Final Essay

The Invisible Barrier of Fear:

An analysis on how fear affects humans in every aspect of their lives

People are constantly looking for possibilities that will allow them to get what they want. Although the methods may vary from person to person, the objective remains the same. We all want to fulfill our desires and to see our dreams come true. Yet, why is it that the vast majority of people that want to be better, don’t quite achieve it? What is the impediment or the barrier that is denying us from our well deserved desires?

Walking Life is a strongly philosophical movie that carves onto several topics regarding humanity and our existence. Amongst them, that mental barrier is questioned. The concern appears on a scene in which an old man, rephrases the preoccupation onto another question. “Which is the most universal human characteristic, fear, or laziness? “ From that screenshot we can deduce several things in regard to his intentions. For instance, since the person talking is an old man, we must understand that the director is implying that he is wise and possesses prior knowledge, and thus, must be right. Since he is the only person in focus, there is nothing else besides his words and actions that matter. Even more so, you can see how serious he is on his question, as his face holds no expressions at all, and the dark background behind him empowers his speech. On the other hand, his soothing voice makes you feel comfortable, and because he is the only person on screenshot, you understand that he is reaching for the viewers. His question is meant for us to answer.

After giving it some thought. I’ve come to the conclusion that most universal characteristic, and the one thing that prevents us from achieving greatness is fear. The fear that we contain is so strong that it is widely represented in our culture and in our everyday actions. Such fear has become so strong in humanity that Italo Calvino, in one of his Invisible Cities Called Chloe, has created a society in which nobody talks to one another. A city in which everyone is a stranger, and all the relationships between each other occur in realms of the mind. Even the most instinctual sexual desires aren’t recreated outside the mind of the citizens because they all fear that the fantasies might come to an end. This is as ridiculous as deciding to stay in your house for the rest of your life to prevent your hypothetical murder on the streets. Is it really worth to choose isolation before taking the risk of living?

More than admiring the power of imagination, Chloe is a city that shows us how far people are willing to go to avoid suffering. How far is the human mind willing to go because of the fear that devours it. Basically, Chloe is a city that proves with hyperbole, how ridiculous it is to fear living. And how ridiculous it is to lock yourself within the illusion of a fantasy world, in which nothing is worth doing, or thinking, for that matter.

The power of fear is also visible on another of Calvino’s cities, called Thekla. Probably as absurd as Chloe, those who arrive at Thekla encounter a city that is in permanent construction, and if one were to ask the reason behind this, he would get an answer such as, “So that its destruction cannot begin.” (Pg. 127) Although I understand that the City’s value is based on its blueprint (which is the sky and the stars), this city also demonstrates how people aren’t confident enough to follow their own ideas, and therefore become unable to reach their final destination or purpose. The people of Thekla even confess that they fear the destruction of their city because they are afraid of their own destruction.

The message behind this invisible city is that by being afraid, you are not able to accomplish your goals. Calvino represents the fear of these people by showing them as insecure. The people are strictly dependent on an outer source and thus will never be able to achieve their personal desires. (That is if they even have them.) Although the stars and the skies may change, their foolishness and blindness will remain the same, and the inhabitants will always seem incomplete and unsatisfied.

After observing how fear affects whole cities or societies, we must notice how this fear affects individuals. The fear that controls our actions makes us act on an “autopilot function” in which we don’t get to experience the art of living. On Waking Life, there is a scene in which the main character encounters a red headed woman, they bump onto each other and they simply apologize and continue along their paths. Suddenly the women returns, after an apparent moment of anagnorisis, and starts a conversation with the main character on the absence of human feelings. The scene implies that we miss a lot of moments because we don’t act and if you think about it, one of the biggest reasons why people tend to isolate themselves from interactions is because they feel threatened. People feel scared of what others might think of them and end up losing valuable moments of their lifetimes-- All because of fear.

