Goals
- Develop understanding of Causal Relationships
- Narratives and Causality
Quick Write 1
What do you see as the precipitating cause that led Ed Gein to become the monster? Make sure to explain why.
Causal Relationships
Causality: the relationship of cause and effect
You should identify the types of causal relationships on your charts (you might use different types of arrows, different colors, or simply labels to show what kind of cause is being mapped).
- Necessary Cause: any factor that must be in place for something to occur.
- Sufficient Cause: is a condition that always produces the effect in question.
- Precipitating Cause: the proverbial straw that breaks a camel’s back. / The park that sets the blaze.
- Proximate Cause: nearby and often easy to spot.
- Remote Cause: may act at some distance from an event but be closely tied to it.
- Reciprocal Cause: you have a reciprocal situation when a cause leads to an effect that, in turn, strengthens the cause.
- Contributing Factors: add to the causes to bring about the effect.
Correlation vs. Causation
Here is a great video that helps you think about the difference between cause and effect or causation versus correlation, or things happening close together. Correlation is not causality.
Narratives and Causality
The Ed Gein documentary that we watched did a great job of providing lots of information about the case as well as interviews and multiple perspectives. Ultimately, what the documentary did was try to put together the bits and pieces into a comprehensive narrative. One that tries to explain why he did what he did. The narrative they tried to get across was that Gein killed those women because of the way his mother brought him up.
The people behind the documentary constructed the story so that the conclusion for why Ed did what he did was ultimately his mother’s fault. It is easy to believe it on the first watch of the Documentary. They did not highlight situations that would call this into question. Ultimately, they did a good job of telling us their perspective for why Ed Gein became a monster.
Your job in writing a causal analysis is to tell us the story as you see it. Convince us with evidence and explanation as to why you think the monster came to be, or the effects that are connected with the monster. Make sure we can follow the narrative and see the conclusions you come up with.
Causal Chain
Cause > Effect 1 > Effect 2 > Effect 3
Example: Mother’s Death > Ed Gein > Psycho novel > Psycho movie > Slasher Films > Silence of the Lambs
If we make small enough jumps with obvious causation, we can travel far and over time. By telling the story with enough evidence and connections we can reach new conclusions that others might not see. If you fail to do this, you seem illogical and your story fails.
Causal Analysis video
Phrasing the Questions
All good research begins with a purpose and a question. For this next assignment, your question has to be clear and your topic needs to be clear. Once you have decided on a monster or monster category to study, it is time to come up with an appropriate question to help guide you.
Monsters are a very popular topic in our society, what we are doing in this class is thinking of them in context with the culture that produces them. A clear research question will help guide your research and analysis.
Quick Write 2
- What monster are you going to research and study?
- Decide if you want to investigate the cause or the effect.
- Write your research question.
Example:
- Vampires
- Causes
- What led to the development of the vampire myth?
If you remember, we previously saw a TED educational video that addressed this question.
Pick a monster we have not done at length in the class. DO NOT pick Ed Gein.
Homework
- Weekly journal
- Read How Twitter is Reshaping the Future of Storytelling
Professor Ramos' Blog 
Quick Write 1: I think that the precipitating cause that caused Ed Gein to murder was the death of his mother. Ed Gein had an unhealthy obsession with his mother, and when she died it drove him over the edge. I believe the death of his mother led to a downward spiral in his mental health, that he chose to deal with in an unhealthy manner (by muderering people).
Quick Write 2: The monster I am going to research and study is Ted Bundy (a serial rapist and murderer). I want to investigate the cause. My research question is: What caused Ted Bundy to become a serial rapist and murderer?
LikeLike
Quick write 1: I believe that the leading factor causing Ed Gein to become a monster was the death of his mother. According to the sources we have read and watched so far, they state that Ed Gein was very attached to his mother as a child and young adult. Though she was abusive, he believed her to be so amazing that she was like an angel to him. It was said that Gein’s brother would find ways to go against their mother, and Gein supposedly killed him in a fire for this. When Gein’s mother died, he set aside her room in the house as almost a sanctuary, and began to kill women randomly to use their body parts as a reminder of his mother.
