Fear and hope play an important role in the way we live and our everyday lives. Our fears send us in a certain direction in making decisions in our lives, but so do our hopes. Fear and hope intertwine. The society that we live in, instills fears such as punishments but not only do they imply fear, hope in form of reward is always there.
Seth Godin wrote an article about the hope that the market brings us. He says that "What marketers sell is hope. The magical thing about hope is that it makes everything work better, every day get better, every project work better, every relationship feel better." In this blog post, Godin is describing the American Dream . The American Dream requires hopes for better things.This the reason why our ancestors came to America. In order for us as human beings to be happy and successful, we need to turn to hope for encouragement. Whether our encouragement is our salary, a win, a relationship, or the hope for something to not happen.
When we hope for something to not happen, we are fearing that it will happen. Nobody can be fearless. Not even heroes. In an article written by James R.Fleming about the book What Superheroes Really Tell Us about Ourselves and Our Society, he describes a hero as "someone who rises above his or her fears and limitations to achieve something extraordinary." We can all be a hero. In order to achieve this mass of success, we must discover our fears, defy them, and hope that everything from that point on will come in our favor.
Even though Fear and Hope are opposite emotions in how they effect us, if we have one, we must have the other. In a discussion over the book Hiroshima, Mallory Rabehl stated that "Fear is the initial thought. Hope comes next." she said that "you act first in fear and next with hope that it will be okay." When lifeboats are put on passenger ships, the company is fearing that if there is an accident then the lives on the ship will be at risk. By putting lifeboats on the ship, they are hoping that if something bad happens, the life boats will be there to protect the people. The book Unbroken demonstrates this. This book is a story of survival Louie Zamperini. The plane that Louie is flying in, is going down in the middle of the ocean. Thankfully, the plane carried an inflatable life boat that saved his life. In this situation, everyone of the plane faced death. They hoped for survival. With a mixture of luck and perseverance, Zamperini makes it out alive.
The world that we live in, influences the hopes and fears that we have. It manipulates our emotions. This is something that we cannot control. We can barely control our personal fears and hopes let alone defy all of them. Our hopes and fears control our personality, whether we are the hero or the bystander, whether we are looking for a positive or negative outcome (rewards, punishment), and the quick decisions that we make in a time of fear. Hopes and Fears are intertwined by all of these reasons. The emotion is unavoidable.
Nicely done, Leighton. I especially liked how you were able to weave together many different resources - from books to articles to discussions in class - and make a strong point at the end. Your observations on superheroes and how normal people can becoming heroes by identifying and defying their fears are profound.
ReplyDeleteYou incorporate The American Dream very effectively. I'm glad you were able to put that into this blog, because the Quest 8 kids just finished this unit, and it's good for me to see that it still fits in with what we're doing now. You're right on with the idea that Hope was the reason a large number of people came here. You do a great job of illustrating how Mallory's point about hope coming after fear showed itself in Unbroken and in real life.
Thanks for a really great blog. You are awesome.
I like how you state that the emotions were unavoidable. It makes me think that no matter how much that you try to defy your fear or hopes, its something that you just can't not have. You can act enough to defy them through your actions, but it doesn't mean that the emotion still isn't there. Your point also makes me wonder if heroes still have the fear they just learn to overcome it through actions.
ReplyDeleteI also liked how you incorporated a lot of different sources, it really backed up all of your points.
I like your analogy with lifeboats and the ship because it is very true. Even though in the end nothing may even happen to your ship, you have a chance of hope if your fear comes true. I like that.
Nice job, you rock my socks. Happy bday gurlllll.
-Jillianne