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Quick Write
What is your grade or judgment of the monster? What’s the final verdict?
Evaluation Examples
Intro to Causal Analysis
Causality: the relationship of cause and effect
Causal Analysis systematically examines the causes and/or the effects of an event, situation, belief, or action.
- Cause asks: Why did it happen? Why does it happen? Why will it happen?
- Effect asks: What did it produce? What does it produce? What will it produce? By carefully analyzing …
A Causal Analysis essay gives you a precise way to ask tough questions about the world you live in. Everyday the news is full of issues that raise why and what if questions. Instead of focusing on the whole of an issue, focus down on why something happens or what the effect is of something happening.
For example: Instead of focusing on the death penalty which has a ton of information to sort through once you begin researching. The causal analysis assignment focuses the inquiry into causes and effects: Why was the death penalty reinstated in Texas in 1982? Or, what has the deterrent effect been since then?
The causal analysis gives you a line of inquiry to pursue, that is central to understanding the argument and arguing well. In this way, the assignment asks you to develop rhetorical skills, in particular logical thinking, the supporting of explanations with evidence, and the ability to explain the “story” of cause and effect to an audience.
For this assignment, you will pick a monster to investigate more in-depth.
The essay Why is society so fascinated with serial killers? is an example of a causal analysis. It is asking a question and trying to figure out why.
Psycho
Here is the infamous shower scene from Psycho (1960)
While this scene is iconic, the movie is based on a real person: Ed Gein.
Ed Gein Documentary
Causality and Ed Gein
What causes led to Ed Gein becoming a monster? After watching the documentary, you will have a lot of information to choose from. Write down what you think are the three main reasons/causes that led to Ed Gein becoming a monster.
- Cause 1 – ____________________________
- Cause 2 – ____________________________
- Cause 3 – ____________________________
Produced:
- Event/Monster – Ed Gein the Monster
Comment below with your three causes.
Homework
- Weekly Journal
- Submit final draft of Evaluation essay on Canvas
Professor Ramos' Blog 
Quick write
• My final judgement of the monster is the monster I evaluated was successfully scary because of its appearance as well as the purpose it was intended to serve. The monster had cultural value and was more than just a scary tale.
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Quick write:
I think while the monster duo I evaluated seem scary to look at, I feel like they have lost their spotlight when it comes to being feared since they’re from Greek mythology, which is now viewed like fairytales. While there are famous history stories and phrases that come from these creatures, it seems as if they’re main purpose in this day and age is to be compared to just being in a tough situation.
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Quick Write
I believe that after researching on my monster, the Siren from Greek mythology, I now have a deeper understanding of the culture then. I believe that the Sirens were scary to the people in that age, because many were afraid of sea exploration in itself. However, the view on the Sirens has changed, and modern day Sirens are not accurately depicted. The final verdict would be that the Sirens did serve their purpose during that period in history, but are not scary as of today.
Causes for Ed Gein becoming a monster:
Cause 1: Gein had a difficult childhood
Cause 2: Gein worshipped his mother
Cause 3: When Gein’s mother died, he could not cope with the loss and wanted parts of her back
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Quick Write:
My final grade of the monster La Llorona is an A. I think the movie I chose to analyze was a good representation of La Llorona, and the short film I used to compare it to wasn’t as great of a representation of La Llorona. However, the short film was still very interesting and still did include main elements of La Llorona, so I would give that representation a B. Overall, I think La Llorona is a very scary monster that will continue to live on in stories. I believe people continue to tell stories of La Llorona because they too agree that she is a good example/representation of a monster. She instills fear, she always escapes, and the story is used to teach children a lesson. La Llorona is a monster that has a distinct pattern in how she acts (stealing children, weeping, appearing in the woods near water), yet she still is still terrifying every time she appears in a new story or movie. Regardless of how many times the story of La Llorona is told, she will continue to grab attention, terrify people (especially children), and always escape to search for more children to take. Because of these things, I believe that La Llorona is a good representation of a monster.
Ed Gein Causality
Cause 1: His dad was an alcoholic so he didn’t have a proper father figure to raise him and show him right from wrong.
Cause 2: His mother had a stroke so Ed had to care for her very closely and developed an unhealthy obsession with her/basically worshiped her.
