Images of Propaganda?
Since the basis of our Frankenstein unit revolves around what our eyes can see, versus what our ears can hear, I plan to spend some time showing my class the only surviving picture of the Creature as depicted in the Frontispiece to the 1831 revised edition. Students will actually begin by creating their own visual image of the Creature using only Victor's narrative to guide them. The students will then compare their image with the 1831 Frontispiece picture, noting the differences in appearance. While the Frontispiece image does show a large head and gigantic body proportions, students will actually discover that the Creature's body is a perfect embodiment of strength and masculinity as opposed to the grotesque image that Victor offers us. The Creature has a large but well proportioned body with only the head and Mongoloid features which appear awkwardly connected to the body. 23Once again, I will bring my students back to our "Into" lesson about what our minds understand by what our eyes can see, and quick way we can easily fall into this tricky and deceptive trap of assumption and prejudice.
One can make the case that Victor uses his words as propaganda against the monster in trying to somehow align the reader with his demonic view of his creation. This leap from propaganda using race/stereotypes fits smoothly with my students' understanding of manipulation throughout history. My students will become aware that prejudice and racism aren't limited to an individual's ideas, but can be widespread using the various forms of media to paint a specific group as threatening and evil as was done in WWII.
My students, as mentioned above, are familiar with the power of social media. Yet, it is important for students to remember that the newspaper and print ads were the "social media" of the late 1800's. Through various propaganda pamphlets, my aim is to show the students how powerful and successful it is to prey on people's fears, however irrational or incredible. Some of my examples will center around the "Yellow Peril" of the late 1800's and early 1900's targeting the Chinese wave of immigrants in San Francisco, California who worked on the railroads, vineyards, laundries, and restaurants. These immigrants were depicted as a monopolizing, greedy threat that was on a quest to bring their fellow opium-addicted brethren to infiltrate the country. I will also use some examples of the anti-Chinese and anti-Japanese propaganda used to portray the Asian individual as a demonic Dr. FuManchu, as British author Arthur Henry Sarsfield Ward did in his posters. 24 In these depictions, the Asian man is shown as tall, leaning forward in an almost cat-like pose, with a face resembling the high arch of a Satanic brow, and with the cruel cunning look of an entire Eastern race. In other images, the Asian man was stereotyped as a gigantic, bloodthirsty warrior who was very similar to an ape. Once again, I will remind my students of Professor Mellor's theory that the Creature, based on racial features and geographical location, could have been of Asian descent.
To shift gears into a more modern connection for my students I will show them recent advertising images that prey on stereotypes to sell a product. Some examples of these ads include Intel, Dove, and Sony among others. By just these visual representations of a specific race, students will uncover the subtle (and not so subtle) messages the advertisers are sending to the public.
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