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Stephen King, a renowned author known especially for his horror fiction, revealed his thoughts on possible reasons to explain the human fascination with horror movies. He speaks informally to the audience and is blunt with his perspective on the matter at hand. Based on the main idea centered around horror movies, the intended audience for this article is comprised of horror movie enthusiasts as well as fans of Stephen King himself. When King states, “When we pay our four or five bucks…in a theater showing a horror movie, we are daring the nightmare,” he is referring to those that watch horror movies. His statement about watching horror movies would not apply to an audience that has not watched any films of that sort. The blurb also states that King, “has more recently begun to attract significant critical attention…,” making it sensible to assume his fans are included in the audience that read the article. The purpose of the article is to encourage the audience to contemplate over the true reason why humans enjoy horror movies. This can be proven with just the title of the article which states, “Why We …show more content…
He states, “The fun comes from seeing others menaced—sometimes killed.” Ethics relate to moral principles and King raises questions of the morality of enjoying images of people struggling to survive through various situations. The act of killing is undeniably an immoral act; therefore, King causes the readers to reflect whether or not watching such acts can be considered unethical as well. • Pathos: An appeal to pathos is created when King compares horror films to sensitive topics. He writes, “the horror film has become the modern version of the public lynching.” Lynching is a topic that evokes intense emotions whenever it is mentioned in conversation. King takes advantage of those emotions and captures readers’ attention by speaking about such a
To begin with, some people would say they enjoy a horror movie that gets them scared out of their wits. They go see these movies once a month on average, for fun, each time choosing a newer sequel like “Final Destination” or “The evil Dead”. King says “When we pay our four or five bucks and seat ourselves at tenth-row center in a theater showing a horror movie we are daring the nightmare” (405). As a writer of best-sel...
Stephen King is one of the most influential authors of today. His award-winning novels and short stories are known world-wide. His many awards and nominations have created a space for him in the literary world. King is a true “Horror King”, for his books, turned movies, have scared millions worldwide. Stephen King has helped bring America to prominence through his many books, essays, and short stories.
The article Why We Crave Horror Movies by Stephen King distinguishes why we truly do crave horror movies. Stephen King goes into depth on the many reasons on why we, as humans, find horror movies intriguing and how we all have some sort of insanity within us. He does this by using different rhetorical techniques and appealing to the audience through ways such as experience, emotion and logic. Apart from that he also relates a numerous amount of aspects on why we crave horror movies to our lives. Throughout this essay I will be evaluating the authors arguments and points on why society finds horror movies so desirable and captivating.
Pathos helps us to connect to the world and works of any medium around us. To point out general ways King uses pathos in her writing is the impactful word choice and figurative language you can find in this piece. Some word choices that pack a punch in Kings paper are “legalized murder” and “murdering murders” (King, par. 1&5). King could have used more mild words but instead she choose these with a purpose to grab the reader's attention and cause them to be jarred enough to think more deeply about what these words are referring to. Creative figurative language you can find at the end of the piece that cause the reader to think is when she ends her paper with the call to attention of “break the chain of violent reaction is to practice nonviolence as individual and collectively through our laws and institutions” (King, par. 6). With ending on this note it makes the readers feel that they are personally responsible and that, if they care enough, they can help this
Stephen King often called; “Master of Horror” is a well-known author for his horror stories, and science fiction novels. He had many influences on how has written his books. King has also faced many hardships within his life.
