The vampire and worm monsters embody fear of Eastern reverse colonization

Evidence

Cannibalism represents more than the consumption of human flesh: it is a symbol of the threat posed to cultural, religious, and racial integrity. Dracula is a hybrid creature—a Jew, an Ottoman Turk, and the last of the race of vampires. Lady Arabella is a female version of the Count: she bites her victims and then drags them into an underground pit, where she transforms into a giant, white serpentine worm and eats them alive. The monster in The Beetle is a not a vampire, but comes from the East and transmogrifies, like Dracula and Arabella. In each case, these monsters invade Europe, symptomatic of the fears surrounding reverse colonization—“the return of the native.” — Sophia Rose Arjana, Muslims in the Western Imagination, 517

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the reader’s question of what each monster lets the West avoid seeing: reverse colonization is Europe’s anxiety about its own imperial practices returned.