Cause 3: His mother’s death pushed him over the edge because he was so attached to her. He didn’t know how to be alone or how to be without his mother.
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Quick write 4/13/20
My grades and judgment of the monster are impetuous and horrifying. They would do things impulsively. Things that were unknown to mankind that would not be thought of. They made moves that were not even thought of and made them become part of history.
Cause 1: Ed was dealing with despair and depression due to the trauma he dealt with from losing his mother.
Cause 2: He started to mourn for his mother and wanted a company that was similar to his mother; so, he started to dig people out of their graves.
Cause 3: Eventually, he started to kill human beings because he was no longer satisfied with the corps of human beings that were alive. He wanted to have a company that had characteristics of his mother. So, he then became a mass murder because of his mother’s death,
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Josie DuSold
Quick Write:
My monster was not scary, but when he multiplied, the spawn were evil and destructive.
Ed Gein Causes:
1. He couldn’t cope after his mother’s death – unhealthy love/hate relationship
2. His father was an alcoholic
3. Isolated and grounds for pyschopathology / intubation place for madness
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I think my final evaluation of Jeffrey Dahmer is an A. Not only is he a monster but he was a real live person. Innocent men were murdered for no reason. He is truly scary in every sense. I really enjoyed the 2017 film “My Friend Dahmer” because it gave us a look at his life growing up and he was represented accurately. The book by Jack Rosewood was also pretty interesting as it went into detail about his crimes and all the scary unnatural things he was into. The things that made him a monster.
Cause 1- Gein’s mother was very religious and controlling. She controlled the lives of her 2 sons and husband. Ed Gein worshiped his mother and when she died he didn’t know how to cope with her death.
Cause 2-His dad was an alcoholic and died at a young age. He never had a father figure to raise him.
Cause 3- He was socially awkward and had no practice of human contact. He was completely isolated which drove him to insanity and caused him to follow his sick fantasies. He became psychotic because of his relationship to his mother and how much he depended and needed her. Even as an older man, he acted like a little boy who needed his mom
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• Cause 1:
o the mother was highly respected in their family nd preached constantly to the children that women were whores and so on, causing a hatred to erupt in the young heart of ed. Swaying his perception on the opposite sex as he was psychologically manipulated into hating them.
• Cause 2:
o Ed was uncomfortable in his own skin, after the death of his mother he sprilled out of control and began to give in to his demons, making a suit of human skin he managed to make a skin fitting to himself as he would be seen as a woman, maybe the hatred for women could be from a desire to be a women and he didn’t hate them but he desired to be them and made it possible before the ability to change gender was available.
• Cause 3:
o was the combination of mental illness and the death of his mother that drove him over the edge. His mother a controlling god fearing women drove her radical ideologies into eds mind, being exposed to death at a young age he clung to her. with him being schizophrenic the loss of his mother sent him over the edge with no one to reign him in.
• Quick write: what is your grade or judgement of the monster? Whats the final verdict?
o I give my monster “racism” an F because it shouldn’t exist in the world, but with how frequently it is implemented it disgustingly gets an A+. racism will never escape the cultures around the world, whether its color, religion, social standing, it is evidently implemented throughout the world. The final verdict is, in order to completely abolish this it would need to start now, releasing all things taught to us from previous generations and rewrite the future of the world. But realistically this will never happen so its onward to battle the hatred of others for generations to come.
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Quick Write:
Majin buu was a monster who destroyed the Earth and was made just to destroy everything in the universe. Buu is a problem that was destroyed, and that was what should have happened.
Causes of Ed Gein:
1) Mom was always talking about how all women are naturally promiscuous, leading to the idea most likely that women are the evil in the world.
2) Father’s alcoholism most likely made him more attached to his mother.
3) After mom died, probably couldn’t deal with it.
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Quick Write
Thanos is a very unique monster and one of a kind when it comes to a villain developing over a stretch of movies. What truly qualifies him as a monster is the way he goes about his business. My final judgement on the monster is that even though he fits the ideal model for a monster based on physical appearance his egocentric thought process is what makes him a monster.
Cause 1-Death of his mother who he was very attached to.
Cause 2-Neglected by his alcoholic father.
