Xenophobia In 'The Shadow Over Innsmouth'

An important characteristic of human societies is our abilities to gather into groups that share common characteristics: national origins, sexuality, race, etc. Thus, people identify with what they are familiar with and are fearful of of those that are in a different group, typically labeling them as the “others,” to create the separation of what is normal and ‘monstrous.’ This is known as xenophobia, irrational fear of people from other countries or regions. H.P Lovecraft utilizes xenophobia, in The Shadow over Innsmouth, to delve into the fear of the unknown, which is depicted from the nature of how the people in Innsmouth are treated by everyone else. Right from the beginning, the reader is introduced to the xenophobia that inhibits everyone around Innsmouth. The story begins with reports of the government making secret arrests and raids, and we learn that the town has been cleansed from its people, “through arrests, raids, burnings, and torpedoes” (Lovecraft, 1). Automatically, you begin to suspect why a town deserves to be completely destroyed by the government. Even when the liberal organizations complain about the people being put into concentration camps and the harsh treatments; however, once they are taken to see the people in these camps they

Lovecraft repeatedly brings up the difference between the people in Innsmouth and the others, to show that they are ‘lesser’ than the normal residents. And not only is racism a huge contributor in this story, but the idea of biological degeneration. The main character is repulsed by the bus driver and automatically thinks, “I would have thought of biological degeneration rather than alienage” (Lovecraft, 8). Clearly, there is also the idea of the other being below them, due to their interracial mixing. That is pure racism in play by Lovecraft. That the idea of intermixing is abhorring to