The director uses plenty of signals so that the viewer gets to understand the message being said. First thing that I can figure out is that this woman, as well as her message is out of the ordinary. The fact that she is red headed implies that she is not common. She is the only person in the whole movie with red hair, and this makes her stand out, just like her idea. Then, she approaches the main character from above, meaning that she has a higher status. Later, when they are both talking, you notice that she is at rule of thirds, and her presence is amplified both by her movements, and her colors in contrast with both the main character and background.

Fear is contradictory to the evolution of humanity. Whether it affects us as individuals, or as a collective group, if we allow fear to control us we will never be able to achieve true greatness. We must look at fear as an invisible city that forms part of our human instinctive nature. But rather than accepting it, we must confront it and defeat it, to surpass the limitations that we are responsible for creating. If we consciously awaken from the uncontrollable dream in which we currently live on, we will be able to achieve our full potential as human beings.

Human Misfortune

After Gulliver arrived to England, he wasn't able to identify with the people in there and ended up disliking everyone. Not only the English, but also the different creatures he met during his adventures. The only ones that he came to like, the Houyhnhnms, kicked him out of their country and even them didn't seem likable, at least for the readers. Their lives were extremely boring and frankly, I'd rather live in any other ridiculous society than to live with them.

In the end, Gulliver is completely alone. If were are to see his travels as journeys through humanity and our behavior, then we must understand that we are completely flawed. In any case, in any circumstance and at all times, we are ridiculous. Swift himself wasn't capable of finding a solution, or a perfect society. As I see it, there are two possible options regarding Swift's intentions/ Either the book is a satire, and signifies nothing, or Swift is teaching us that in the end, there is no point on criticizing others, in the end, we are all just as bad. Everything you do wont be satisfactory for the others. As humans, we are a mess and we have to accept it and embrace it, but yet, we can try to do whatever we want, and we'll always live a dystopia.

The attractiveness of Deformity

First of all, I thought that it was really funny to see how the most deformed of the Yahoos would be the leader of the pack. As absurd as it sounds, we can certainly interpret it to our society, and specially as teenagers I guess. Why? Because leadership in groups is not related to the beautiful characteristics or virtues. For instance, the leader is not the smartest one, and in most of the cases, certainly not the most correct person. Instead, If you take a look at women for example, the ones that lead the pack are probably the stuck up bithches who feel better than the rest, and thus expect a special treatment from the rest. If this isnt deformed, then what is?

We are certainly led by the wrong morals and desires and even though people are aware of this, they arent willing to make a change. I guess that we act like this because we are led by wrong examples. We want it all, and we measure superiority in spite of how much we've fulflilled our desires. In fact, this concept doesnt even apply exclusively for teens. Take a look at Hitler for example, he wanted the power, the control, and revenge. He was willing to do this by all means necesarry and take a look at how much people that followed him. He was certainly the most deformed of the pack... It is surprising to see how Swift, such a long time ago was able to portray our human behaviour. Either he was too smart, or we havent changed and we keep doing the same mistakes that we've been doing for the past millenia.

Us as them, and them as us

In the fourth part of Gulliver Travels, we can see how Swift uses a different method to criticize society. Before, we saw the people that Gulliver encountered as an allusion to our behavior, but in this part, we are forced to see how our behavior is straight up ridiculous, and how we do things that aren't rational at all. In other words, humans are to Houyhnhnms as Lilliputians are humans.

We see with the horses eyes and get to analyze the behavior of Gulliver's culture (our culture) as if we didn't pertain to it.

The master asks Gulliver, "what were the usual causes or motives that made one country go to war with another?" I answered "they were innumerable; but I should only mention a few of the chief."(PART IV, chapter 5). Yet, he mentions sufficient reasons to demonstrate how ridiculous it is to go to war.

Not only war, but Gulliver also mentions other characteristics of human life, as the passing of laws and the purpose of lawyers. In fact, the more that Gulliver says, the more that the Houyhnhnms, and the readers feel pity and disappointment. As we get to see ourselves in the same way that we see those who we criticize, we feel disgust and alienation towards our lives, and towards our selves and finally, I get to understand Swift's intentions with his 'travel logs'.

