Can Someone Help revise my essay? Teagan McKinney
Debbie Chike
English 2
11-20-20
Why does transformation scare us?
Transformation has been a part of horror for as long as people can remember. Even though many horror stories are fiction, people every day deal with transformation as seen in “The Raven”, “The Fall of the House of Usher,” and “Windigo.”
In “The Fall of the House of Usher,” we see many examples of why we are scared of what we don’t understand and why they change. We are told a poem referring to when the house was bright, happy, and joyful, without reasoning we were told how the house became gloomy and dark. “The Haunted Palace.” First, we are shown how the home was happy as seen here “Wanderers in that happy valley, Through two luminous windows saw. Spirits moving musically.”(pg:21 line: 21) This poem highlights the fear of transformation. They talk about how nobody smiles anymore and this would most likely include the guest to that home, as seen here “But evil things, in roles of sorrow.” This shows that the transformation of the home scared Roderick, Madeline, and our narrator.
In “The Raven,” we are shown the transformation of life after we experience loss. When our narrator begins to fall asleep, he starts becoming depressed over the recent loss of his lover Lenore. I went through this experience after I lost my grandmother last year. During Christmas, we would go over and make cookies and celebrate my mother’s birthday, which is the day after Christmas. After we lost her we didn’t celebrate Christmas that year or even talk about Christmas. Another thing that changed is we always got together as a family when we lost her we never got together and certain family members left the family. Similar to me that we are shown in the “The Raven” is him using a coping skill as seen here" From my book surcease of sorrow -sorrow for the lost Lenore,” (pg:104 line:10) the coping skill he refers to is reading, but then he goes on to remember her and begins to become depressed once again. The transformation of his loss of Lenore scares him in a sense because of the change he went through. This is shown here “Shall be lifted nevermore,”(pg:107 line:107) in this quote we see him finally come to terms with the death of Lenore. We know this because the raven kept saying “Quoth the Raven, “Nevermore,”.”(pg:107 lines:102)
In this final poem “Windigo” we are first shown a kind, welcoming voice leading the child towards him, we are shown this here “Mother scolded the food warm and smooth in the pot and called you to eat. But I spoke in the cold trees: New one, I have come for you, child hide and lie still.” (pg:108 line:7-10) Even though this might unnerve some people this made the child feel welcome we know that because the child walked towards it instead of his mother when she called him in for dinner. We are shown transformation when the Windigo talks about dragging the child through the woods. We know this scares him because we are told that he is clawing through the snow and ice here “Then your warm hands hummed over and shoveled themselves full of the ice and snow.”(pg:109 lines:20-21) By reading this poem we are showing the quick transformation of a person or a creature in this case.
In conclusion, the reason transformation scares us is because we don’t understand why, and what we don’t know can scare us the most. The next time you read a story on transformation just take a second to think if you have ever dealt with a situation similar to it.