Stephen King’s “My Creature from the Black Lagoon” is an expository essay that exposes how children are better able to accept horror than adults. Using his own experiences to support his thesis; King states that children contrast from adults in that they can easily accept terror and fantasy because their minds still engage in fantasy and make-believe. An amused and slightly cynical King uses complex sentences and adult-oriented vocabulary with examples of children’s stories to show the reader how easily fear is instilled in a child; while showing that adults experience great difficulty in experiencing the same. The reader feels manipulated and angry about the inner workings of their childhood, yet enlightened by this new information. In a
Would you risk your life to save a lonely friend who was about to die on account of malicious gossip? In the Witch of Blackbird Pond the setting is New England along it's bleak shores. The main character Katherine is from Barbados because her grandpa had just died and she was traveling to America to live with her Uncle and Aunt who did not even know she she was coming. When she arrived her Aunt whose name was Rachel received her with open arms but her Uncle was not as open and wanted her to earn her keep. There was another character who was unmentioned for a while, her name was Hannah Tupper. Kits initial reaction to Hannah was anxiety and fear But she then softened up to Hannah. Her first interaction with Hannah was a helpful one in her time of need and self pity. The view and opinion of Hannah changed through the book from a kind old lady to admiration and unconditional love.
Are adults overprotective of their children? To what point do we protect children? Where should the line be drawn? Along with those questions is how easily children can be influenced by these same adults. Two poets, Richard Wilbur and Billy Collins, express the ideas of how easily children can be manipulated and how sometimes adults think they are protecting their innocent children, when in reality they are not. Wilbur and Collins express these ideas in their poems through numerous literary devices. The literary devices used by Wilbur and Collins expose different meanings and two extremely different end results. Among the various literary devices used, Wilbur uses imagery, a simple rhyme scheme and meter, juxtaposition of the rational and irrational, and a humorous tone to represent the narrator’s attempt to “domesticate” irrational fears. Conversely Collins uses symbols, historical interpretations, imagery, diction and other literary devices to depict the history teacher’s effort to shield his students from reality. In the poems, “A Barred Owl,” by Richard Wilbur, and “The History Teacher,” by Billy Collins, both poets convey how adults protect and calm children from their biggest, darkest fears and curiosities.
Young adult fiction is a unique area in its own way, and one that incorporates forms of lives not common in society. The book, Maze Runner is a typical example of adult fiction in which the author presents scenarios involving various forms of life, which readers can learn from and apply to their own, as well. To begin with, by reading this book in class, students will not only learn about magic and terror, but also about sorrow, bravery, friendship as well as suffering in attempts to find redemption. Everything about this book is fictional but subsequent events from previous ones make things even more real. In the beginning, fiction is achieved when the main character, Thomas, wakes up in some metal box, but has no memory of the person he is, only remembering his name (Dashner 1).The place in which the boys live is covered in high wall and called the glade. Additionally, outside the maze are monsters called grievers, which can make a person undergo the process of ‘changing’ upon being stung. The fictitious nature of this book...
Throughout their early life, children feel oppressed by their parents. From being constantly nagged to being misunderstood, children can feel that their parents dislike them. With screams and threats, with lions lurking, Ray Bradbury utilizes foreshadowing and symbolism to uncover those dark feelings that dwell within a child.
The article Why We Crave Horror Movies by Stephen King distinguishes why we truly do crave horror movies. Stephen King goes into depth on the many reasons on why we, as humans, find horror movies intriguing and how we all have some sort of insanity within us. He does this by using different rhetorical techniques and appealing to the audience through ways such as experience, emotion and logic. Apart from that he also relates a numerous amount of aspects on why we crave horror movies to our lives. Throughout this essay I will be evaluating the authors arguments and points on why society finds horror movies so desirable and captivating.
Mark Twain once stated, “You can’t depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus” (Brainy Quote). Despite the imaginative challenges children are faced with in reality, they are able to cope with the advantage of time and mental resilience. Stephen King in his essay, "My Creature from the Black Lagoon" from the Wake Tech English 111 Reader, compared the idea of imaginative strength in children and in that of adults to see who would better fit the horror genre audience. Stephen King recalls one particular time from his past that sends shivers down even the hardest of spines.
