English 215w

The short essay by Michel de Montaigne, "Of a Monstrous Child," begins with an unpretentious statement that clearly tells of the content within the essay, "This story will go its way simply." Stopping to absorb the unusual proclamation it is with very little effort that one might overlook the ending of this sentence, "for I leave it to the doctors to discuss it." A picture begins to be painted. Montaigne shows us the humanity within a monster by describing the many traits one might overlook while staring at the deformities and odd shape of the child. He conveys to his reader the solitude the child must feel with his many differences from those labeled as 'normal' as his own family uses this child as a side show in an attempt to make a few extra dollars. Even at such a young age-the world sees a deformed beast with it's unusual shape and unnatural cries, Montaigne sees an innocent and isolated baby without anyone to comfort its terrified cries and to settle his unrelenting fears.
Though this child begins the essay as normal and unmarked, this falsehood is short-lived and soon a realization of the truth comes forth with slow and consistent detail. The adolescent that Montaigne writes about fills the canvas with certain traits that Montaigne can only describe as a 'strangeness.' Throughout his description Montaigne relays to the reader what he sees and the feelings that fill his soul as he watches the child and those around him carry on their day. He writes of the baby's solitude, left alone by his family, with his only company as the doctors and nurses. He writes of the baby's awful cries, how they are unusual compared to other babies, and how he seems different from others, simply by sound.
With skill and slow subtle hints in detail, the reader begins to unfold a picture, like a well-loved child blanket each detail means more than the whole yet the pieces could not exist if not combined. The story of a unique child unlike the majority of those its age tugs at ones heartstrings with the many new thoughts the essay provokes. A scene slowly begins to show through the wet paint as Montaigne beings to fill in small areas in his story with detail and vibrant color, though leaving the main idea out completely. "The day before yesterday," Montaigne writes with eloquence, "[The child's family had been] leading about to get a penny or so from showing him." As if the child was a sideshow in a traveling circus, his own father among other members of his family, shows him as a freak to others, hoping to earn a few coins on the side.
As doctors and nurses flood the area, we see for the first time a clear view of the child in question is tenderly brought into the foreground for the first time. Perhaps this delay in exactly what separates the boy from others is not an attempt to bring about surprise to the reader. Instead, Montainge tries to ease the reader into the situation, as he appears to have affectionate feelings towards the boy, and writes lovingly about him as to protect him from the ridicule and harsh opinion of the outside world.
Montaigne delayed the details of specific traits the 'monstrous' boy to hold the very essence of the child. The suspense, the wonder, and the pure curiosity of what type of deformities, misshapen limbs, and other qualities of uniqueness this child possesses. Montaigne explains about the uniqueness of this lone child. He soon shows how he has learned that regardless of this child's looks, even with such a monstrous persona the author conveys of the child, he has seen that everyone, and perhaps everything contains a sense of humanity within them.
Montaigne talks of his peculiar cries, an odd topic for discussion when talking of a child. The author again shows affection for the child while talking of him and indeed, we now see the truth, that this is not a child, but a baby of merely fourteen months. However, the one detail that separates this baby from any other of the same would be the pure physical misfortune in which the baby has no control over. The author then writes about this poor child and the company he keeps-his Siamese twin brother. Aside form the doctors and nurses, whom have dissolved from sight; Montaigne describes a Siamese twin to which he is adjoined, connected from the chest downward. Even with the grotesque picture Montaigne paints of the baby's deformed limbs and adjoined chest, one can still see the innocence within the baby, and the purity of this child not knowing what his future holds and the difficult a life he will be forced to face.
Towards the end, Montaigne writes "We call contrary to nature what happens contrary to custom; nothing is anything by according to nature, whatever it may be." As he completes his study of this Siamese twin and its sibling, Montaigne has finally seen that this baby is not a freak. Throughout the entire essay he comes to the conclusion and writes such: The baby is not a freak because nature has made this child and its brother in such the fashion that they are. By nature's will they are as they have been made and as he stated nothing nature makes is abnormal. Montaigne shows the reader with Of Monstrous Child how this single child can possess any number of differences, and still be the exact same as any other child.