Dehumanization and Racism Theme Analysis

Monster depicts the murder trial of Steve Harmon, a 16-year-old black kid from Harlem. Steve is accused of being an accomplice to the murder of an immigrant shopkeeper named Mr. Nesbitt, the result of a botched robbery. Even though Steve’s alleged role in the murder is minimal, the prosecutor sees Steve only as a “monster,” completely disregarding the rest of his life and identity. In a similar fashion, Steve finds during his weeks in prison that he is still not recognized as a person unto himself, but instead seen as merely an inmate. By depicting the legal system’s dehumanization of Steve and the way that this causes him to also dehumanize himself, Monster suggests that both the court and the prison system do not treat people accused of crimes as full human beings, but rather as moral degenerates who deserve to be deprived of all rights and humanity.

Although Steve is a sensitive and creative individual, the state prosecutor sees him as a monster and a criminal rather than a human being. Though only 16, Steve is a filmmaker at heart. He depicts all of the courtroom scenes and much of his time in prison through a screenplay he is writing, and Steve’s film teacher, Mr. Sawicki, testifies that Steve’s films are optimistic and honest, highlighting the best aspects of his violent neighborhood. Steve’s own artistic interpretation of events and Mr. Sawicki’s character witness establish that Steve is a sensitive and dynamic human being. However, in her opening remarks, state prosecutor Sandra Petrocelli labels anyone tangentially related to the murder, including Steve, as a monster who does not value other people’s right to live. Petrocelli wants Steve and James King (another man charged in relation to the crime) to be convicted of felony murder, and by labeling them all as irredeemable, inhuman monsters, she hopes to immediately sway the jury towards seeking as harsh a punishment as possible. Petrocelli dehumanizes Steve in order to accomplish her goal as a prosecutor, which suggests that prosecutors do not view their defendants as human beings, but simply as targets to take down. Furthermore, Steve’s defense attorney Kathy O’Brien warns him that, since he is a black teenage boy, half of the jury will believe he is guilty as soon as they see him, suggesting that on top of Petrocelli’s dehumanizing remarks, the jurors’ racial prejudice also dehumanizes Steve and other people in his position. Racism makes it more likely that the jury will view black defendants not as complex, individual human beings, but merely as stereotypes.

The prison system in Monster is also depicted as dehumanizing, refusing to acknowledge that inmates are also complex and emotion-driven human beings. Although Steve is only 16, he is placed in a prison for adults. When his younger brother Jerry is not allowed to visit Steve because he is a child and the prison is a dangerous place, Steve realizes that if he himself were a visitor, rather than an inmate, he would not be allowed in the prison, either. This irony suggests that Steve’s status as a prisoner removes any rights or protections he should be entitled as a human being and a legal child. Furthermore, Steve observes that all that inmates talk about is fighting, sex, or appealing their convictions, suggesting that prison dehumanizes people by narrowing the sphere of things they’re able to care about. Even Steve finds it difficult to think about his family or friends, since he is consumed by fear about his court case. Prison, it seems, is such an intensely confining space that it reduces human beings to mere shells of what they might have been, forcing them to think only of survival in their narrow world at the expense of all other interests or relationships that once made them who they are. Finally, the guards add to the prisoners’ dehumanization. As Steve faces the horrifying prospect of spending most of his life in jail, the guards mockingly place bets on whether Steve will get a full life sentence or not and ask him to put money into the pool, as well. The guards’ complete disregard for Steve’s mental wellbeing further suggests that the operators of the prison do not regard their subjects as human beings with hopes, fears, and the right to be respected, but merely as pieces in a machine.

Steve and his father Mr. Harmon both come to internalize this dehumanized vision of Steve, which tragically suggests that when the courts and prisons view a person only as a monster or a criminal, that person will come to believe it. After hearing Petrocelli call him a monster and seeing the jurors’ disdain for him, Steve begins to think of himself as a monster as well, referring to himself as a monster in his personal notes. Tragically, Mr. Harmon struggles not to see his son that way, even though he doesn’t know if Steve is guilty or innocent. When he visits Steve in prison, Steve realizes that their father-son relationship has been broken, noting, “It’s like a man looking down to see his son and seeing a monster instead.” Both Steve and Mr. Harmon’s struggle to not view Steve as a monster suggests that when the courts and the prison system so swiftly dehumanize defendants, the consequences are personal and far-reaching.