Sample Argumentative Essay On Fear And Fiction

Walton’s theory is dedicated to the study of emotions and reactions of people to the fictional characters. The scientist states that people feel quasi-emotions instead of real ones when watching the life of fictional characters in the movie or theater. It means that people make-believedly fear, love or feel other emotions as to the characters involved in the plot of the given fiction. Still, if we consider the theory more closely, we will see that it has several issues that make scientists question the foundation of the pretend theory of Walton.
First of all, it is necessary to understand that make-believe games played by all the children have certain common features that cannot be spotted in the adults’ attitudes and experience with the fictional characters. One of the most uncertain aspects in this relation is the fact that children can choose whether to experience a certain emotion or not. They can stop experiencing it by their own will. Still, the same is not true about the fictional characters and the emotions people have towards them.
Another important issue is that the notion of quasi-emotions is hard to be defined exactly and understood. The emotions brought about by some horror movies or thrillers, as well as genres can hardly be called quasi or of make-believe character, as a person cannot control them and feels them rather vividly. It is true that a person does not feel him/herself in real danger, but it still does not mean that the emotion he/she experiences are not true.
I believe that Walton’s theory has a right for existence, but still it is not exhaustive and cannot answer all the questions in this sphere. People definitely feel strong emotions when watching movies, reading books and facing other fictional characters. They often cannot control these emotions and it means that maybe they are not logical or completely comprehensible so far, but still have to be taken into account and not disregarded for some childish games of mind.