Quick write 2: I am going to research on Doctor Josef Mengele, the Nazi doctor in charge of the Auschiwtz-Birkenau camp in germany during world war ii. I want to investigate the effect of his actions. My research question is: What happened because of Doktor Mengele’s research in Auschwitz?
LikeLike
Quick Write #1
I feel that Gein was already suffering with mental illnesses prior to the killings but the deaths of his family members pushed it further. In addition his family life was not in the best condition when he was growing up so it also plays into the mental scarring.
Quick Write #2
1)The monster I’m going to research and study is Al Capone and the organized crime he did at that time.
2)I want to be able to research the effects the mafia had at the time and how it affected society.
3)What were the Societal effects of Al Capones mafia ?
LikeLike
Quick Write 1:
I believe the precipitating cause that led to Ed Gein becoming the monster he was, was the death of his mother. He saw her as his everything and worshiped her despite her abusive tendencies toward him. Her death made him fragile and resorted to his monstrous ways in an effort to bring her back in some fashion.
Quick Write 2
1. Harold Shipman.
2. Effects
3. How did Shipman’s malpractice effect medical practice going forward?
LikeLike
Quickwrite 1: I think the precipitating cause of ed gein becoming a serial killer would be his mother. The reason being is that he worshipped her to be an angel. His mother taught him not to speak to strangers especially women this led out to him not having any social skills especially with women. He only talked to his mother too. The death of his mother was devastating for him because he loved his mother so much. This caused him to start by robbing graves and then murdering people to symbolize his mother and only his mother.
Quickwrite 2: I’m going to study and research Dennis Rader (BTK killer). I’m gonna research the cause of him becoming a serial killer but may later change to effect when i do more research on him. The question I have in mind would be: What factor caused him to be a serial killer?
LikeLike
Quick Write 1:
The precipitating cause of what led to Ed Gein becoming a murder, could have been the isolation that his mom kept him away from people and the hate she builds up in his head to hate women. Since Ed Gein was so fond about his mom that when she died, he didn’t know how to live with out her existence. So that led him to kill women, maybe in his mind he was making his mom happy to hurt women, since she in graved on how horrible women are. Losing his mom mentally affected him because now he was a lonely and drove him insane.
Quick Write 2:
1.I’m going to research Pedro Alonzo Lopez
2. I’ll be investigating the cause of Pedro Lopez.
3. What made Pedro Alonzo Lopez start killing 400 people? Or What caused him to commit these murders.
LikeLike
Quick Write 1: The precipitating cause that led to Ed Gein becoming a monster is the death of his mother. There were many factors that also attributed to his transformation, but this seems to be the one that as it says “broke the camel’s back.” He didn’t start killing until after his mother’s death so it’s logical to think that this was the precipitating cause.
Quick Write 2:
1. I’m going to research Charles Manson
2. Cause
3. What led to Charles Manson becoming the notorious serial killer and cult leader that he is known as today.
LikeLike
Quick Write 1
The precipitating cause that lead Ed Gein to become the monster he is known as today was the unhealthy relationship he had with his mother and women. Gein’s mother was not only abusive, but also very manipulative. She would tell him that all other women besides her were evil in some way. This caused him to become obsessed with her thinking extremely highly of her and when she died he was not able to cope properly. After this loss he became unhinged and would even later on make a suit of human skin and wear it to attempt to become his mother.
Quick Write 2
1. The monster I want to research and study is the monster of Miramichi also known as Adam legere who is a Canadian serial killer
2. I want to investigate the effect
3. How did Legere’s evasion of the police effect the rural city of Miramichi and its people?
LikeLike
• Quick write 1:
o What do you see as the precipitating cause that led Ed Gein to become the monster? Make sure to explain why.
