Popular Culture Review Vol. 23, No. 2, Summer 2012 | Page 75

The Evolution of The Thing 71 cultural perspective, the struggle represents the conflict between the military priority of dealing with a clear and present danger compared to science’s desire to promote knowledge, even when it poses a danger to the general public. The arrogant scientist, a reflection of the archetypal Dr. Frankenstein, reminds the viewers of the inhuman experiments of Nazi scientists such as Joseph Mengele and of the unleashing of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. During this time period, Americans put more faith in the military than in the scientists (and politicians), as attested by the wide popularity of General Douglas McArthur. The scientist believes that the alien must represent an advanced technology since it came from a world in which the inhabitants were able to build a space ship, which was beyond the capability of human beings. The alien is also a form of plant life, devoid of the emotions and sex drive which the scientist believes have held back human progress. Unfortunately though, the alien seems to have no desire to communicate with earth beings, only to destroy them and to survive on their blood. Dr. Carrington actually uses some of the tissue from the alien’s arm, which the sled dogs pulled off, to begin breeding seedlings which ostensibly will evolve into full grown aliens, like the one attacking the compound. The alien (played by James Amess) displays only savagery and destruction, seeming to be incapable of building a space craft or of sharing knowledge. In appearance, it is a clear imitation of the Frankenstein monster, as is Carrington’s stubborn defense of it, reminiscent of the obsessed Dr. Frankenstein. In this film, a new weapon is put into play to destroy the alien: electricity. Captain Hendry and his men employ an electric cable to bum the vegetative alien to death. In spite of its advanced scientific knowledge and of Dr. Carrington’s desperate attempts to warn it or save it, the alien walks straight into the trap and is destroyed. As follow up, Hendry destroys the seedlings Dr. Carrington had produced from the alien arm in order to eliminate all possibility of any continuing alien presence. Ultimately, it is human camaraderie that saves the day. “The group becomes for [Howard] Hawks, a metaphor for the American dream—a nation capable of facing the challenge of the unknown and facing its own diversity and division, not through strength or knowledge alone, but through an abiding affection that bonds it together” (Phillips 52). Part of the terror the film inspires is that of “the Other,” an unknowable intelligence bent on the destruction of humanity. The cultural perspective comes at that time both from the revelations of the Concentration Camps showing the depths of evil the Nazis were capable of and the single-minded enmity of the Japanese with their kamikaze attacks. Now, the Chinese hordes, described as the “Yellow Peril,” and the implacable Russians, also possessing a huge and determined military, represented an incomprehensible threat to American values. Some critics feel that the threat symbolized is nearer to home in the form of the “corporation man” who pursues business over human concerns (Phillips 55), a similar complaint from the Depression era about the Hoover administration. The