Cause 3- Self isolation, which never allowed him to develop social skills & see the world from different perspectives.
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Quickwrite 1:
The monster, werewolf, is a bias. Despite the fact that the original transformation of being a monster was not the human’s outright intent, it was symbolic of feelings and the actions that would come. The monster is selfish, while the situation may have been unintentional, there becomes a need for consequences from choices the monster makes. The human has a choice to stay a human and end others’ slives or let go of the powerful feeling and save those lives and he chooses to keep going.
Quickwrite 2:
One of the first and more early on causes that could have effected Ed Gein to choose the path he did was being sheltered by his mother, not learning to function as a separate individual. Another possible cause for his starting these behaviors but also continuing them without others noticing was that he had not built any meaningful relationships with peers, he had no one to “keep him in check.” The third and final possible cause for his start to murder and more was that the stress of losing his mother and not having any outlets or support systems were grounds for a psychotic break with reality.
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The three reasons i believe made Ed into a monster
1. the death of his mother was taken hard driving him further into psychosis ,
2. Isolation, With lack of social skills he did not interact well with others .Women felt uncomfortable around him,
3, Untreated Psychosis. Left without treatment allowed his mental state to develop into the monster he became,
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Quick write
my judgement on Klaus is that he has no conscience. He hurts the ones he in his own way “cares” about is short lived since he always has a self justified excuse. He is superior in his mind to others
,controlling and self righteous and cruelly punishes those who betray him. He killed Katherine’s entire family to get back at her for running from him because he not only takes his revenge out on the one he feels betrayed by but everyone else that person cares about or loves. His brother Elijah stated “Klaus is the most feared and hated of the Originals, but those who fear him are desperate for his approval. I personally have experienced the controlling ,paranoid behavior of someone in the past who always had self justified excuses the next day for his violent behavior. So i not only see a monster in Klaus ,I am reminded of the monster who terrified me.
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Quick Write
I decided to do Sirens on my evaluation, I came to the conclusion that Sirens mythology was created to displace the fear that people had when sailors would disappear in aprox. 750 BCE era. These days Sirens are more of a monster that people can put a lot of creativity in on newer stories since they are such mysterious creatures. The ocean and sea are still so unknown today that I am sure that there are still sailors that fear their possible existence.
GEIN
Cause 1: His mothers death was a trigger for him to go into complete psychosis. After his moms death he was left feeling isolated and lonely.
Cause 2: He had some kind of mental illness.
Cause 3: He didn’t know how to form relationships with others.
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Quick Write 1
My Grade for The Candy Man -is a C
Reason being that the understanding of the Candy man is misunderstood, there is two definitions of the Candy Man. One being the movie, and the other the real Candyman. The movie was about a man who was murdered for loving a wealthy woman and got her pregnant, her father had sent couple ruthless men to cut his arm and they stuck his cut arm to a bee hive, he died by thousands of bees. Then his spirit haunted people after the said his name five times while looking into a mirror. This has nothing to do with the “real Candyman” Ronald O’Bryan who killed his children on Halloween with some Pixy Stix so he could pay of his debt with there life insurance policy. My initial taught was when I looked up the Candyman it would also tell me about the man him self but the Candyman movie is a fiction movie and the real Candyman was a real-life crime. Like they say don’t judge a book by its cover but do your research because there might be more then one person with the same name but totally different stories.
Quick Write 2
Cause 1. Alcoholic father, and a strong willed women of god. His mom left him terrifying of people mostly being women. For example growing up their mom would tell them that women are whores and evil.
Cause 2.The death of his mom, He was lost with out her growing up isolated that’s all he knew was her and her beliefs.
Cause 3.Doctors testified that he was schizophrenic, pro delusional thinking and was a instrument of Gods with the power to raise the dead. Killing these women and digging up body’s from the cemetery was like having his mother and the desecrating the corps, satisfied him.
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Quick Write:
The Batman Who Laughs is an A monster, it follows Cohen’s Monster Culture through theses one and five. It was interesting to look at this character through new eyes. When I first read about him, I read it just for the story. Now, having gone back and reread it, I got a new perspective behind monsters. It was fun to do an evaluation on a comic book character that was created in 2017. This monster proves how far humans can go when they have no moral values and have no restrictions in the way they do things.
