thought the task was really worth the trouble, or perhaps there was a sense of curiosity in me that propelled me to cross the line. (Thesis six, The Fear of the Monster is Really a Kind of Desire??) It is clear in my dream that I was not wanted to stray from my original home, and by invariably coming to punish me every time I did stray, the monsters were essentially keeping me in my place. In Cohen's words, they were striving to inform me that I was "better off in my domestic sphere than abroad, " and that they were giving a "warning against exploration of uncertain demesnes". (Cohen 12). In this way, I would agree with Cohen and use my dreamt-up monster as an example of the thesis "The Monster Polices the Borders of the Possible".