Monsters as Metaphors

Buffy did this well but how do you mosnters as metaphors for stuff like gang violence, rape, bullying and other serious issues that plague teens and young adults? Also, I am thinking about is taking a step further by utilizing rainbow colored morality so that I do not not put anyone in the right. We are human and the various monsters we had created out of our minds are mostly metaphors anyway.

Edit: From what I had read on the trope page, the Fair Folk are genuinely frightening creatures who wouldn't bat-a-lash "helping" any human who crosses them. We already had a thread on gods and I know it is useless effort to trya dn use human morality on them (or can we?) but why do the F Air Folk show any interest in humans at all? What were the Fair Folk metaphors for?

edited 10th Jul '11 8:43:09 AM by GAP

I don't think The Fair Folk are really a metaphor for anything in particular, but they're strongly associated with the "other" and fear of the unknown. So collectively, they represent dangerous outsiders, and could perhaps be used as part of an aesop about xenophobia.

My monsters would be insulted if I called them metaphors for anything. They don't like to be insulted.

Generally, "Monster as Metaphor" should be something the reader can read into the story, but could enjoy the story without directly picking that up. So you might use The Fair Folk and their Blue-and-Orange Morality as a metaphor for how colonialist societies fail to understand the natives of the country they're colonizing. But the plotline should be able to work even if the readers just see them as weird, alien critters.

Most monsters are flexible when it comes to metaphors—are werewolves a metaphor for the beast that inhabits human hearts? The urse to be one with nature? Sexual desire? Alcoholism? Take your pick.