Preview

Im Not Scared Essay

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
663 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Im Not Scared Essay
Although Michele experiences fear, he never lets his fear override his moral convictions. Discuss.
In the novel ‘I’m Not Scared’ by Niccolo Ammaniti, depicts a sense of Michele’s ethical struggles and steady move towards good in the face of evil. Through experiences, some people’s values through the book are disintegrated through fear, whereas others, such as Michele’s rose above it, because of his concern for others and loyalty. Michele manages to do a whole lot better in ethical terms than the adults who is blinded by the hope of material gain, behaving criminally. His choices, with exception of the ‘Judas’ secret, are the right ones. His compassion and natural sense of what is right and wrong are sure guides, despite his age, naivety and fears. Michele draws upon a naive but heroic sense of right and wrong as he accepts responsibilities. Later on the novel his humanity overwhelms his fears.
Fear is one of the most incapacitating and destructive emotions which is demonstrated in the novel. The experience of fear and the ways in which fear can influence the characters actions are at the centre of our minds. To say ‘I’m not scared’ is to deny being afraid. Traditions, circumstances and events govern the lives of both children and adults and create fears. Firstly Michele’s fear circulates around peer group isolation and anxiety. He fears losing and having to do the forfeit, but his realises that there was ‘something dirty….something nasty.’ That he did not want his sister Maria to see, in Skull’s treatment of Barbara, makes him accept the forfeit in her place.
Michele’s protection of his sister, though reluctant, is a moral duty he does not shrink and is the first sign of his goodness. Skull’s abuse of power makes all the children live in fear. But it is how Michele overrides this, by morally doing the correct thing to do in this situation even though he feared of not wanting to the forfeit. Michele has imaginary fears of ‘witches meeting at night in abandoned

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    I Am Not Scared

    • 643 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Michele has the ability to develop a great insight for the things in his surroundings. His perception and his sense of maturity has lead him to a ‘right’ path in life. The morale embedded in him gives him the ability to distinguish right from wrong despite being only a young boy. However, it doesn’t mean that he is a flawless person. He still can’t stand the lure of many things.…

    • 643 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Pony Trap

    • 548 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Susan Hill the creator of the woman in black , successfully creates fear through out her novel. It comes in ebbs and flows by using different techniques throughout to build up the tension. This book is a gothic horror which is a new genre but using the traditional horror aspects, one of the first books in the categories is’ The castle of Otranto’ published in 1767. They are typified by their dark, lachrymose atmosphere of hatred and fear. Hill used many traditional techniques such as the stereotypical use of pathetic fallacy reflecting the dark mood. The setting as its deserted and away from society, isolation , a ghost with hauntings all follow the conventional aspects. However the modern twist to hills novel is that the characters are unconvential, as in the normal gothic story the man is the scary character haunting a venerable or innocent young woman such as in’ Dracula’ he suck blood from all sweet caring ladies. Unlike in this case there is a ambitious young man being haunted by a revengeful young woman. From this the tension from new and old ways combine to create a heart pumping book which fear deeply impacts the reader. Fear is created in many ways in the chapter ‘The Sound of the Pony trap’ and many other chapters.…

    • 548 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Michele Amitrano is a 9 year old boy who is adventurous and has a conscience which is not very familiar for a boy his age. He has also embarked across a boy in a hole named Filippo, in his efforts of freeing Filippo he comes across imagining a lot of fear with monsters like ogres, witches and bogeymen. Michele shows he is very naïve when he attempts to free Filippo after he had swore on his fathers head he wouldn't go back to see Filippo again.…

    • 557 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    I'm Not Scared essay

    • 519 Words
    • 3 Pages

    1978 Southern Italy is where our story takes place; in particular a small village named Aqua Traverse is where we meet our protagonist Michele for the first time. Michele is a relatively quiet nine year old boy, however his ethics and compassion are far beyond his age. Indeed he shows much more courage and convictions in his morals than many of the adults in the story who are too blinded by lust for money and hope for a way out of Aqua Traverse to care much for morality. Michele demonstrates his understanding of right and wrong when describing Barbara’s forfeit, where Skull had ordered her to unbutton her shirt and show the group her breasts. “I felt bad as about it, the forfeit wasn’t fair.” Although he disagreed with the forfeit Michele did not speak up due to his own fear of Skull. What is important however is that he considered the right and wrong thing to do, even saying “I didn’t like my sister being there”. His protectiveness of his sister is the first sign of his wholesomeness and compassion, even in the face of bad acts.…