Our ignorance as Yahoo's

At first sight, Gulliver is more of a Yahoo than a HOUYHNHNM. Simply because he resembles them and has nothing that relates him with the horses. Yet, we see how he doesn't relate to them at all. He is by far smarter, cleaner, and more reasonable than them and thus he is implying that he is better than them. In other words, he is better than most of the humans.

The strange part is though, that the horses are better than him and the rest of humanity. Aside from being absurd, it looks like a joke on the ways that humans would look to any other specie. It would be to say that we are not as good was we think we are. In fact, we are so wrong in our lifestyle, that even horses could be our rulers.

Frankly, that's the only interpretation I find for what's happened in the story. As it progresses, I might change my point of view, or I might be surprised by the accuracy of my hypothesis. To connect this entry with my previous one, the search engine could easily be a horse, a HOUYHNHNM.

Who's a Yahoo?

Although we've already discussed in class that the search engine "YAHOO" comes from Gulliver travels, after reading the first two chapters of the fourth part, I still wonder what was the intention of the creators by naming it this way.

I understand that YAHOO means human, but it also means ignorant, primitive and inferior. Why question is then, does the name imply that we are YAHOOS because we depend on their service? That we are ignorant and rely on their illumination, and answers?

It could also be the other way around. The search engine is the YAHOO. It is our slave, and does all the primitive work that needs to get done. There is really not way of knowing. They could either be mocking us, or not. There is even the third possibility that it has nothing to do at all. Why? Maybe it just sounded catchy. Signifying nothing? As the answer to that question will remain unknown for the rest of our time on earth, I'd say that we ought to forget about it and just keep on with the reading.

Reading what you want to read

The three articles where very different from one another. To me, "Heeeeere's...Conan!!!" sucked. "The Cost Conundrum" was O.K. and I loved "Ja..." Since articles are intended to different audiences you ought to have your preference. For instance, the first one talked about O'Brien, a comedian for whom I could care less and thus, I could care less about the reading.

The second article was entertaining and useful. It talked about the exagerated prices over medicine in the US. As I've already known, the desire for money has screwed us all up. I dont complaint, I get everything that I need, but I know that things could be better. The worst of all is that I dont think that much will be done in spite of that. The world is controlled by economy. Why would them want to affect themselves for the sake of the people? After all, surivval of the fittest still applies. Ask Darwin and Dawkins. In regards of style, I found the writter very upset but still, with enough serious evidence to make a point. This article both served to inform and to convince. (Altough As I said, It wont do its job in that area.)

The last article had a very different purpose. I was enjoying, and while I was reading it, I asked my self what was the intention of the writer. Honsetly, he didn't idolize their lifestile, but he didn't hate it either. The article then had to be simply informative. But later I realized that it indeed intended to convince. But to convince people that life is different. That people have the freedom to do what their want with their lives. You can do as much wickedness as you want as long as you dont interfer with other's lives.

The reason why I liked it probably has to do with the fact that I am a teen. Whether that is or isnt the case, I feel attracted to the emotions and adrenaline that JA must expierence. Altough I dont suppor that he needs the drugs to live his life. I believe that he is certainly living a better life than the majority of us. He is enjoying, he is living on the edge, and he is doing what he likes to do.

In my life, I would like to be able to follow those three ideals, without interfering with the laws, and with others. With the laws, because of the consequences, not because of what they actually mean, and as for others, I do believe on respecting their rights, and privacy, as I would like mine to be respected.

What I also liked on the article was that it wasnt forcing anyone onto believing the author's point of view. The author gave me the chance to read it and interpret in whichever way I wanted to. The second one didn't really present you with the choice, and well, the first one was as "AS INTERESTING AS TAKING A DUMP...

"J