Class paper

Mary Shelley wrote "Frankenstein" when she was 19 years old. She and her lover and a couple of other friends were visiting Switzerland and were bored and they held a contest to see who could write the best ghost story. She won.

I took a Literature Class at the local college in Barrow while I was there and one of the class assignments after reading the book and watching several versions of the book was to write a sequel..the book ended with the monster being chased into the arctic....

BIG MAN

The hunting party found a large unconscious man lying on an ice floe. They saw that he had burned his hands and that his face had been badly stitched in places. The men talked among themselves and decided to take the big man with him to see if he would live or die. The man eventually awoke enough to comprehend that he must eat the raw seal meat or perish. He ate the seal meat, the oil spread to his burns and gradually healed them.

The hunters paddled hard and sang songs and taught the big man their language by pointing or demonstrating what they meant. The big man quickly learned and was soon thanking the men for sharing their meat with him. Before long he was able to take part in the paddling. Occasionally they would stop for a time on an ice floe to hunt for more seal. A polar bear stalked them and tried to take a dead seal until the big man roared so fiercely that the bear was scared away. The hunters called him Big Man after that.

After many days, they arrived at the place the hunters called home. It was a small village and everyone was very happy to see the hunters and made many exclamations over Big Man. During the long trip Big Man decided that he was not done with man and decided to stay with the people he had come to like and admire. More importantly, the people accepted Big Man for what he was, a man, if a bit larger than others and with a few more scars. No one minded his scars, many of the hunters bore scars of their own. The children loved Big Man because he was so tall. They could clamber up his legs onto his shoulders and see farther away than anybody. It took almost all of the children in the village to bring Big Man to the ground in a wrestling match, though in truth he did not struggle as hard as he might.

Many years passed peacefully. Big Man became a valued member of the village. He became a skilled hunter gatherer. He favored gathering berries and roots in the summer and the elder women taught him to recognize important plants for curing sickness. The people came to trust his wisdom and Big Man was content.

In the way of the people he took a wife, once she had made him aware that she was attracted to him. The couple was happy and had twelve children. Big Man named the first five children; Victor, William, Justine, Elizabeth and Henry. He took his wife's advice for the names of the rest of the children.

When Big Man died he had twenty-five grandchildren and five great grandchildren, all of whom were a little taller than average and very, very strong.

Big Man's burial site was marked with two large upright bow head whale ribs. His descendants kept his belongings in a place of honor. He had made soap stone cooking bowls and small ivory carvings. The most mysterious of his belongings was a leather found journal that had writing on the cover. After several generations the site was abandoned.

Boston Whalers came to the area in the mid 1800's and established a trading post. This settlement evolved into a small modern city with archaeologists and anthropologists who discovered the burial site of Big Man by the late Twentieth century. All of his belongings were carefully catalogued and filed under the description written on the cover of the leather journal; "Frankenstein, V". The autopsy report described the body of a well preserved man, wrapped in furs,his teeth were good and he had black hair. The report also went on to theorize that the terrible scars were the result of a hideous injury and that he had survived well into old age looked after by a surprisingly caring society and extended family.

Big Man's belongings and journal remains to this day under the care of The Inupiat Heritage Center, in Barrow, Alaska.