-Jasmine C
Thursday, May 3, 2012
Fear is What We Fear the Most
As I am finishing up Native Son by Richard Wright, the novel has forced me to ponder what emotion drives our nation the most. The main character Bigger Thomas is driven by fear. He lives his life, often makes terrible decisions, and is at one point ultimately broken all by his fear. Those around Bigger also seem to act upon their fear is well, whether it be of Bigger or of what society may think. Native Son has made me wonder, what is the most moving emotion upon people? Why does fear have such a choke hold on society? Whether it be financial and economic scares or a new discovered disease among our food intake, fear seems to get people to evaluate their lifestyles and make major decisions, good or bad, no matter big or small. But why is it fear that we fear the most?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I also read this and I think that most people at that time were driven by this same emotion. This drive caused the stereotype of African Americans to basically fall into place. Your analysis is very good to say the least.
ReplyDelete-Jonathan S.
In a way it is natural that fear has significant influence on the action of human beings, since those human beings who did not act on their fears tend not to survive to reproductive age. However, evolution acts slowly, so it's unlikely that the fears could be coded in for anything more recent than hunter gatherer society, however, being human, we posses the capability to store knowledge in something other than our genes, due to language, so it's probable that what causes fear is also influenced by the memetics underlying society, which would explain the existance of fears in response to financial issues, which is exceedingly impropable to be something instinctive. That said, it is likely that the fears is nonetheless at least majorly influenced by what is termed nature, and so likely out of porportion due to our new methods of transmitting informations.
ReplyDeleteThough that's not to imply that most people acting on unfounded fears are stupid. Since calling people stupid is politically incorrect.
K. Lin
I completely agree that fear is the emotion that drives us the most, although I wish it wasn't true. I haven't read the book but I see some of the examples that you used from the book in real life, such as how fear drives us into corners and results in some very poor decisions.
ReplyDelete-Kevin W.
Fear seems to be among all humans at some point in time but fear should not be the driving emotion. Agreeing with Jonathan, fear is of the ignorant and drives stereotyping of the unknown, another major theme in Native Son.
ReplyDelete-Jasmine C
I think fear is one of the worst emotions ever because it drives us away from many opportunities. If fear was eliminated, I think life would be a lot better. I think that many people make decisions out of fear and often times that's where regret comes from.
ReplyDeleteIrene S.
I also read this book and it is interesting that you brought up emotion as a big part of the novel because i never analyzed the book from that perspective. I agree that emotion does drive the novel and everybody lets their fears limit what they do and say. I think that it is hard for people to live life absolutley fearless and worry free so fear and emotion really does drive all of our lives.
ReplyDelete-Kelly R.
I feel the harder we try to hide our fears the more they overcome us, but the quicker we address them the easier it is to move forward and live life without fearing any decisions we make. I think the biggest fear any human has is the fear of failure, we work so hard to receive acceptance from our peers and failing is something that drives us to believe we've lost that acceptance.
ReplyDelete-Secada C.
Jasmine-
ReplyDeleteAlthough fear may constantly drive society, sometimes forcing people to do what they may not always plan, I think it gives the world some excitement. If it weren't for fear, the societies might seem uneventful, and calm or almost boring a lot of the time. Fear seems to instigate and branch out from other emotions such as jealousy, aggressiveness, or even pride because of insecurities and the pressure individuals may experience from the people around them. People seem to act out in random or exaggerated ways in fear of what others might think of them. However, as these other emotions escalate into fear, they could get carried away and translated into other different ways, causing people to become fearful with over-exaggerated ideas like the thought of never getting married or never raising a family before death. The idea of loneliness tends to scare people, however some enjoy the independence. Furthermore, I think that because the human imagination is able to extend to a variety of places making the simplest of things incredibly complicated and challenging, pushing people to the point of fear. It may push people away from opportunities, but it may also allow people to become closer to their own personal goals if they imagine the worst case scenarios.
-Carleen R
your title alone inspired me to think deeper. What is fear if that's what we fear? clever. I shall continue to ponder this because it will bother me until i have come to a personal understanding.
ReplyDeletetoni g