• I think the upbringing ed had was a major factor towards his perception on women and the hidden demonic desire he had deep inside the recess of his mind.
• Quick write 2:
o What monster are you going to research and study?
o Decide if you want to investigate the cause or the effect.
o Write your research question.
• I think I am going to review a serial killer for my monster. And I could diagnose the cause which in turn caused a chain reaction for the event of horror films and terror to engulf society causing a fascination and fear with these individuals. My research question is “why is the media so crazed over serial killers and how do they influence society and the entertainment business?”
LikeLike
Week 4/20
Quick Write 1
What do you see as the precipitating cause that led Ed Gein to become the monster? Make sure to explain why.
Precipitating cause is defined as the “straw that broke the camel’s back. In the case of Ed Gein is was the death of his mother. The death of Ed’s mother was the unveiling of the monster. Ed was already a fragile human being with his upbringing of a alcoholic father and dominant mother. After Ed’s father and brother died all Ed knew was the love of his mother. Ed’s mother was the life line keeping him connected to the world. Once she was gone he lost his way, he “snapped,” leading to the mutilated murders.
Quick Write 2
The monster I am thinking of researching is a siren.
I am not sure which one I am leaning towards when it comes to the research of the siren monster..
Possible research questions: What created sirens to be killers? Who is responsible for creating the Siren?
LikeLike
Quick Write 1
The what would be considered last moment that caused Ed Gein to become a monster was the death of his mother. Ed already had mental issues, however once she died it basically broke his mind and started the path of becoming a monster for him.
Quick Write 2
I’m still thinking of doing Majin Buu from Dragon Ball Z for my monster.
Possible research question: What caused majin buu to become a being of destruction?
LikeLike
Quickwrite 1:
Ed Gein could have been born with mental instability, and due to his rough home life, he was not given the tools he needed to overcome his psychological instability. Only a few short years before his psychosis in which he started murdering people, his father died, and then three short years later, he lost his brother and mother within a year. These three events in a row would be hard for anyone to work through, and for Gein, without any support systems in place, he hit a breaking point.
Quickwrite 2:
I would like to research the loch ness monster’s cause. What was the thought process that brought about a story of a huge water monster in which no more than one can be alive at any given time?
LikeLike
Quick Write #1
I think the main cause of Gien’s transformation was most likely his abusive background. Growing up in conditions like he did more than likely lead to long lasting mental issues that were only worsened by other factors in his life. His mother dying was his breaking point, without her, he had no direction and no one to support him. His love for her turned into this gross obsession that needed to be filled once she had passed away and he did that by killing women and desecrating their bodies sadly.
Quick Write #2
I will probably write another essay on Junji Ito’s Tomie
Since there is a lot of growth in her character as the story goes on, I am going to investigate the cause of Tomie’s descent into becoming a monster.
What are the stages that lead to Tomie’s development into becoming and being labeled as a monster?
LikeLike
Quickwrite one: two min
The precipitating cause that led Ed Gein to become a monster would be him not learning how to overcome trauma. With this in mind, his mother passed away and he did not know how to deal with the trauma which then made him lose his sanity.
Quickwrite two:
Pablo Escobar
Causes
What led him to continue being exposed when he had the money to stop?
LikeLike
Quick Write 1
I believe the reason Ed Gein began to murder was because of the death of his mother. Because he worshiped her so much; when he lost her he couldn’t handle losing someone he depended on. He targeted women I believe because of his inability to socialize with them so it built a hatred toward women.
Quick write 2
The monster I chose to write about was the serial killer John Wayne Gacy since he was sort of similar to Jeffrey Dahmer. I definitely want to write about the cause. What led him to be one of the world’s top serial killers.
Reasearch question: Gacy had a decent career as a building contractor, what made him turn to murdering, especially young boys? Why would he throw away his career?
LikeLike