Causality and Ed Gein:
Cause 1 – He worshiped his mother. She would preach to him that women were evil.
Cause 2 – When he was 34 his father died, leaving him with his mother and his brother. However, during a fire, his brother was found dead.
Cause 3 – He has trouble interacting with others. He was in self isolation. Was seeing as odd and harmless. He had a hard time dealing with his mothers death.
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Quickwrite: My grade on the monster Dexter Morgan would be an A. I give an A because he blended in with man and no one knew that he was a monster. He was a very neat monster. He was even working for the police department to help cover his tracks and no one ever knew that he was killing criminals. Also he was able to make us love him during the show rooting for him not to be caught
Cause 1: He couldn’t cope with his mother’s death and scientists say they his psychological mind spirals downward
Cause 2: Didn’t have any social interactions with others without mother which led him to live in his fantasies
Cause 3: His mother held him back from other human interaction especially women
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Quickwrite: My final evaluation on La Llorona is she is the embodiment of pure evil, regret, and pain. from having to commit such a horrible murder in a blind rage and then spend rest of eternity looking for her children or taking other peoples children. La Llorona could have been a strong woman and not taken her pain out on her kids. She could have moved on herself with her two kids and given them a good life herself. Her children had no reason to get their lives’ taken away because of their bad father.
Cause 1: Difficult childhood and the death of his mom was a definite hit for him. He clearly adored his mom and could not fathom losing her.
Cause 2: He lacked social skills and was very isolated, his fathers alcoholism, and he seemed to have already been dealing with mental illness.
Cause 3: he was so attached to his mother and did not know how to build relationships with anyone else.
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Quick write:
My final judgment on my monster is a solid B. The mummy character reminded me of Frankenstein in the sense that neither one asked to be created or resurrected. It was a choice not of their own. The mummy only proceeded in life the only way he knew how.
1. His dominating mother and her teaches of women being evil.
2. The isolation he experienced growing up on the farm.
3. The death of his mother. It was a huge loss for him because she is all he had in the world.
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quick write:
My final judgment of my monster is an A because who isn’t afraid of Penny wise. The only flaws he has is that he is easy to defeat but his advantage is that he is so scary you forget that its all an illusion.
Cause 1: Gein was to attached to his mother and had no father figure to guide him.
Cause 2: Gein was to close to his mother and didn’t know how to handle her death on his own.
Cause 3: Gein was all on his own and had no guidance so he lost his mind.
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I felt although my monster committed horrible acts some of them could be understandable. For example my monster wanted to seek vengance for the killing of her mother and father by a yakuza boss.
1) Cause : Ed’s mothers influence
2)Cause : He suffered from a mental illness
3) Cause : Absence of his father
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Quick Write 1:
My grade for my monster, Anton Chigurh from No Country for Old Men, is an A. Chigurh is a thrilling, scary, monster that acts to convey questions about morality and justice. As a monster, he works well in representing the culture of the time. He embodies existential angst, paranoia, and nihilism. Because of this, I truly believe that he will stand the tests of time as one of the best cinematic monsters ever.
Causes for Ed Gein to Become a Monster:
Cause 1: He had a rough childhood with an alcoholic father so he depended on his mother.
Cause 2: He formed an unhealthy obsession with his mother and largely isolated himself from others
Cause 3: After his mother died and he was truly alone, he officially cracked
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I would give my monster Dart an A as for giving a grade to a monster.
We have all come to realize that there is more to monsters than just scary looking. Now that I have analyzed the Demodog/Demogorogon that seemed to be just a fiction monster on Netflix, I find that this monster fits all 7 Monster Theory. I wonder if the creators of such shows also reverse engineer their monster to fit this criteria, or is it just coincidence?
What causes led to Ed Gein to Becomming a Monster:
1. I definetly think that Ed Gein was born with a type of disability, which eventually was a schizophrenia.
2. Ed had mommy issues, combined with his mental issues I think created a further developed condition where he had a dependency on his mother.
3. He was awkward, not exactly a social reject, but not one really liked in particular. He was anti social usually working and going home. Spending a lot of time alone. I think this condition provided him a lot of time alone to explore the desires that we find to be gruesome gross and why we consider him a monster. He was disconnected from reality.
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