Fear and Control of the Unknown Essay

“Cruelty is contagious in uncivilized communities.” In Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Harriet Jacobs provides a portrayal of her life as a black slave girl in the 1800s. Though Harriet described herself as having yellowish brown skin; she was the child of a black mother and a white father. “I was born a slave; but I never knew it till six years of happy childhood had passed away.” Born with one drop of black blood, regardless of the status of her white father, she inherited the classification of black and was inevitably a slave. Harriet endured years of physical and mental abuse from her master and witnessed firsthand how slaves were treated based on the color of their skin. Years of abuse can only be taken for so long, like many

In the novel Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, the theme of the power of fear

The book depicts the harsh realities of the lives of slave women and how many of them were bought for the sole purpose of becoming their master’s sexual objects, beginning at the early ages of 14. African American women and girls were raped and objectified by their masters. It has been documented that, “Masters had sex with their female slaves, impregnated them and then adhered to the wife’s wish to separate her children by selling them to another plantation”

Throughout the narrative, Douglass shows how slavery turned black people into a property and the masters into monsters. The narrative shows how slavery had deprived the slaveholders of humanity. They became heartless, brutal and savages. This book shows how the masters get satisfaction from brutalizing the salves. In more than one incident we find a salve being beaten and dying because his/her master wished so.

The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass is a story about slavery and the many unkind effects it had on human nature. One of the things apparent in this story is the way the slaves were dehumanized. From the time they were born until their last breath every aspect of their life was painful and forced. Women forced to breed, children removed from their parents at birth, lack of food and dignity, and unnecessary killings are just a few of the examples that could be used for the ways they were dehumanized . Both mental and physical abuse were the slave owners’ way of controlling other humans and letting them know that they were not equal.

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

It is worth noting that one of the first themes that Frederick Douglass uses is female suffering. Although Douglass’ first hand account of slavery is considered one of the most moving and powerful stories of this cruel practice, it does not necessarily accurately depict the experience of female slaves. Women in Narrative of the Life are not actually depicted as fully conscious people. Rather, Douglass uses female slaves to depict graphic violence and to evoke images of bruised and beaten bodies. The first example

Do all living things fear something? Those with minds surely have many and various fears, but even the simplest organisms must have fear, for fear is such a powerful feeling. Fear is all around us and is felt in every corner of the earth. Fear is the emotion or feeling that a living creature gets when its physical or mental life is interrupted by a change that causes the creature concern.

From the beginning when the African slaves first set foot on American soil, the Negro has been perceived as an inferior race. Unfortunately, the effects from slavery still take a hold of the Negro race even today. In this novel, Carter G. Woodson attempts to thoroughly explain why exactly this has come to exist. Although written years ago, the ideals in his book are still seen to be true. Woodson's theory is that because of the way the Negro is treated by the oppressor, he has been brainwashed to believe his inferiority to other races to be the truth. This in turn keeps him from trying to advance in any shape or form because he thinks that he will step out of his place. "When you control a

thousands of floors of office space or four large aircrafts, but rather was the creation

Society’s systematic dehumanization of slaves claims that their lives are not their own, but rather belong to their oppressors. For instance, Jacobs’s cousin Benjamin decides to escape from his masters who equate him and his people to “dogs, […] foot-balls, cattle, [and] everything that [is] mean” and taunts them by saying, “Let them bring me back. We don’t die but once” (27). By metaphorically comparing slaves to dogs and pieces of property, he reveals how little slave owners care about their charges. Rather than remaining under the control of such oppression, Benjamin decides to live and die on his own terms at the risk of capture and punishment, because

Culture of Fear, by Frank Furedi, is a book that looks at how widespread fear impacts Western cultures like the United States and Great Britain. Frank Furedi believed that society tends to panic too much, as we actually enjoy "an unprecedented level of safety." I admit that Frank Furedi's novel is based upon a novel concept, and an interesting one at that. However, Frank Furedi comes off to me as little more than a fear monger and an intellectual elitist. His book, to me, seems redundant more often than not. But sometimes part of college is learning about points of view that you may not agree with, so I tried to maintain that perspective when I read the book.

There is an important event that happens in every person’s life. That important event may be a number of things. Such as someone winning the lottery or even having a tragic loss in the family. My important event in life was the day I conquered my fear of heights. Everyone has some type of fear or phobia that absolutely petrifies them. Whether it’s a fear of snakes, swimming, or even germs, it can be conquered as I discovered.

An unpleasant emotion or feeling caused by the belief that someone or something is dangerous, likely to cause pain, or a threat : Fear. Fear is a strong word, it can mean a variety of things and lead to a variety of things depending on who you are. My fear caused me to shake and tremble as if the world was coming to an end. It makes me feel safe around no one. I look back on my life and ask myself, was it all worth it for this? It makes me shrink and fall the size of of a humming bird. My stomach starts to feel like it never has before. My head is spinning in circles and my hands are trembling to the point where I think they might fall off.

Fear of the unknown has been a constant thread intricately interwoven throughout the tapestry of my life. Although intricate in color and vast in depth, it has furrowed a chasm in my past, present and dare I say future. As a seminarian on the verge of graduation the prior statement may appear somewhat odd. Aptly applying a biblical scripture such as “God has not given us the spirit of fear, but power, love and a sound mind”, should suffice to calm anxiety and trepidation. However, I have not found this the case. With greater scrutiny, I ponder what are the next steps in my life and what are my expectations for ministry?