Monster Short Story Analysis

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In Kelly Link's short story “Monster” it is based in North Carolina at a camp, but more specifically a group boys in Bungalow 4 and 6 who go out on a hike to camp at Honor lookout in tents. At the beginning Bungalow 6 went out on a hike and saw a monster and of course they came back to tell all of the other groups at camp. A big part of the story is about Bungalow 4 and how everyone in the group picks on this kid named James Lorbick who i guess you could say is not the coolest kid around. When Bungalow 4 goes on their hike it is not much of a true hike but they do find a big bone in the mud. When they set up to camp a kid named Brian starts picking on James. He makes him wear a dress ,puts mud all over him, and dares him to go back to camp looking like that saying he is the monster. Their counselor disappears while he walks down the trail talking on the phone with his girlfriend leaving the kids all alone. The monster comes out and eats all the kids except one. James Lorbick was the one kid who was safe and had the chance to get away from the monster in Bungalow 4. My question would be why does the author make the monster seem somewhat friendly? He obviously has …show more content…

Lupida’s argument about good vs. evil is very relevant throughout the story but i find that the author Kelly Link has a tendency to end each bad situation with good. In the story Kelly Link shows a good representation of the moral when she writes about Bungalow 6 seeing the Monster for the first time walking up the snowy path and smiled at them. It is obviously a bad situation because he is a scary Monster but Kelly Link brings out the good by having the Monster smile. I believe she did this to teach the lesson that no matter how bad the situation is you can find some good within it. She also made the very intense climax a little less scary by making the Monster