Essay Analysis King And Sanders
Steven Li
Mrs. Mattner
AP English
30 December 2014
Essay Analysis: King and Sanders
Why We Crave Horror Movies by Stephen King
What does the author mean by his last line (and paragraph): “As long as you keep the gator fed”? How does this line account for his central argument for why we crave horror movies? What other metaphor(s) does he use that mean the same thing as “gator feeding”?
In the essay,
Why We Crave Horror Movies by Stephen King, the author ends his story by
saying “As long as you keep the gators fed” (King par. 14). King used this metaphor to back up his central argument throughout this essay: why we crave horror movie. King is trying to say that as long as you satisfy the craving of insanity to maintain sanity throughout our everyday life.
This metaphor helps to argue that we are all insane. King states that “If we are all insane, then sanity becomes a matter of degree” (par. 8).The author explains that a person could be driven to different degrees of insanity throughout their everyday life. He provides examples of the different degrees of insanity a person can be driven to. It could lead one to “carve up women like
Jack the Ripper or the Cleveland Torso Murderer” or it could lead you only to “talk to yourself when you’re under stress or to pick your nose on your morning bus” (par. 8). To counter this idea of going insane, King writes that horror films allows us “to put away our more civilized and adult penchant for analysis and to become children again” (par. 7). King argues that horror films are able to “provide psychic relief on this level because this invitation to lapse into simplicity,
irrationality and even outright madness is extended so rarely” (par. 7). This “invitation” to allow the emotions of madness and simplicity to be exercised and freed is what is able to keep the insanity at bay.
King provides a second metaphor that is similar to the “gator feeding” idea. He compares
the necessity to watch
Mrs. Mattner
AP English
30 December 2014
Essay Analysis: King and Sanders
Why We Crave Horror Movies by Stephen King
What does the author mean by his last line (and paragraph): “As long as you keep the gator fed”? How does this line account for his central argument for why we crave horror movies? What other metaphor(s) does he use that mean the same thing as “gator feeding”?
In the essay,
Why We Crave Horror Movies by Stephen King, the author ends his story by
saying “As long as you keep the gators fed” (King par. 14). King used this metaphor to back up his central argument throughout this essay: why we crave horror movie. King is trying to say that as long as you satisfy the craving of insanity to maintain sanity throughout our everyday life.
This metaphor helps to argue that we are all insane. King states that “If we are all insane, then sanity becomes a matter of degree” (par. 8).The author explains that a person could be driven to different degrees of insanity throughout their everyday life. He provides examples of the different degrees of insanity a person can be driven to. It could lead one to “carve up women like
Jack the Ripper or the Cleveland Torso Murderer” or it could lead you only to “talk to yourself when you’re under stress or to pick your nose on your morning bus” (par. 8). To counter this idea of going insane, King writes that horror films allows us “to put away our more civilized and adult penchant for analysis and to become children again” (par. 7). King argues that horror films are able to “provide psychic relief on this level because this invitation to lapse into simplicity,
irrationality and even outright madness is extended so rarely” (par. 7). This “invitation” to allow the emotions of madness and simplicity to be exercised and freed is what is able to keep the insanity at bay.
King provides a second metaphor that is similar to the “gator feeding” idea. He compares
the necessity to watch