Comparing Monsters 'And War Of The Worlds'

Who is the real monster in War of the Worlds and Monsters? Monster is a strong word that requires unpacking to figure out what it actually means as it is interpreted in many different ways. As kids, we were taught what a monster is and why it is a monster, but it has scary face and that is what children cling to and what they think of when monsters are mentioned, whereas in this essay I will bring light to my interpretation of monsters as being something that has control and power but abuses it through cruelty and bad decisions. The power and control shifts in different ways throughout the film Monsters and novel War of the Worlds due to different actions and strategies that the humans of both times use. The monsters achieve their power and

The shift in control and power comes in the novel when a ‘Deputation’ of men approach with a white flag (commonly known as a sign of willingness to communicate or negotiate) and is annihilated by the Martians ‘I saw them stagger and fall and their supporters turn to run’ (pg. 36 pdf). This not only shows their power but their willingness to destroy hence crowning them the monsters. This is reflected by Edwards as in the the opening scene of Monsters as it shows the soldiers going to war with the ‘monsters’, through the use of camera angles Edwards shows which characters are in power. At the start of the scene it shows the ‘monster’ having the power as the camera looks up at it and down at the soldiers futile attempts to kill it, this changes though as at the end of the scene the camera dives looking down at the ‘monster’ as a missile (one can only presume the Americans launched) showing the ultimate winner as the humans. Not only crowning them the true monsters at this point in time but showing the power they had at the time.This power and control both illustrates and identifies the true monster at different times in both the novel and the

Wells describes how the Martians are afraid of losing everything, as they they lost their home planet, so they war in a cruel and aggressive spirit. Wells argues the Martians are succumbing to the ‘immediate pressure of necessity’ (pg.8) of them losing their planet and race, which in turn ‘brightened their intellects, enlarged their powers, and hardened their hearts’ (pg.8) allowing them to become the mean ‘mechanical Samson’ (pg.269 in pdf) they are on Earth. This is directly comparable to the humans in Monsters as they war in a similar spirit due to them also having a fear of the unknown which is an uncontrollable force. The fear driving humans to eradicate the unknown, causes them to aggravate the monsters and destroy their own world through both chemical and physical weapons. As Sam and Andrew make their way through the ‘Infected Zone’ they are accompanied by Mexican guides who tell them of how the ‘creatures’ are only angry when the American planes come. The subtle change in language shows how the guides don’t think of them as destructive and cruel monsters; they think of them as fellow creatures in which they can live in harmony with, hence them not being as afraid of them. Compare this to the Americans who are terrified of the monsters