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Cruel and Unusual Light: Electricity and Effacement in Stephen Crane's The Monster

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From: The Arizona Quarterly
Date: 20060401
Author:Naito, Jonathan Tadashi

STEPHEN CRANE'S 1898 NOVELLA, The Monster, is among the most cryptic and the most ruthless of his works. In brief, it tells the story of a small town thrown into chaos when Henry Johnson, a black coachman employed by a white doctor, Dr. Trescott, literally loses his face. In the first half of the novella, Henry Johnson's actions range from fatherly to romantic to heroic; but after his face is burned off during his daring rescue of the doctor's son from a chemical fire, Johnson is branded a "monster" and ostracized from the town.1 In a crucial confrontation soon after the fire, Judge ...

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