Deirdre Randall
Philip McKenzie
Developmental Writing
28 March 2015
Rage Acceptable or Not?
As a young child I was taught that your rage was something that you had to control because if you lost control of it, that it could get you in a world of trouble. Yet don’t we all get this unhuman sense of rage that has to be released? In some form or has society deemed it ok as long as it is controlled. In Steven Kings article “ Why we Crave Horror Movie” he claims “We are all mentally ill.(559) Whereas in Gerard Jones article “Violent Media is Good for Us” he argues that he was taught that “Rage was something to be overcome and cooperation was always better than conflict”. (1\5) “Yet he suffocated his deepest fears and desires under a nice-boy persona.” Until he’s introduced to Marvel Comics and the Incredible Hulk. Yes, we have become a society that seeks out violence. It has become a part of our everyday life. So has the seeking out of violence become something more, something that should make us question ourselves? Is there really a self-gratification in what we see? Does it really calm the savage beast we have hidden in our mind? In the case of Steven King he points out that “It’s like lifting a trapdoor in the civilized forebrain and throwing raw meat to the alligators below (in the river) because it keeps them fed and down in the river.” (561) Yet in Jones research he use Melanie Moore, Ph.D., a psychologist that works with urban teens saying that “ Fear, greed, power-hunger, rage: these are aspects of ourselves that we try not to experience in our own lives but often want, even need, to experience vicariously through stories of others.” (2) While I myself like scary movies. It makes me wonder if I might have a hidden rage that has been locked up or was I taught as a child to control the beast? Because some of the things that King said about why we watch horror movies does make me wonder about what goes on in the mind of man. Can it also be that we all have an uncontrolled rage that lives in all of us, King argues that, “If we share brotherhood of man, we also share the insanity of man.” (561) While Jones argues that “Identification with a rebellious, even destructive, hero helps children learn to push back against a modern culture that cultivates fear and teaches dependency.” (3) So as the adult that has also been a child. Isn’t it our place to teach our children it’s normal to feel emotions such as sadness, anger, and even rage? To allow them to express their selves freely and to know the difference between right and wrong. Like Jones states, “Our fear of the youth violence isn’t well-founded on reality, (5) and that the fear can do more harm than reality Even the sanest of us have a limit. So if it’s a movie, comic book, or simply reading the most horrific book we can find. Our dark side as well as our expectable side has to be nourished, fed, and controlled. We all have to release the inner beast that resides in all of us. Releasing it only by the guidelines that are not harmful to others or yourself. Remembering that in today’s society that it’s best to keep our dark twisted side of rage hidden, or even better than that controlled.

Works Cited
Jones, Gerord. Url;http// www.motherjones/polities/2000/06/violent-media-good-kids.
King, , Steven// "Why We Crave Horror Movies//The Bedford Guide for College Writers //nienth edition.