Afternoon of Alterity - Nazareth College

Abel’s blood in his hands and devour it with his mouth” (95). Thisfeature of Cain’s monstrous kin, which incidentally is also displayedby Grendel, is further reinforced by James Phillips’ research in hisarticle, “In the Company of Predators: Beowulf and the MonstrousDescendants of Cain,” as he notes, “Cain’s descendents arepredators in an aggravated sense. They prey not only on animals butalso on humans. They are cannibalistic, although this cannibalismsimultaneously differentiates them from human beings, establishingthem as monsters” (Phillips 43).Hence, it is clear that the tradition of Cain monster-myths iswell established within Western literature, art, and thought andthat Grendel is a manifestation of this monstrous Cain archetype.Addressing the question of why this archetype may have been socaptivating to medieval audiences, Phillips offers us insight, stating“For biblical account and the numerous traditions it fosteredregarding the descendents of Cain, the monster is unsettling notsimply because it is intent on our destruction, but also because itis related to us: the uncanniness of the monster is tied up with thequestionability of what it means to be human” (42). I argue thatthese fundamental questions about the nature of humanity andmonstrosity raised by the character of Cain have endowed hismonstrous archetype with remarkable longevity and appeal, allowingit to continuously evolve and reemerge, appearing in new, yet stillrecognizable forms in popular twenty-first century texts.Them People Ain’t Human:A Modern Manifestation of the Kin of CainIn the world of Joss Whedon’s science fiction television series, Firefly,the Earth as we know it has been destroyed, the science of spacetravel has vastly improved, and people have begun to colonize newplanets, modeling them after the “Earth That Was.” The heroes (or10 afternoons of alterity