Fear Of The Unkown Essay

Fear. It is an emotion we all face. What we fear is as unique to every individual as their fingerprints, but the emotion generated from being scared is generally common amongst everyone. I too have fears of my own. My biggest fear is that I dread presenting in front of individuals who I don’t know. Dr. Seuss’s story What was I Scared of? explores the topic of fear through the narrator’s encounter with a flying pair of green pants.
It is human nature to be scared of what we are not certain of. Unfamiliar objects or people are considered threats to our well-being. I understood this ideology when contemplating my own fears. Consider my fear of presenting to an audience whom I don’t know. The main reason for my discomfort is the very fact that I am uncertain of what my audience thinks of me. If I had replaced this very audience with friends who I know, then my fear of presenting would be eliminated. Similarly, Dr. Seuss’ poem carries the same main message. The main character was scared of the flying pants throughout the entire reading as he was unfamiliar with the pants. He is uncertain of their motive, and thus feels as the pants present harm. His uncertainty is evident when he says “That I was just as strange to them as they were strange to me!” (3)
A common fear most of us have is the fear of darkness. I also have this fear, usually after watching a scary movie at night. This fear again relates to the notion that we are scared of what we don’t know. We don’t know what is lurking in the dark, so in turn we are scared of someone’s or something’s presence. If one were to be in the same setting with the presence of light, he/she wouldn’t be scared because the factor of uncertainty is once again eliminated. Ultimately, the whole story of fear comes to confidence. If I am confident that what my audience thinks of me will be positive when presenting, then my nervousness will slowly fade away. Similarly, if the narrator in the story were to be confident that the motive...