In Lord of the flies, chapter one, the boys are trapped on an island,that has a lagoon. A lagoon is an extended salt water section that is separated from the actual ocean. The fair boy now known as Ralph points out: “This is an island. At least I think it’s an island. That’s a reef out in the sea” (Golding 7-8). The fair boy mentions the reef, which means a ridge of rocks that lie above or below the sea. There were also many trees, but since their plane crashed, that caused most of the trees to fall. While the boys start to go forward into the island they discover other things on the island: “The shore was fledged with palm trees. These stood or leaned or reclined against the light and their green feathers were a hundred feet up in the air
King compares a civilized adult to a childhood fear. He expounds his thought by saying, “It urges us to put away our more civilized and adult penchant for analysis and to become children again, seeing things in pure black and whites” (406). When he mentions being a child again, it makes the reader have a flashback to when they experienced fear as a
Horror is one of many fears humans have. We all have many terrors, but horror is the one that gets the best of us. Some crave, while others resent, the feeling horror movies bring to our body and the emotions that we experience. In Stephen King’s article, “Why We Crave Horror,” he explains that it is a part of the “Human Condition,” to crave the horror. King gives many strong and accurate claims on why we crave the horror movies, such as; testing our ability to face our fears, to re-establish our feelings of normality, and to experience a peculiar sort of fun.
I have provided a clear evaluation of his essay in an organized way using the appropriate standards of evaluation. In understanding why humans “Crave Horror Movies” even when some people get nightmares after watching them we find the importance of our emotions and fears. We find those emotions and fears form a body of their own which needs to be maintained properly in order to remain healthy. We see how emotions can be controlled though viewing horror movies. Stephen King’s “Why We Crave Horror Movies” is a well written essay with convincing analogies, comparisons, and urban humor.
When I was young I would always watch “scary movies” with my sister. For this reason, Every night I would have nightmares after each movie. By all means, I’d end up on the other side of the bed or on the floor. Given that, Stephen King claims his short story “ Why We Crave Horror” is to crave horror by facing our fears and, re-establish our feelings normalcy by getting used to the horror towards something that is called the human condition provided that, he is right about his claims. By all means, His three claims are “To show we can,that we are not afraid, that we can ride this roller coaster”. “ We also go to re-establish our feelings of essential normality”. “ If we share a brotherhood of man, then we also share an insanity of man”.
Have you ever experienced that feeling when your heart beat goes into hyper drive, your palms start to perspire, and your muscles tense up? Fear is an emotion that everyone has succumbed to at least once in their lifetime. Our fears are like our shadows, for they follow us around to wherever we may go. They are lingering in the back of our minds from the moment we wake up in the morning until our heads hit the pillow at night. Fears are so powerful, however, that they can even crawl into our dreams and manifest into other beings. We, as humans, like to put names or concepts to either faces or objects; we like to possess the ability to visualize what something or someone looks like. As a result, our fears are personified into monsters. Prolific essayist, Chuck Klosterman, points out how “Frankenstein’s monster illustrated our trepidation about untethered science” and “Godzilla was spawned from the fear of the atomic age.” In Klosterman’s article, “My Zombie, Myself: Why Modern Life Feels Rather Undead,” he tackles the
The City of Beasts by Isabel Allende has a main theme of coming of age. Though the main character, Alex, only ages a few weeks during the novel, he matures a lot, and changes greatly from the beginning to the end. Within the tribe, he completes a ceremony to become a man, but more importantly, his mindset changes, and he becomes more grown up and responsible. Isabel Allende was born in Lima, Peru, and grew up listening to stories and legends about the rainforest and indigenous peoples there. The City of the Beasts was created from the memory of these stories, and was written in Allende’s native spanish, to keep it “pure to her past”. The book itself takes place in the Amazon rainforest, and follows an expedition into the rainforest in search
We all have cravings, be it for snacks or sweets, there is always something we desire. We crave horror in the same way. In Stephen King’s essay, “Why We Crave Horror Movies,” he argues that people need to watch horror films in order to release the negative emotions within us. King believes that people feel enjoyment while watching others be terrorized or killed in horror movies. King’s argument has elements that are both agreeable and disagreeable. On one hand he is acceptable when claiming we like the thrill and excitement that comes from watching horror movies; however, his views regarding that the fun comes from seeing others suffer cannot be agreed with because the human condition is not as immoral as he claims it to be.
The idealized reality that the narrator dreams of at each point in his life is reflected in the author’s language use. The description of childhood escape contains clichés found in children’s adventure books, such as "keep cool," "the old right hook," and "dirty dogs." As an adolescent, the descriptions are more mysterious and sexual, including references to Dracula and to rape. The descriptions as an adult are the most casual and slangy, suggesting a decline in the narrator’s intellect, the result of complete indifference. At this point he sees reality for all that it is, and finds this unfulfilling compared to his earlier idealizations.