"Born of Man and Woman" (Discussion Article)
parents if the girl sees him—he is discovered by her cat. He picks up the animal and squeezes it; squeezes it to the point that it is crushed, broken, bleeding. He doesn't understand what happened. Clearly he never intended to kill.
In both cases we find beings who never asked to be brought into the world. I feel that both have good souls and just want to be accepted. When they aren't they gradually turn away from their inherent goodness. Frankenstein's monster kills again and pledges revenge on the scientist who brought him into existence. Likewise, the monster of "Born and Man and Woman" decides at the end that the next time his parents beat him he will "hurt them."
These are both very effective stories, and they always bring me back to the
issue of childcare or lack there of, something that is a real problem in today's
society. Matheson's story is especially effective, eliciting from me a strong
reaction in just three pages. Speaking most strongly to me of the horror and
fear of being small, lost and unloved in a world you don't understand, it is
a little SF story taken as horror—or perhaps the other way around—that
brings to light not fiction, but a fact of the world we live in.
What do you think about this story, or about the issue of caring for our children? Please join in the discussion by posting and let's see where the thread leads. There may also be other related issue that you wish to discuss, and I encourage you to do so. This is the first article in an experiment to foster discussion on Suite101, so let's get started and go where it takes us. If there is some completely different subject you want to talk about, feel free to start a new thread of your own. Thank you for reading this article. I'm looking forward to hearing from you!
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