The Boogeyman

Although fearing each other can cause us to do strange things, fearing things that aren’t even there can cause us to act even stranger. The fear of the unknown in Lord of the Flies was the beast while in The Crucible it was witches. The littluns with the birthmark is the first one to mention the beast and introduces it “He wants to know what you’re going to do about the snake thing.” (Golding 35) This quote is referring to the beastie and it was the boy with the mulberry marks question. After he asked this many of the boys were scared and it was what started the whole fear of the beast. The fear of witches started with the girls when they were caught dancing in the woods. Abigail took advantage and so she didn’t get in trouble she convinced all of the other girls to go along with it and say that other people caused them to commit witchcraft. The girls would say that they saw things and act very strange at times as if they were possessed, striking fear into those around and causing the town to kill all who would make the girls act like this. These two relate because both of these fears occurred because of the situation that the kids were in. The strict religious base in The Crucible caused the girls to get too scared of their punishment and

Monster and horror movies can be a perfect mode for representing repressed fears and can be seen throughout the history of the genre. Haitian zombies can be seen as a representation of the fear of being stuck as mindless workers forever, werewolves can be understood as representation of our repressed fear of being our most primal selves, Frankenstein as a fear of the power of modern science, and so on throughout history. While this film creates a sense of uncanniness through the replacing of our loved ones with mindless automatons it can also be seen as a repressed cultural fear of being a mindless, emotionless, cookie cutter member of suburbia that was present in the 1950s when this book and film were

We yearn for horror to re-establish our feelings of normalcy. For instance, some people would watch a movie and see people melting or in an ugly form, but then realize what King said,

Asma states, "Monsters can stand as symbols of human vulnerability and crisis, and as such they play imaginative foils for thinking about our own responses to menace.” This means that human weaknesses and fears are represented through monstrous figures, and these fictional situations provide perspective into how we react in fearful environments. In our current society we fear many things, including but not limited to failed or corrupt governmental systems, the afterlife, the unknown, and captivity, which makes this claim valid. Although we may not realize it, these fears are embodied by the horror monsters we see in popular culture. Society shares common fears, and often times the most prevailing fear is reflected in the most popular characters at any given time. Monsters are the fictional representations of society’s dark subconscious, exploring not only why the author’s statement is accurate but what we actually fear.

The allure of fear is interesting for some people for several reasons. These people have another perspective of how they react when they see something scary or read it. They don’t react the same way as other people that don’t like scary things. Other people like to be scared. Some people motivate others by saying to them they are not so scary and everything that is happening there is not real, since they use fiction elements, like characters, details and scenarios. These scary elements have real details but also have scenarios that are not real, this means it is magical realism. This thought of liking scary things is a physiological problem. Scientist make an article showing proof that there is a big pole of people that like scary scenarios.

People develop multiple reasons to why they like to receive these odd and fear emotions, which now in society we call insanity. In the “Why We Crave Horror Movies” by Stephen King, whose main argument is that we watch horror movies to satisfy our curiosity. In the “How Tabloid Train Wrecks Reinventing Gothic Literature” by Carina Chocano, whose main argument is to prove how gothic literature is very similar to gossip; for example, gossiping makes people turn into ghosts, unnatural. It’s tempting to see Gothic tales as escapism, but these stories will sum up during times of trouble. Fascination with fear or Gothic stories satisfies some emotional need of individuals and of society by making people feed on their inner childhood that is inconstantly needed of satisfaction. People can do that by watching horror movies or reading tabloids and that is why they enjoy scaring themselves.

