Assignment 6: Creating Fear

1. I really don't like to be scared. I can't watch scary movies without having nightmares for the next week. I think I get scared most because I'm afraid of things being in my house, my room, or any place in which I feel vulnerable. However, if I'm with other people when it's dark out, then I am fine, or if it's light outside or inside. Most of the time I don't like to be scared, but if it's for fun, like a haunted house, then it's fine.

2. Things that scare me are people being in my house or in my room. I used to fear being too high up, but I overcame that fear by doing things that required me to be high up in the air. I fear being alone in a dark place, or maybe just the dark in general. When I think of things horrific in the world I jump straight to things such as murder or malicious crimes. I think that terrorism is horrific as well because you never know when it's coming, but you know that there is the possibility for a terrorist attack.
I think fear comes from my mind, creating and imagining scary things. My mind always plays tricks on me, especially when I'm alone. I continuously hear noises when I know that there is nothing to be heard. I think fear is created, and that one can overcome a fear by facing it. The problem is that it's so hard to face a fear, especially when it's something like a noise from your basement. It's hard to just burst down the stairs and see what it actually is. I'm deffinitely more afriad of something horrible happening. Blood and guts don't freak me out unless it's that of someone I know, or someone in my house. I guess that would mean something horrible happened though. I think that I'm mostly scared of some horrible event happening to me, and when I watch it on t.v. or in a movie, I can't help but feel the same kind of fear.

3. In my opinion, madness is something of the mind. I think that one can become mad by having thoughts in their own head and creating more scary or maddening thoughts. I think that to be mad, you must have done something, or have imagined something happening and can't stop thinking about it. I think a person would have to either committ a crime such as murder or be some type of serial killer. However, someone mad could also have run over the neighbors dog without telling them. Either way, someone makes themselves mad by either not telling anyone what they did, or the feeling of guilt just takes over them. I think that bad thoughts just start to control their mind and soon enough they become mad.

4. What drives people to madness today could be anything. From murder and rape to burrying your cat alive, it can vary. I think that because the deffinition of madness itself is so broad, that it leaves room for just about anything. I think that someone can go from normal to insane by playing mind games with themselves. It's almost like they are creating more and more thoughts about the situation or crime they committed and it eventually eats them up inside. Just like in the short story "Black Cat", Poe demonstrates this man as someone who is fairly normal, but his thoughts and guilt takes over, therefor making him mad.