Pure Souls, Monstrous Rules: A Monster Theory Analysis of Systemic Marginalisation and Institutional Prejudice in TJ Klune’s The House in the Cerulean Sea

Author

Ms. Ann Mary Reilly A, Dr. Aseda Fatima R

Abstract

 “SEE SOMETHING, SAY SOMETHING.” (Klune 121) – a warning hung everywhere in the village of Marsyas, which keeps recurring in TJ Klune’s The House in the Cerulean Sea, portrays the bureaucratic influence in the minds of the villagers of Marsyas in considering the magical youth to be ‘Monsters’. People who stay around them, guard them, study them, and oversee them are all bound by DICOMY’s fabrications. But is magic their fault? Is expressing their heart a crime? Cohen’s Monster Theory analyses Systemic Marginalisation and Institutional Prejudice represented in the novel. The ‘monstrousness’ of the magical youth is not a biological reality but rather a political fabrication engineered to police societal boundaries. This is in fact, a juxtaposition: the ‘pure souls’ of the marginalised youth versus the ‘monstrous rules’ of the bureaucratic hegemony. The paper reveals that DICOMY, which functions to isolate, track, monitor, label and suppress the Marsyas magical youth, is the true monster and not the orphanage children.

Keywords

Monster Theory, DICOMY, Systemic Marginalisation, Institutional Prejudice, political fabrication, Marsyas orphanage children, pure souls.

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References

Allen, Paige. “What is Monster Theory?” Perlego, 16 Jul. 2024, https://www.perlego.com/knowledge/study-guides/what-is-monster-theory/

Cohen, Jeffrey Jerome. Editor. Monster Theory: Reading Culture. University of Minnesota, 1996.

James. “What is Speculative Fiction? Definition, Meaning & Subgenres Explained.” WHAT WE WRITING, October 13, 2025, https://whatwewriting.com/what-is-speculative-fiction/

Klune, TJ. The House in the Cerulean Sea. Tor, 2020.

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