In the 2014 article The Devil in Disguise: Modern Monsters and their Metaphors, published by The Geek Anthropologist website, author Emma Louis Backe talks about the “monsters” surrounding pop culture and their hidden significance and meaning. Author Emma Backe an Anthropology and English major explains that explains that with each “monster” we see an underlying threat to human life as we know it. She states that pop culture has taken these images and made them a reincarnation of our fears. That these creatures are symbolic of incurable disease, indestructible beings, the undead, loss of humanity and extinction. Emma claims that we have moved from dismissing and ignoring these fears to confronting them in a more literal and real way. In the

The dopamine and adrenaline released in the body are partially responsible for the desire to experience fear. The hormones are released from the brain when fear is involved and are proven to be addicting. Reading a Gothic book like the ones by authors similar to Edgar Allen Poe (or himself) are famous for their various ways people can get their addictive taste of fear without actually be in harm's way. The mysterious diseases in the Usher’s family, an unexplainable resurrection, and even the destruction of madness are only three of the numerous ways Poe effectively wields the allure of fear in his short story “The Fall of the House of Usher”. This allure of fear has held the attention of ancient homsapiens even until until now, and this will also continue to lure people towards fear with the attraction of abrupt plot twists and strange

The three children of the separated family father Lester Billings are dead, like a psychiatrist tells, killed by the Boogeyman. The worst thing for Billings is that he has suspected that, when his first child died, and was sure, when his second child died. Still he admitted that the Boogeyman took his third child. Now he believes that the Boogeyman will take him too, and he is afraid to open his closets at home. His psychiatrist, Dr.Harper understands him well, too well. At the entering to the lobby, there is no one to help him and when he return into the room, Lester Billings finds the psychiatrist taking off his mask to show him that he is the boogeyman, the person who had killed his three children.

With funding support by Ohio Humanities, Madeline Muntersbjorn, PhD, will lead the discussion, Why Monsters Matter, 7 p.m. Wed. Oct. 26, at the Way Public Library, 101 E. Indiana Ave., Perrysburg. Muntersbjorn is an associate professor of philosophy with the University of Toledo. The discussion will examine how and why humans create monsters; and, if over time, are there common themes and purposes other than to scare. The 30-45 minute discussion is free as is parking.

In human nature there exists a morbid desire to explore the darker realms of life. As sensitive beings we make every effort to deny our curiosity in the things that frighten us, and will calmly reassure our children that there aren't any creatures under their beds each night, but deep down we secretly thrive on that cool rush of fear. Despite our efforts to maintain a balance of respectable emotions, we are a society of people who slow down to look at traffic accidents and find excitement in the macabre. We turn off the lights when watching scary movies, and when it's time to go to bed, we secretly make sure the closet doors are shut. Fear keeps our hearts pumping and endorphins rushing, for it is an emotion that reminds us of our

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.”

One of the cardinal emotions that govern the very way in which we live is fear. Fear is embedded in our DNA and oversees almost everything that we do. Animals, and humanity in particular, have used fear to our advantage and disadvantage ever since the stone ages. Fear has assumed an even bigger role in today’s culture, especially the idea of being scared for fun. Horror books, movies, haunted houses and theme park rides are all examples of how we love to scare ourselves. Edgar Allan Poe, one of America’s greatest authors and poets, loved to be scared as well. In particular, Mr. Poe loved to scare others. He did this in almost all of his stories, using many different techniques. Poe is also one of the very few authors whose stories have

In her essay titled “Why I [Still] Want a Wife”, Judy Brady argues that wives are automatically assigned the role of primary caretaker and homemaker in a traditional marriage. Brady states that in her marriage, she is expected to earn an income while her husband pursues a higher education, she is expected to perform all parental duties exclusively, tend to all housework, her husband’s sexual needs and desires with no regard to her own, and be a hostess while keeping quiet and doing all the above pleasantly. In her style of writing, Brady appears to be hostile and her entire piece comes across as one sided and unfair. While I agree that marriage should be based around inherent equality, I disagree with the way Brady chooses to present her argument as she presents the conditions of her marriage as universally applicable. I do not consider her argument as effective as it could be if Brady chose to be less biased and contradictory in her presentation. If Brady wanted her argument to appear more persuasive, she should have refrained from telling the reader that she does not like being exploited while at the same time telling the reader that she wants to have someone to exploit. Brady presents the conditions of her loveless marriage that is lacking basic respect as universally applicable which is unjust. With her style of writing, Judy Brady leaves her essay open to disagreement. She could have prevented this simply by being less biased and generic with her references to what it