Fear is an interesting and powerful tool, one I have been growing more and more interested in as of late, I must admit. Be it the fear of attack, fear of loss, or even fear of a teacher threatening your standing in a class over the status of an assignment given, fear can be a very powerful thing. It also seems to, in many ways, drive what we do in our lives. To dive a moment into my geek/nerd side for a moment, I would like to quote Dr. Johnathan Crane, aka the Scarecrow, on the subject:
"You married your wife...because you were scared of dying alone. You have children because you are scared of leaving
nothing behind that really matters. You go to the doctors because you're scared of dying. Do I need to go on?"
Cynical, yes a bit, but at the same time very much important to the topic. Even in our own readings, there is much that revolves around fear. Many of the characters are all afraid in one way or another of Hank. In a sort of twisted way, he has put himself into such a position that he is powerful, without any sort of true "right" to this status. Now by right, I of course am talking about the ideas of rights by birth, a subject well gone over already in class. But Hank remains untouched by all of this, it seems. Despite being feared, I've yet to see any thing come about it that will end him. Using fear as a weapon, a source of power, has historically lead to people to rise up against their oppressors and to reject them in one way or another. Revolutions are started against governments of oppression and fear, so why should this be any different?
Just a short musing, I'll write more on the topic later I suppose.
Also, big points to those who can tell me where that quote is actually from. Give you a hint, Micheal Bay had nothing to do with it.
"You married your wife...because you were scared of dying alone. You have children because you are scared of leaving
nothing behind that really matters. You go to the doctors because you're scared of dying. Do I need to go on?"
Cynical, yes a bit, but at the same time very much important to the topic. Even in our own readings, there is much that revolves around fear. Many of the characters are all afraid in one way or another of Hank. In a sort of twisted way, he has put himself into such a position that he is powerful, without any sort of true "right" to this status. Now by right, I of course am talking about the ideas of rights by birth, a subject well gone over already in class. But Hank remains untouched by all of this, it seems. Despite being feared, I've yet to see any thing come about it that will end him. Using fear as a weapon, a source of power, has historically lead to people to rise up against their oppressors and to reject them in one way or another. Revolutions are started against governments of oppression and fear, so why should this be any different?
Just a short musing, I'll write more on the topic later I suppose.
Also, big points to those who can tell me where that quote is actually from. Give you a hint, Micheal Bay had nothing to do with it.
I am interested in your idea that everyone fears Hank. Even though one of the more evident points of the book is that the culture is extremely focused on class and social ranking, the character of Hank seems to be isolated from that ideal. There are yet he has no real right in that society to have the amount of power that he does.
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