Godzilla Monster Theory
Blake Nichols
Professor Mitchell
English Composition 1102
29 March 2015
From Bomb to Beast For centuries people have been writing and passing down stories about a variety of different subjects. One topic that has always intrigued the general population is those stories of monsters. The reason these stories have always been so popular is because they are not actually about the monster itself, but rather about what the monster represents in regards to the time period as well as the culture of the place where the story originated. This is extremely apparent in the classic 1954 film Godzilla. Godzilla represents the first thesis of Jeffery Jerome Cohan’s “Monster Theory” which states that “The monster’s body quite literally incorporates fear, desire, anxiety, and fantasy. The monstrous body is pure culture” (Cohan). In the film Godzilla symbolizes the fear of atomic or nuclear war that many Japanese people were experiencing following WWII along with the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The opening scene of the movie is one of the most important scenes as it gives one of the most obvious correlations to the dropping of the atomic bomb on Japan. It shows a group of sailors who are all enjoying themselves while playing various instruments on their boat. Then, all of the sudden, a bright light appears and consequently results in the death of all aboard the ship as well as the sinking of the ship itself. Peter H. Brothers, a well know monster writer in addition to being Godzilla enthusiast, writes the “bright light the sailors saw was a representation of a phenomenon known to the survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki as the ‘pikadon’ or ‘flash-boom’ caused by the explosion of the atomic bombs, and the sinking of the ship calls to mind the destruction of the Japanese Merchant Marine by U.S. submarines during the war” (Brothers). In this scene you also witness the radio operators that were within the ship die however, this was on purpose as it
Professor Mitchell
English Composition 1102
29 March 2015
From Bomb to Beast For centuries people have been writing and passing down stories about a variety of different subjects. One topic that has always intrigued the general population is those stories of monsters. The reason these stories have always been so popular is because they are not actually about the monster itself, but rather about what the monster represents in regards to the time period as well as the culture of the place where the story originated. This is extremely apparent in the classic 1954 film Godzilla. Godzilla represents the first thesis of Jeffery Jerome Cohan’s “Monster Theory” which states that “The monster’s body quite literally incorporates fear, desire, anxiety, and fantasy. The monstrous body is pure culture” (Cohan). In the film Godzilla symbolizes the fear of atomic or nuclear war that many Japanese people were experiencing following WWII along with the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The opening scene of the movie is one of the most important scenes as it gives one of the most obvious correlations to the dropping of the atomic bomb on Japan. It shows a group of sailors who are all enjoying themselves while playing various instruments on their boat. Then, all of the sudden, a bright light appears and consequently results in the death of all aboard the ship as well as the sinking of the ship itself. Peter H. Brothers, a well know monster writer in addition to being Godzilla enthusiast, writes the “bright light the sailors saw was a representation of a phenomenon known to the survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki as the ‘pikadon’ or ‘flash-boom’ caused by the explosion of the atomic bombs, and the sinking of the ship calls to mind the destruction of the Japanese Merchant Marine by U.S. submarines during the war” (Brothers). In this scene you also witness the radio operators that were within the ship die however, this was on purpose as it
References: Brothers, Peter H. "Japan 's Nuclear Nightmare: How the Bomb Became a Beast Called Godzilla." GilFind. Cineaste, 2011. Web. 20 Mar. 2015. Ryfle, Steve. "Godzilla 's Footprint." GilFind. Virginia Quarterly Review 2005. Web. 20 Mar. 2015.