Overall, in Stephen King’s essay, “Why We Crave Horror Movies”, his suggestion that we view horror movies to “reestablish our feelings of essential normality” (562) and there is a “potential lyncher in almost all of us” (562) has brought forth many aspects that I have never really thought about. Why do we have so much excitement when it comes to horror films? Everyone has their own opinion, which will never end with one definite answer. Stephen King thinks there’s and evil in all of us, but I don’t think so. The evil only comes out if you make it, we do not need horror films for psychic
King chooses to compare the minds of a child and an adult to see the different resilience levels when exposed to the horror genre. He describes his findings as a paradox, “Children, who are physically quite weak, lift the weight of unbelief with ease” (PP 118). King assumes because the mind of an adult is mature it can handle the horrific depictions within the horror variety yet children seem too be able to withstand the pressure. King backed his theory by analyzing Walt Disney’s movies and their impact on a child’s imagination. Walt Disney’s movie Bambi is what Stephen King pinpointed when comparing the toll of horrific events in children and adult minds. King questioned adults about what was most terrifying about a movie when they were younger and they stated, “Bambi’s father shot by the hunter, or Bambi and his mother running before the forest fire” (PP 119). Another aspect King unveiled was the Doppler Effect and that, “A part of ‘growing up’ is the fact that everything has a scare potential for the child under eight” (PP 119). The cognitive imagination does not stop developing it just suppresses certain mental functions to draw a line between what is real and what is not. Horror novelist mask the tension with comedy yet with one swift motion it, “Knocks the adult props out from under us and tumbles us back down the slide into childhood” (PP
In his essay, “Why We Crave Horror Movies” King attempts to bring understanding to the phenomenon of the horror film genre. He states “sanity becomes a matter of degree” eluding to the theory that sanity is relative and that all humans are relatively insane. Jack the Ripper and the Cleveland Torso Murderer were the examples of humans on one extreme of the spectrum of sanity; saints represent the other safe end of the sanity spectrum. He illustrates the thought that in order for human kind to stay functionally sane there needs to be some sort of outlet for our violent “mad” thoughts. In King’s view horror movies provide a stable outlet and mental relief for innate madness. King argues that his insanity/ant civilization emotions are ingrained
evidence of Stephen King being very interest in horror showed in his work in his early
Pathos or emotional appeal is to make the audience feel what he feels or that he feels as they do. King is not blinded to the abuse and prejudice his people have suffered, for he has suffered too. He also knows that some have just come fresh from narrow cells and some have come from areas where their quest for freedom left them battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutally. (King 853) He understands and sympathizes with the audience in how unfairly they are treated. “I say to you today, my friends, that in spite of the difficulties and frustrations of the moment, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.” (King 853-854) King is showing to the audience that he feels they deserve to be free, that they deserve to be treated equal, and they deserve to be known as individuals. He makes his audience feel like his dream is their dream
King owes his success to his ability to take what he says are “real fears” (The Stephen King Story, 47) and turn them into a horror story. When he says “real fears” they are things we have all thought of such as a monster under the bed or even a child kidnapping and he is making them a reality in his story. King looks at “horror fiction...as a metaphor” (46) for everything that goes wrong in our lives. His mind and writing seems to dwell in the depths of the American people’s fears and nightmares and this is what causes his writing to reach so many people and cause the terror he writes about to be instilled in his reader.
We all have cravings, be it for snacks or sweets, there is always something we desire. We crave horror in the same way. In Stephen King’s essay, “Why We Crave Horror Movies,” he argues that people need to watch horror films in order to release the negative emotions within us. King believes that people feel enjoyment while watching others be terrorized or killed in horror movies. King’s argument has elements that are both agreeable and disagreeable. On one hand he is acceptable when claiming we like the thrill and excitement that comes from watching horror movies; however, his views regarding that the fun comes from seeing others suffer cannot be agreed with because the human condition is not as immoral as he claims it to be.
Writers have changed the lives of many people over the years. In times of situation that people do not want to be in, times of wars, poverty, near death experience causing one to be immobile, or even just to get out of this world the works they create gives people those opportunities to do so. Stephen King is a big contributor of his published works to people in every on every continent. He is a writer of both novels and short stories, a film director, actor and even screen writer of most of his novels that turn into movies, but is he mainly known because of his works in the genre of horror. Going from his first published novel, Carrie and one of his famous selling The Shining King have made history as the king of
King used an appeal to pathos, in order to persuade his viewers to aid in the quest for equality. By using the power of human emotion, King established the connection needed to ...
I don’t disagree with King in his opinion at all, but I feel that maybe this was a bit of a simple answer to a very loaded question. I mean can we really say this about all horror fans? Horror fans have all kinds of different occupations, personalities, and backgrounds so obviously this theory can’t apply to everyone, so in this case, I can only really say why I watch horror movies, and ask you to do some kind of self reflection on your own.