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• 1 2020-04-21T16:59:57-07:00 To the Past 13 Monstrosity in Others plain 2020-04-22T19:11:23-07:00 Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children presents the most human monsters compared to the other texts in this exhibit. This young adult novel tells the story of Jacob Portman, who learns about his own magical powers after the murder of his grandfather. He travels to Wales with his father, where he discovers Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, a home for human children with unique abilities trapped in a time loop of September 3, 1940 (Riggs 131). The children and Miss Peregrine, their caretaker and a ymbryne (a peculiar who can shapeshift into a bird) (145), must repeat the same day over and over again in this loop to prevent themselves from dying after the home was destroyed by a bomb on that date. Jacob learns of the various children that his grandfather knew when he was younger and their abilities, including Bronwyn Bruntley, a girl with incredible strength, Enoch O'Connor, a boy who can raise the dead ba short period of time, Millard Billings, an invisible boy, and Emma Bloom, a girl who can make fire from her hands. These children are known as peculiars, and Jacob learns that he can see the hollowgasts, human-like creatures that have tentacle mouth and who devour peculiars creating during a failed experiment for eternal youth (255) (hollows that consume enough peculiars turn into wights and appear more human-like). The novel ends with Dr. Golan, a wight that was in Jacob's life before he learned about his ability, kidnapping Miss Peregrine, who the peculiars and Jacob are able to rescue at the cost of their home finally being destroyed forever as their loop slips (332).
  
  This novel uses actual photographs that the author has collected over time to tell its story and relies on very human characters through out. Unlike the other three texts, this text gives a reason for the monsters (in this case the wights and hollows) and encourages the readers to root for the peculiars, who are very much like characters from old freak shows or carnivals. These images make the story seem more realistic to the reader, providing visual "proof" of the peculiars and their freak show-like abilities. 
  The peculiar's abilities are very much a part of their being, and in many other cases this would make them monstrous. Their monstrosity is inescapable "since it is inscribed in the texture of...living" (Lestel 260) for them and the society that they live in (the loops outside of what is non-peculiar society) normalizes their monstrosity. The wights and hollows, on the other hand, also have their monstrosity embedded in them. They are the result of a failed experiment, remains of the humans that they once were and it is only when they become more monstrous by consuming peculiars (of which they were) are they able to appear more human (with the expectation of their eyes) (Riggs 257). The monstrosity of these creatures both from within themselves (being peculiar) but also from some external force (the science behind the experiment and the failure that led to the explosion that left them in their condition). Even Jacob's abilities is a part of him, allowing him to physically see things other cannot and to help peculiars fight off hollows. This novel complicates what it means to be a monster, making monstrosity part of the gentic makeup of both the heroes and the villains.