What Does Being Human Mean?

When asked "what does being human mean?" many things come to mind.  However, the one that stands out to me above all the others is our ability to love one another.

Every girl dreams of the day that she will walk down the isle and marry the man of her dreams.  Later dreaming of the little children she will have to hold when they are scared, make multiple birthday cakes for, and tuck them in at night.  Yes, animals do have babies and yes, animals do travel together most of the time in little "families".  Both of these though are for survival, not because they have that deep compassionate love for each other.

Humans and animals alike connect to each other on that basic level.  Humans, however, are able to connect to each other on a much deeper level.  How we connect to our families is like none other.  We share things with the ones we love that we would never share with just anybody.  Animals just rely on each other for protection and food.  They don't spend time getting to know each other to find out their fears, their dreams, or who they truly are.  Humans spend mostly their whole life trying to find that one person who they connect to the most.  Animals just travel with whoever will keep them safe and increase their chances of surviving the longest.

I have a dog and she wants to be loved.  How could you tell me that they don't care about being loved?  Its true.  Animals love to be loved.  The only difference is they don't care who that person is as long as they are feeding, petting, and taking care of them.  With humans, not everybody gets along with everybody.  We don't just fall in love with the first person that gives us attention.  Where humans are very picky, animals could really care less.

How is the Monster More Human Than Frankenstein?

Ironically, the monster in the novel Frankenstein shows more human qualities than his human creator, Victor Frankenstein.
Humans take care of each other.  From day one, as soon as Victor saw his creation's hideousness, he abandoned him and let him survive on his own.  The monster had to learn to survive alone in the world.  He quickly learned about fire, shelter, and food that he could gather to eat.  Doing all this with no help from his creator.

The monster took full blame for his actions; accepting the fact that he had done wrong.  However, Victor never took the blame for his creation.  Even after his friends and family were killed by the monster's own bare hands Victor never said a word.  Frankenstein even let innocent Justine be hung for being charged of the murder of William when he knew for a fact that the monster had done it.

Time and time again the monster proves himself to be more human than his own human creator, Victor.  This proves that being a monster does not mean what you look like from the outside, but what comes out from within.