Photo by Yaopey Yong
Writers use monsters as metaphors to mean different things in stories. These characters and entities in children’s stories help the kids learn lessons in life, making them develop better attitudes as they grow.
When we were young, we heard stories of monsters in the adventure of young characters. These characters could be fighting off monsters and achieving their goals, or they could be fighting enemies alongside monsters that they trusted with all their lives.
Norma Fleagane’s Sneaky the Hairy Mountain Monster is a series of stories featuring a three-eyed monster named Sneaky. In six books, the author allowed her young readers to learn lessons about bravery, friendship, adventure, and growing up.
How do authors make use of monsters in children’s stories? Metaphors! Metaphors are representations of subjects in a story that do not appear as such in the real world.
Monsters as metaphors in children’s stories provide life lessons that the young readers can internalize as they grow. Here’s what monsters mean in children’s stories:
Fear and Faith
The most common use of monsters in both adult and children’s stories is a channel of fear. Authors of the horror genre often use monsters as metaphors for fear and danger. Fear might sound like a negative emotion, but it actually provides us protection and signals from something dangerous and life-threatening situations. In stories, monsters are used to instill fear and teach the kids about being careful in an area they are not familiar with.
Photo by Dr. Mia Stein, PhD
In some of these stories, the monsters allow the kids to learn more about faith, especially if it gears towards a faith-based direction. With this, kids learn to pray and connect with a Higher Power when feeling weary, fearful, doubtful, and concerned.
Self-doubt, Self-loathing, and Anxiety
In some intellectual stories for children of higher learning, monsters could represent self-doubt. Authors sometimes represent monsters as metaphors for self-doubt, self-loathing, and anxiety. So, every time a character feels self-doubt, the monster becomes scarier, bigger, and stronger. To fight back, the characters must learn to beat their own doubts, loathing, and anxiety, weakening the monsters that feed on these emotions.
Photo by Shubham Dhage
Imagination and Wonder
Most children’s stories depict monsters as metaphors for imagination and wonder. In these types of stories, the monsters tend to have more characters. Some of them can be scary, while others are friendly ones that accompany the protagonist on an adventure. Children are normally imaginative. The monsters that represent imagination and wonder tend to follow what most children would want to see.
Photo by Spencer Selover
Monsters as metaphors of imagination of wonder also prepares a child to learn more about the mysteries of what’s beyond. With this, a child hones their imagination for a world they want to see in the future. It also lets them build confidence for their talents they can show with the others.
The Self and the Friends
Mostly related to the monsters representing the imagination and wonder, stories with monsters as metaphors for the self and the friends tend to feature stereotypical characters that mirror children and their friends. In this world of monsters, the characters learn lessons from their adventure as they get to know more about the path they choose to travel on.
An Ostracized Individual
Monsters in some stories are a metaphor for ostracized individuals. Because monsters are feared for their power and physicality, they sometimes represent those people that were left out. In these stories, the children learn to accept individuals with physical differences. The youngsters also learn about empathy, allowing them to see through differences, such as race, life status, color, religion, gender, and physicality.
Adulthood
Children in stories tend to become scared of monsters that come after them. In these tales, monsters could represent adulthood and growth. Monsters as metaphors of adolescence and adulthood would come in warnings or foreshadowing. The characters tend to develop new skills and strengths as they try to unravel secrets in their adventure. These stories introduce children to the young adult genre, signifying their growth and development as people. These tales also provide more advanced storytelling and character development.
Related: Five Common Archetypes Found in Fictional Characters
Monsters as metaphors in children’s stories provide a lot of lessons and discoveries that allows a parent to guide their child on an adventure they would soon pursue on their own in the future.
Get a copy of Norma Fleagane’s Sneaky the Hairy Mountain Monster stories today!
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