From Frankenstein's Monster to Lester Ballard: The Evolving Gothic Monster

Abstract

By reinventing Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, McCarthy grounds his argument in a historical pattern of social isolation and also forces his audience to pay attention to the progressive horror associated with allowing this system of social othering to continue. [...] while society has destined these monsters to stay forever confined to the outside, the visions of "monsters worse to come" that the medical students see in Lester's body reveal that this vicious cycle of violence will not end (194), and just as the violence has worsened from Frankenstein's Monster to Lester, the future "monsters" will only increase in their rage against society.