"Hofmanstahal sighed, and looked out over the tossing sea. 'Monster. Always they say that of us; they, who feed off the burned flesh of living creatures'" (Bixby and Dean, 115).
It is here that Craig discovers that his companion is not all that he appears: a vampire. Like most normal people, he is shocked and frightened. He is also appalled that he is taken advantage of in such an intimate and invasive manner. He goes on to call Hofmanstahal all sorts of derogatory things and lead Hofmanstahal to say the aforementioned quote.
We, with our set diets in a modern world, find that anyone who does not follow the norm is strange and should be feared, banished, or ridiculed. Vegetarians, they are ridiculed because they don't want the "burned flesh of living creatures" in their systems. Foreigners eat all kinds of strange things that we find completely atrocious, but they look at us and wonder the same thing. Cannibals eat the living flesh of their own, which is not such a foreign concept in other species. Not that cannibalism should be endorsed, but the main point of this is that we cannot judge others based on their behaviors. Who are we to judge a behavior that someone has been doing their whole life?
I'm trying to find a more formal way of stating this, and find myself fumbling over the words. Who are we to judge what is right? What is right anyways? Who sets the standards for what is right? The whole idea of right-ness is brought up in just this one tiny section and I am left wondering this question.
Now I leave it to you, to let it resonate in your ears: Who sets the standards for what is right?
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