Fears

Fears
Written by Anastasia
April 11, 2014

*This is not a poem, but something I wrote several months ago*

Fear is something that comes naturally to everyone -- no matter their age. Humiliation and failure aren't the types of fear I'm talking about, but fears like the dark, monsters, closets, etc. Many people have grown up with the constant fear of entering dark places, or looking in the closet, or being left alone, but it was most likely that they overcame that fear as they grew up. All humans have at least one irrational fear, especially of the dark -- children being the main victim of this prodigious fear..... but usually it isn't the fear of the darkness itself, but rather the creatures and entities that lie in its confined and secretive spots, which brings us to a question: Why are we frightened by these things that we do not even know? Of course, the human race has always been afraid of the things they could not control since we are a very dominant species, but why are so many monsters depicted to live and linger in the mystifying darkness? Why are so many monsters delineated as grotesque and to have hideous appearance features? Horror movies have always focused on one specific genre, but the monsters and demons in them have always been depicted in a similar form. Sometimes things are adapted and handed down, right? Like the Grimm Brothers' fairy tales -- which are still a source of entertainment now, but at least we can still track down these fairy tales to its original source. Although the same thing can't be said for monsters. What exactly lies in the dark? Where did any of these darkness phobias appear from? What made us so terrified of these monsters? Most importantly, where did any of our fears come from?