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Erica Smith

Professor Beadle

English 115

5 October 2017

Monsters in America

America is known as the the land of the free and the home of the brave, but is that true?

As a child who grew up in America, I was always taught to be weary of others because they were

dangerous and unpredictable. Americans have an ingrained belief that the people outside of our

usual social circle may intend to cause destruction to us one way or another. We view others as

monsters because we have preconceived notions about specific groups of people and can

sometimes expect the worst from them. Americans see communities that are different from their

own as a threat to their way of life and these assumptions stem from racism, classism, and what

the media chooses to portray to us. It is not necessarily people themselves that are the monsters,

but it is the assumptions about peoples character that lead to beliefs of monsters.

People from the outside have always been seen as a threat to American society. Although

our country is known for being accepting of others, the United States has been greatly

discriminatory to people that are different from the usual American, especially immigrants. In the

late 19th and early 20th centuries, many immigrants moved to America in search for a better life.

At one point, there were so many Irish that had moved to the big cities on the East coast that

many jobs banned them by stating No Irish Need Apply (Bulik). After World War One, there

was a mass amount of people that wanted to move to America to escape Europe, but the

Americans did not want them. They went to the extent of banning groups of people from
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applying to certain jobs as they passed the Emergency Quota Act of 1921, which was designed

to regulate the immigration of aliens (US Immigration Legislation). Many Americans despised

the immigrants because the immigrants were strangers that they believed to have stolen their jobs

because the immigrants would work for cheaper pay. Americans saw them as a threat to

supporting their families by taking their jobs, however immigrants were also trying to support

their own families as well.

Even now there is a fear of the American immigrants, particularly of the Muslim

community. Some Americans believe that the radical Muslims in the Middle East are

representative of all of their people, but that is not true. To these Americans, they think that

Today we must grapple with the reality of problems more than ever before. The unknown

evil (Genoways). These Americans that believe that all Muslims are just like the radical

islamists and should be removed from our country in fear of a terrorist attack from within.

However, the terrorist attacks committed within the country are committed from white extremists

twice as much as Muslims (Ruiz-Grossman). Americans that think that Muslims are dangerous to

our country do not personally know anyone in the Muslim community. They just make the

assumption that all Muslims have the same ideologies and will commit crimes against Americans

because they are hateful, but in reality, they are not. The Muslim Americans are just Americans

that are just trying to have a life like the rest of us. Many Americans just assume the extremes

when it comes to strangers.

Why is it that Americans expect the worst from the people that they do not know? Many

fears of strangers have to do with horror movies. Americans love horror films, not because we

like to see things that are scary, but because we like thrill of the unknown if it does not
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particularly apply to our own lives. Horror movies are typically about fictional characters that

encounter horrifying people. Because it is not reality, people have the security that this will not

happen to them, but they hold onto the fear as an irrational thought. We have always had this

sense that the fear of the unknown, of that future that lies just past the horizon, has been with us

always even if it is unlikely (Genoways). Often Americans still come up with scenarios where

strangers will be evil and out to get them based on the fictional stories that they consume. Horror

movies are not the only cause for people to make extreme assumptions about others, but he

media is as well.

Horror films are not the limit to Americans fascination of the unknown. The media also

portray the interest in horrifying crime situations. Strangers with mug shots are shown on the

news continuously not because Americans want to embarrass others for mistakes, but because

Americans want to be aware of who to look out for, even if they are strangers. This allows for

people to come up with an image for criminals, meaning they associate those with the same

appearance as criminals as well. This stereotyping of strangers as monsters occurs frequently in

certain races, such as African American or Middle Eastern, but it also occurs due to social

classes. Many people assume lower class people are criminals just because they can not afford

the luxuries on their own. For instance, I used to be suspicious of those that would walk around

in dark hoodies because I was told by the media that people who wear who wear dark hoodies

are more likely to be criminals. I was not told this directly, but I made an assumption based on

what I saw from previous instances. The medias intentions are not to tell audience to change

their beliefs of certain people, but to inform the audience of events have have taken place.
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Granted, the media is selective in what they choose to show to the audience, which leads to

people forming or confirming suspicions about certain peoples.

Americans are just afraid of those that they do not know. In my own experience, I have

been afraid of strangers. Since I was a child, I was told by my parents, teachers, and other

children to not associate myself with strangers. My community had this idea that all strangers

were dangerous. They aways told me what if situations where strangers were bad people.

Because they were referred to as dangerous, I assumed the worst. I thought that all strangers

were just like the people that they show on the news for committing crimes against civilians. If

my community continues to think this way, we will retreat further from our fellow travelers

on this lonely planet and everywhere we look, we will see monsters (Genoways). My

community has taught us that all strangers are monsters. They are unpredictable and that causes

people to avoid strangers all together, however, most people do not match up to the preconceived

notion of criminals. Strangers are just people that we do not know personally and we should not

judge them based on their appearance or characteristics based on anothers.

Although assumptions about others tend to cause problems in America, sometimes the

assumptions can be beneficial. Babies are a prime example of where assumptions are beneficial.

Babies lack the intelligence to do things for themselves such as eat, walk, and even go to the

bathroom. It is a common and practical assumption that babies are completely dependent on

their adult caregivers (Harris). Although Americans make predicaments about babies having a

lack of intelligence, the truth is that they do. Facts that are widely known such as this one can

become viable assumptions because they are confirmed by babies themselves. However, an

assumption like this does not offend any group of people because it does not target a group
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negatively. Babies have always begun their lives naive to their duties to stay alive, but assuming

that they cannot take care of themselves is not an assumption that can harm anyone. The

assumptions that harm people are those that have to do with race and class, which is largely

influenced by the media.

American culture is monstrous because the impact of assumptions based on racism,

classism, and the media has on Americans decisions. Yet in reality, the real monsters are the

assumptions themselves. These assumptions are fueled by previous ideas about race, class, and

the medias influence on these ideas. Assumptions about others are dangerous and cause

Americans to act impulsively based on their beliefs. In order to eradicate these thoughts,

Americans need to lead lives where they can lose the judgement of others and defeat the

monsters within us.

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Works Cited

Bulik, Mark. 1854: No Irish Need Apply. The New York Times, The New York Times, 8 Sept.

2015, www.nytimes.com/2015/09/08/insider/1854-no-irish-need-apply.html?mcubz=0.

Genoways, Ted. Here Be Monsters. Monsters. Hoffman, Andrew J. Monsters: a Bedford

Spotlight Reader, Bedford/St. Martin's, a Macmillan Education Imprint, 2016, pp. 130

133.

Harris, Judith Rich. The Nurture Assumption. The New York Times, The New York Times,

1998, www.nytimes.com/books/first/h/harris-nurture.html.

Ruiz-Grossman, Sarah. Most Of America's Terrorists Are White, And Not Muslim. The

Huffington Post, TheHuffingtonPost.com, 23 Aug. 2017, www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/

domestic-terrorism-white-supremacists-islamist-

extremists_us_594c46e4e4b0da2c731a84df.

United States, Congress, Cong. U.S. Immigration Legislation: 1921 Emergency Quota Law,

67ADAD. 67th Congress, 1st session, resolution, library.uwb.edu/Static/USimmigration/

1921_emergency_quota_law.html.