new essay just dropped ig 0-0
unedited version, cos we don't deal with word counts here.... not entirely sure what to make of this though ;-;
topic, in case we're wondering:
"Monsters are not a figment of a child's imagination"
"What are monsters?" A seemingly simple question, yet a delicate subject that not many choose to face. Monsters, in the eyes of the ignorant, are fictional creatures. Imaginary beings used as a means to strike fear in innocent children's minds - to scare them into obedience. Unfortunately, ignorance shrouds the conscience.
Monsters are not simply the makings of a child's imagination. Monsters are a culmination of horrors, of dangers and of sins, refracted through a child's view. They are creatures, cloaked in coloured furs and too-many eyes with razor sharp fangs and claws. The acceptance of the perception of monsters as being far-fetched beings is just a ploy to distract from the real monsters.
Humans.
Humans were always just as flawed as the monsters they made up. The monsters they appointed to carry the burdens of their self-disappointment. The real monsters are the adults. The men who thought they could act without consequence; who beat their wives and daughters and drowned themselves in vices. The women who wormed their way into people's business and destroyed their lives, who manipulated and lied. Humans often found comfort in separating themselves from their haunting shadows.
Those shadows are used as a child's preparation for the real world. They are ideas put into a child's mind by adults, some with the intent to protect and others with the intent to hurt. Monsters are a result of past experiences and future fears. Monsters are a ceaseless, lurking presence that only becomes clearer with age. Only the knowledgeable are able to notice when the monsters morph from a child's fear to their own image.
I wish I had been knowledgeable. I was an ignorant man, too lost in the ways of mankind; killing and drinking, celebrating the loss of life simply because I carried the title of "Soldier". It took me the loss of my closest comrade to realise that I had lost my tether to humanity. It had taken a mother cowering in fear as she passed my drunken silhouette for me to realise what I had become. I was the thing children were afraid of. The thing they would grow up believing to be fictitious. I was a monster.
Let this be a warning to all youth who read this. Those hideous creatures who lived under your bed were just as real as the man who waits to attack you in the dead of night. Your childish paranoia was correctly placed. Do not let age take away the lessons your childhood taught you. Age does not equate to ignorance. Similarly, to those who have encountered monsters already, who were exposed to the truth of humans, do not become a means for the cycle to continue. You have a choice. Do not demean yourself to become what hurt you. After all, you are aware, monsters are not just a figment of a child's imagination.
