Analysis of Soren Kierkegaard’s Novel: Fear and Trembling

My grandma once told me, “If you stay up too late at night, the boogeyman will get you”. I never believed her but I knew I wouldn’t want to see the Boogeyman if he actually existed. Most people would actually want to watch these horrible beings. In this case, they would want to view a horror movie such as “Friday the 13” or “Nightmare on Elm Street”. It is part of our Human Condition to be attracted to the films and asking for more. Stephen King’s claims in “Why we crave horror” asserts us that humans crave horror to face our fears, to re-establish our feelings of normalcy, and to experience a peculiar sort of fun.

What is a human person? How do human beings relate to God? Who am I? Why do I exist?

One of the most outstanding characteristics of humans is that we have a moral conscience- the ability to distinguish between right and wrong, as well as understand the consequences of actions beforehand. Nonetheless, religion remains important to society because it helps to refine and provide a deeper understanding of humans’ moral responsibility. There are instances where either people ignore religious practices in favor of reason and logic or follow only religious teachings that suit a particular situation. Chronicle of a Death Foretold is a novella that typifies the failure of religion to unify people and provide a common course for understanding life. The story talks about Santiago’s fight against fate and the probability of escaping death that is foretold beforehand. The priest symbolizes religion in the novella and readers observe that his actions are similar to those of ordinary people. Ordinarily, we expect the priest to uphold religious practices and bring people together when society is divided on an issue.

If God helped the ones who were suffering, millions of lived could have been saved. Therefore, he believes it was judicious of him, to get angry at God. Mr. Wiesel also represents his relationship he had with his father, in the start. Mr. Wiesel does not regret choosing to go with his father, rather than his mother. He shows he loves his father, as much as he loves his mother. This is where Mr. Wiesel starts to build a strong bond with his father. This interview showcases three main themes: the consequence of human judgement, loss of faith in God, and father-son relationships.

Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, “Fear is the main source of superstition.” In this quote Emerson brings the reason for superstition to be present for such a common feeling for people. Elie Wiesel uses Night to symbolize the persistent feelings of anxiety and fear shown through the characters and how they react in his memoir Night. One of many example is Elie Wiesel’s “Night”, is how the Elie and his father reacted when they arrived to Auschwitz.

Arthur Miller wrote “The Crucible” in 1952 and about forty years later explained his purpose in an article titled “Why I Wrote the Crucible.” Miller expresses some of the emotions he went through as his book gained popularity saying, “I remember those years...but I have lost the dead weight of the fear I had then. Fear doesn't travel well; just as it can warp judgment, its absence can diminish memory's truth.” At first, he refers to fear as dead weight as if it was useless but still pulling him down but then he explains the importance of fear. He claimed that fear can warp our judgement which seems realistic because when people are in a situation the causes fear they are known to take out of the ordinary action. Miller also suggests that fear is a crucial part of our memory and without fear our memories can fade and the truth of the issue as well. Miller was likely fearful of the

Upon returning from pillaging another English town, an Indian offers Mary Rowlandson a “gift” of a Bible, which he had stolen from a dead English townsperson. The usage of the word “plunder” connoted the violent force used to obtain the Bible. This enhances the significance of the irony of Rowlandson overlooking the fact that someone was murdered in order for her to receiver her “gift.” Rowlandson’s Calvinist views, which made her believe that God brought the Bible to her, outweighed any sympathy for nay anonymous English person, and the intended demographic (late 15th century Calvinists) of readers of this captivity narrative would have agreed. An alternative example presents itself when Rowlandson attempts to convince Goodwife Joslin, a very pregnant captive who was becoming impatient and wanted to go home, not to run away., “I wished her not to run away by any means […] We opened the Bible and lightened on Psalm 27 […] “Wait on the Lord, Be good of courage, and he shall strengthen thine Heart, wait I say on the Lord.” (4); Rowlandson utilizes her Bible as a tool to steer others into the light of God, whether it means deteriorating their own safety and health, proving that she will lack sympathy for humans in favor of devotion to her God.

