"I don't think of all the misery, but of the beauty that still remains" Anne Frank
A few days ago, a friend of mine had me read a poem. Now, I love poetry, but this one was exceptionally well written. My problem with this poem was that it made me feel every single emotion that we, as humans craving joy, strive to stay away from. After choking my way through the two paged piece, trying not to stain his book with tears, it occurred to me: Why do we put ourselves through reading incredibly sad literature and watching incredibly sad movies? Why do we dwell on the horrors of life, if all we want is to be happy? Why do we seek out painful stories? Isn't life hard enough without adding more, unnecessary, grief? These questions plagued my mind for days, twisting and turning into each other, and after discussing it with two of my friends, I came to a few conclusions (well quite a lot, but these ones make sense).
1. Humans cannot express their own pain, they need an outlet to do it, whether it be music, writing, art, sports, etc. So, in typical human fashion of being selfish, we use a painful piece of literature or film, to release our sorrows and troubles. When you cry for the character, you are actually crying for yourself, from your own pain surfacing. For some inexplicable reason we suppress our painful emotions, some more than others; but through a character, we are able to let go of these barricades, expressing our emotions in the subconscious guise of crying for the character. I am not saying that we do not feel at all for the character; we do, but these initial emotions invoke our inner demons and releasing them.
2. Humans understand their own emotions through the emotions of others, in this case characters. This theory is similar to the first in respect that we use the character's situation to reach our pain and grief. By living the life of the character by an omniscient view, we can understand better what the character is going through and feeling, and in turn helping us to unscramble our own feelings. Pain conveyed through the text, help us identify our own pain which leads to finding its roots.
3. Humans were put on this Earth to experience and "feel" as much as they possibly can. And because of our unfathomably great desire to experience and the curiosity we have, we are drawn to situations that are the essence of misery and our corrupted, dark world. Reading is the simplest way to experience situations without going through the turmoil ourselves; we can go right back to our materialistic, shallow, vain lives.
4. Humans unconsciously love when someone's pain is worse than there's. Ever hear of the saying "Misery loves company"? Well, this is exactly true. When we are upset about something and then we hear something that happened on the news, read something in a book, see something awful (really anything that happens to someone else) that is worse than what happened to us, will (poof) instantly make us feel better. Lets say my parents are getting divorced, but then I read a book about a girl who's best friend committed suicide. I feel better about my own life, because in comparison, I still have all my loved ones with me. Its a similar concept with bullying: the bully feels better when he makes someone feel worse than he does. It seems awful and selfish to feed off of someone's grief and pain and sorrow, albeit it is a character's (but these situations do actually occur).
5. Humans see others who have gone through trials and tribulations as hope that if they can make it through something unquestionably worse, we can make it through our day. These characters can be seen as a beacon of hope, a symbol of the human resistance. These characters can inspire people to reach their goals and thrive even in dark conditions.
Please if you have any ideas or thoughts, do share them.
1. Humans cannot express their own pain, they need an outlet to do it, whether it be music, writing, art, sports, etc. So, in typical human fashion of being selfish, we use a painful piece of literature or film, to release our sorrows and troubles. When you cry for the character, you are actually crying for yourself, from your own pain surfacing. For some inexplicable reason we suppress our painful emotions, some more than others; but through a character, we are able to let go of these barricades, expressing our emotions in the subconscious guise of crying for the character. I am not saying that we do not feel at all for the character; we do, but these initial emotions invoke our inner demons and releasing them.
2. Humans understand their own emotions through the emotions of others, in this case characters. This theory is similar to the first in respect that we use the character's situation to reach our pain and grief. By living the life of the character by an omniscient view, we can understand better what the character is going through and feeling, and in turn helping us to unscramble our own feelings. Pain conveyed through the text, help us identify our own pain which leads to finding its roots.
3. Humans were put on this Earth to experience and "feel" as much as they possibly can. And because of our unfathomably great desire to experience and the curiosity we have, we are drawn to situations that are the essence of misery and our corrupted, dark world. Reading is the simplest way to experience situations without going through the turmoil ourselves; we can go right back to our materialistic, shallow, vain lives.
4. Humans unconsciously love when someone's pain is worse than there's. Ever hear of the saying "Misery loves company"? Well, this is exactly true. When we are upset about something and then we hear something that happened on the news, read something in a book, see something awful (really anything that happens to someone else) that is worse than what happened to us, will (poof) instantly make us feel better. Lets say my parents are getting divorced, but then I read a book about a girl who's best friend committed suicide. I feel better about my own life, because in comparison, I still have all my loved ones with me. Its a similar concept with bullying: the bully feels better when he makes someone feel worse than he does. It seems awful and selfish to feed off of someone's grief and pain and sorrow, albeit it is a character's (but these situations do actually occur).
5. Humans see others who have gone through trials and tribulations as hope that if they can make it through something unquestionably worse, we can make it through our day. These characters can be seen as a beacon of hope, a symbol of the human resistance. These characters can inspire people to reach their goals and thrive even in dark conditions.
Please if you have any ideas or thoughts, do share them.