In volume two of Frankenstein Victor travels to Chamounix after the mourning of William. While there Victor encounters The Monster for the first time since its creation. In this confrontation Frankenstein at once tries to kill it. However through some persuasion the Monster is able to convince his creator to listen to its story. Shelly then switches the stories perspective from being told by Frankenstein to being told by The Monster. The Monster recounts his travels from the University to a small farm owned by an old man, Agatha, and Felix. He finds shelter in a hovel attached to the cabin. This is where he observes the family and is able to learn how to learn their language as well as learn about the human race. The Monster describes his growing like and admiration for the farmers through description of the beautiful words they spoke and actions they performed. This growing fondness inspired it to look out for the family but helping out with chores at night. One day The Monster decides to approach the Old Man but is ran out of the cottage by Felix. This rejection causes The Monster so much pain that when he comes across William and discovers that he is the son of his despised creator, he kills him. The story is then brought back to the present where Frankenstein and The Monster are talking. The Monster demands that Frankenstein creates another monster that can be his wife so he will not be lonely anymore. They then departed from one another on the agreement that if Frankenstein created a wife for The Monster, he would leave the human race alone forever.

One of the passages that struck me as interesting was on page 78. The Monster is describing his stay at the farm and how it took milk and vegetables that the farm produced in order to provide for itself. However it states, “When I found that in doing this I inflicted pain on the cottagers, I abstained, and satisfied myself with berries, nuts, and roots…” (Shelly 78). I thought this passage to be so important due to the amount of empathy that this creature shows. He cannot even communicate yet nor does really know what his hosts are saying. Yet he has a deep enough understanding of humans that he understands the farmers are just as hungry as he is and they need the food that he has been sneaking. I believe Shelly is trying to communicate that even the simplest life form can express empathy and care. As shown through The Monster, who was starving, to give up his food source in order to benefit the Old Man, Agatha, and Felix, whom he does not even know.

Scope: Many people are mistaken in thinking that racism in America is a thing of the past, when in reality it is still prevalent in society today. Although African-Americans have achieved “equality” through amendments of the Constitution and Supreme Court rulings, by no means have they received true equality. There is still a prejudice held by police officers against black people as shown with the amount of police brutality cases. Even textbooks have recently been discovered as incorrectly demonstrating the plight of an entire race by saying claiming that Africans came to America as “Workers”. Racism in America has been around for centuries, it will not just go away in a single moment. That is why I would like to go in depth on the educational and treatment from law officials that black citizens receive. There is a reason the majority of citizens in jail or in poverty are African Americans and it is absolutely not because they are less capable than their white counter-part. I will reference speeches and books of civil rights activists such as Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr., W.E.B. DuBois, and Cornel West. I intend to connect their writings to problems that are still circulating around America today.

Value: I will go beyond assessing racism in the educational and judiciary system and research attempted solutions to these problems. I will look into these solutions to see if: 1. If they were attempted 2. If they were attempted did they succeed or fail and 3. If they failed what is another way to solve the problem of racism. From this analysis I believe I will see what changes we need to make as a society, and how to do so in order for them to work. After all, what better way to create change than to learn from the mistakes of our past? I also want to identify where these prejudices originate from and why they are still around today. From the combined understanding of where racism roots from and the best way to put an end to it I hope to find possible solution to a social crime that should never have been committed.

Originality: Many people have written about racism but unfortunately the majority of these authors have been African-American. They do a great job connecting to their black audience but it mostly stops there. It does not break through to white America as prominently as it should. This could be due to a number of reasons, but what I think is the main cause is it is not relatable. I want to show how racism does not only affect Black America, but White America too. By suppressing a large portion of America educationally we as a country are not reaching our potential. By reforming the education and law systems we will have more kids in better schools. This is the key to change as DuBois stressed so often. In conclusion, by address these issues from a different perspective I hope I can reach out to the rest of America by not just addressing the problem but by finding the root and illuminating it from the source.

Practicality: There is more than enough evidence of racism and prejudices toward minorities in America. The recent awareness of police brutality shows how even our law enforcers often act in a racist manner. There are plenty of resources I can reference as I mentioned earlier. One that will be particularly useful will be W.E.B. DuBois because he wrote about how education is the solution to ending racism and rising from poverty. I agreed with his thoughts and was astonished to see how over one hundred years later black education is still far inferior to the education a white student would receive. There are also a number of civil rights advocates today such as Cornel West and Shaun King who bring attention to the prejudices of America today as shown in police brutality. The library has a number of writings of Malcolm X that I will reference in assessing the problem and potential solution. I believe Malcolm was a big contributor to achieving Civil Rights but Martin Luther King Jr. often overshadows his ideas. So I hope to bring to surface his ideas to give a different perspective on the issues at hand and see if they would work in a less radical fashion.