Ray Bradbury’s, Fahrenheit 451, is an alarming science fiction classic novel and a powerful commentary on humankind’s urge to suppress what it doesn’t understand. In this dystopian fictional world books are illegal; they are burned to a crisp when found. Books are very powerful. They come with knowledge, and knowledge can bring fear. Fear many times is something one cannot understand. To understand, one must know why one fears. Guy Montag in Fahrenheit 451 realizes this importance of the knowledge in books when he meets a young woman; Clarisse McClellan. Clarisse is an outsider, a very different type of girl. When she meets Montag, Clarisse sparks a change in him. Her curiosity and questioning is so unique that Montag is struck by her. He

“And now I see the face of god, and I raise this god over the earth, this god whom men have sought since men came into being, this god who will grant them joy and peace and pride.” Page 97, Anthem. The novel written by Ayn Rand is set in a dystopia; a place in which the condition of life is extremely bad, as a result of a society where expression of emotion and individuality is believed to be a sin. The theme that contributes most to the dystopia of Anthem is religion/ beliefs, however, as time progresses the character’s viewpoints of the religion/ beliefs are altered throughout the novel. The purpose of this essay is to explain Rand’s use of religion/ beliefs with the use of examples from her novel, Anthem.

The purpose of this research paper is to compare the public view of suffering in the Old Testament with the public view of suffering in the modern world. In order to properly achieve this comparison, I will explain the relationship between God and His believers in the Old Testament. More specifically, I will elaborate on the opinion that God is the cause of everything, including suffering and relate it to the first poetic book in the Old Testament, the Book of Job. However, influenced by the changes in science, upbringing, and multiculturalism this commonly held view changes. Therefore, I will explain the meaning of each of these three factors as well as their negative impact on religion. Finally, I will use three television shows as examples

We all think children are all innocent and cute, but is that really true? We always give excuses for children’s misconduct, distracting ourselves from the real truth. Kids are capable of terrible things that adults quickly ignore. Children can be very scary because of their capabilities that most adults believe to be innocent mistakes. One story that explores this fear is Ray Bradbury’s “The Man Upstairs.”

How does the individual assure himself that he is justified? In Soren Kierkegaard's Fear and Trembling, Abraham, found in a paradox between two ethical duties, is confronted with this question. He has ethical duties to be faithful to God and also to his son, Isaac. He believes that God demands him to sacrifice Isaac. But, Abraham, firmly adhering to his faith, submitted to what he believed was the will of God. By using his perspective and that of his alternative guise, Johannes de Silentio, Kierkegaard concentrates on the story of Abraham in such a way that his audience must choose between two extremes. Either Abraham is insane or he is justified in saying he will kill Isaac.

In his famous work Fear and Trembling, Kierkegaard declares that “no person has a right to delude others into the belief that faith is something of no great significance, or that it is an easy matter, whereas it is the greatest and most difficult of all things.” The difficulty of faith lies in the requirement of sacrifice. The story of Abraham’s near sacrifice of his beloved son, Isaac, is what Kierkegaard utilizes to demonstrate how costly faith in God is. Here is a man, who after seventy years of waiting for God’s promise of offspring finally received his son, is commanded by God to slay his promised son with no stated reason for doing so. Kierkegaard, in attempting to experience what Abraham might have experienced in those moments, cries, “Now all is lost, God demands Isaac, I shall sacrifice him, and with him all my joy – but for all that, God is love and will remain so for me.” What bold words! The cost

There is no philosophical individual if there is no leap towards word of mouth. Kierkegaard exemplifies such mocking rhapsodies in his piece “Fear and Trembling”. Scattered within are multiple insults shot at individuals whom he wills deserving of it. Breezily crucifying ill-mannered beliefs, and rendering hopeless their application, Kierkegaard makes his first deprecatory stop at the gate of objective and speculative philosophy. Objective thinkers are swerved by Kierkegaard as he states “ When a cellar-dweller plays this game everyone thinks it is ridiculous...ridiculous for the greatest man in the world to do it.” (Kierkegaard 32). A conclusion can be drawn that the philosopher sees objective values as a tool with which existence can be understood an incorrect and confusing fantasy for “who is to write or complete such a system ?” (Kierkegaard 29). Declaring the objective thinkers self-equating of one to the whole, a method attainable by any man and comical in his eyes. His criticism of the aforementioned scholars doesn 't stop here as he follows with a like-minded observation of objective Christianity. He preludes that individuals seeking to understand Christianity through objective evidence, are not true believers for “ Herein lies the scholar’s exalted equanimity as well as the comedy of his parrot-like pedantry.” (Kierkegaard 34) The man who attains faith in this manner must remain mindful of the dragon at the door which waits to devour it (Kierkegaard 35). Kierkegaard

Johannes de Silentio begins the “Attunement” or “Exordium” in Fear and Trembling by telling the story of an anonymous man who as a young child greatly admired Abraham, so much so that as he grew older, his thoughts turned to Abraham’s story more frequently. But, he found that as his excitement for the story grew stronger, “he could understand the story less and less” (Kierkegaard, “Exordium” 9). This man wanted more than anything to witness the event—to understand how Abraham was able to do what he did. Thus, he muses over four alternative versions of Abraham’s story.