Man Or Monster?

• Christina Shooter, Grade 9
• Short Story
• 2009

What are monsters? I don’t mean like the traditional ones, the troll under the bridge or the clown in the drain. I don’t even mean the ones of now days, the perverts and psycho axe murderers that pray upon the weak and helpless. Because once they were prayed upon, by bullies, siblings, perhaps people they may once have trusted. Are these people the real monsters then? Monsters roam the world in different forms, from that of people to stories to nightmares. They are the monster in your closet or the boogieman under your bed. They are the ones that beat you, crush your dreams, all because they cannot escape the monster that prays upon them. They are the perverts that roam the street or the murderers that lurk in the shadows. Many say Hitler was a monster, but once upon a time he too may have been prayed upon. The witch that lured the children into her house of candy, was she the monster, or was it the two ‘heroes’ of the story, the ones who pushed her into the oven? Monsters are what we make of them. What it all comes down to is not who are the monsters of our world, but are we the monsters. Do we bring people pain? Do we drive people to their limit and beyond? Are we the psycho axe murderer, or are we their tormenter? At the end of the day, there really is no monster under the bed, only a broken child who was prayed upon because their appearance, personality or nationality was different to their tormenters.
At the end of the day, what are you?