The Power of Fear in Literature
The Power of Fear in Literature
A whole new environment was thrown at the young boy all of a sudden. He had never seen such different people, or so many people altogether. He had reached high school. Before this, he had gone to a small public school, which only consisted of about the number of people in one class in high school, and some classes even surpassed the amount in the entire school. He wasn’t sure what to do, where to go; his mind was in a state of blankness. His palms were sweating, along with the rest of his body because of all the beautiful girls he had never seen before; in addition, to make all these matters worse, he was a shy guy.
This quiet young man decided to face the facts: he was going to be attending this school for four years, so he might as well make the best of the time being. He didn’t know where to start making a good impression, so he started in the classroom. He was intimidated because he had heard the classes were much more arduous compared to the ones in elementary and middle school, but he finally gave it a shot. According to Webster’s New World Dictionary, “fear is the anxiety caused by real or possible danger, pain, etc.; fright.” There is a gargantuan amount of people who would like to avoid fear altogether, but it is a part of life and without it, life would be extremely boring. The fear people endure can be perceived positively because it can help people do things they never thought of doing; on the other hand, it can deter them from achieving the goals they have set for themselves. This notion is shown in the following pieces of work: The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Tragedy of Macbeth by William Shakespeare, and Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton.
Since the beginning of time, fear has been accompanying everybody that has walked on this planet and maybe even on other ones. As H.P. Lovecraft puts it, “The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear” (www.phobialist.com/fears). This quote reveals how everything people do is based on how strong the fear in somebody actually is, this determines if they are able to go out and achieve their goal, or just pay...