Even if he truthfully confronted those around him and found that they had definitely made pacts with the devil he may have been mad at them, or even afraid of them. He would not, however have been suspicious and bitter. It was his suspicion and bitterness that destroyed his life and these feelings were fueled internally by his inability to confront the truth.
Stephen Cane can easily be compared to the boy that voices his point of view in "The Emperor's New Clothes". This is because of his ability to reveal his truthful opinions through his writings. Crane wrote the story "The Monster" the late 1800's when racism was a very real and almost natural part of life. What inspired him to write the story was .
the lynching of a man named Robert Lewis who had been accused, but not tried, for .
raping a white woman. This unjust racist deed helped him evaluate the prejudice against the black race and symbolize it all in one character, Henry Johnson. .
Stephen Cane's "The Monster" can be related to Nathaniel Hawthorne's "Young Goodman Brown" in that both characters go through transformations. While Goodman Brown's transformation was more spiritual and emotional, Henry Johnson's was more physical and mental. Johnson became the dark truth and the well kept secret of his town because of his ugliness. He was locked away in a barn so that people didn't have to look at something that made them feel guilty about being afraid. They knew there was still a human and hero under Johnson's scarred face, but were too selfish to take the time to swallow their fears and console him. Instead, he was their monster and the evil that put Whitomville in uproar.
Before Henry Johnson became a monster he was a prominent, well-known figure in Whitomville. Even with the limits of his race, both the black and white communities respected him. He showed how much kindness and bravado he had by saving his master's, Dr. Trescott's, son from their burning house.