    • 519 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The novel focusses on the idea that people’s ability to be evil is also enhanced by people, especially men, feeling the need to prove themselves, to be brave and strong and powerful. This idea is demonstrated when Sergio is leading a meeting between the adults who captured Filippo and they are talking about what they should do. It is a pivotal scene because it is when Michele finally discovers what his father has to do with the boy in the hole. Fillipo’s mother appears on the television issuing a plea to Filippo’s captors to release him. Even though Pino, Michele’s father, has a son he shows no signs of sympathising with the woman and in order to prove his manliness and bravado in front of the other men he: “Made the scissors sign with his fingers. ‘Two ears we’ll cut off. Two.’” This proves that he may believe and know that what they are doing is wrong but because of the bullying by the men from the North, mainly their representative Sergio, he feels he has to prove himself and does the wrong thing in…

    • 1761 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Definition Essay Fear

    • 587 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Helen Keller once said, “Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. The fearful are caught as often as the bold.” Fear is and always will be perplexing. Why is this the case? Fear is the sense that there is a person or thing which is dangerous and may lead to failure or harm. Being a sense, fear is not something that a person can fully understand. Fear is something that all people experience.…

    • 587 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    “I’m not Scared” is definitely a moral storey of lost innocence and adult cruelty. Michele Armitrano and Fillipo Carducci, the two main characters of the storey are both subjects of lost innocence and also adult cruelty. Throughout the novel Michele is forced to mature far before his years in order to deal with the situations in which he faces. Fillipo is also forced to deal with the cruelty he suffers as a result of the nasty nature of the adults from Aqua Traverse, a small wheat community in Southern Italy.…

    • 406 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Ziauddan Yousafzai quote women inequality best, “in most part of the world, when a girl is born, her wings are clipped. She is not able to fly.” All women across America are stereotype with an appealing face and kitchen duty. From Lean In: What Would You Do If You Weren’t Afraid? Sheryl Sandberg stated “I aspire to a leadership role in whatever field I ultimately work,” she describes what her goal is as a women but millennial, women were also less likely than their male peers to characterized themselves as leaders, visionaries, self-confident, and willing to take risks. Women are not given fair pay and rights. Like, both genders can complete the same activity but because “you are a girl” guys receive the advantage. For example, Venus Williams…

    • 405 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Through the comparison and other literacy techniques, we are able to better able comprehend the differences between the adults and the children, moral and ethical actions and thoughts, in I’m not scared by Niccolo Ammanitit. The functions of the literary devices are to conveys the different moral and ethically decision made by both the children and the adults in I’m not scared. Throughout the book the adults are seen as corrupt and unethical, this is showed when Ammanitit uses a similarly to compare the adults to toads, they “stayed shut indoors, like toads”. Toads are ugly and not particularly pleasant animals. Ammanitit uses the toad has a symbol for evil but also has a metaphor for papa being evil, papa is the bogey monster.…

    • 546 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the novel I’m Not Scared, a devastatingly authentic portrayal of childhood, by the Italian author Niccolo Ammaniti, the isolated and poor world of Aqua Traverse appears to be profoundly immoral and wicked, however despite the adult cruelty and evilness, not all characters behave immorally. The novel protagonist, Michele Amitrano shows the real morality and courage when he saves Filippo Carducci and Teresa Amitrano, Michele’s’ mother, tried to stop the inhumane kidnapping, however she failed inexorably to stop this tragic climax in the patriarchal society of Aqua Traverse and on the other side, the greed and poverty of the world influences the adults to be evil, hypocritical and deceitful characters. Ammaniti conveys the evilness and cruelty…

    • 551 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Specific Phobias Essay

    • 1737 Words
    • 7 Pages

    According to the DSM-V, specific phobias are types of anxiety disorders caused by an excessive and persistent fear due to the presence or anticipation of a certain object or situation (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). Specific phobias are considered to fall under the category of anxiety disorders due to the severe anxiety and distress that one experiences from their extreme fear. Symptoms vary depending on the type of phobia that exists, but fears generally last 6 months before they are considered to be a phobia. Various types of phobias fall under specific phobias including animal types, the environment, blood-injection injury and situational types. This paper deals with spider phobia, otherwise known as arachnophobia.…

    • 1737 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    It exemplifies the characterization a true Romantic had during this era. These qualities are what lead to the creation of the monster. Victor would truly stop at nothing to create the monster because this was the mentality that was carried throughout the Romantic Era. But once again, Mary Shelly contradicts his actions when he failed to tend for the monster. In some manner, this failure represents this notion of a Romantic gone rouge and this title really carried throughout the novel. His desire for death as an “escapement,” from everything that was transpiring around him resembles the incident of Justine who “did not fear to die” (59). But, his reason for death and her reasons for death had an explicit difference. Justine sought out to leave a world that in her eyes was “sad and bitter.” Victor wanted death because he wanted to escape his responsibilities and the repercussions the monster had brought upon. He was in a position where his “renewed torture,” never ended and it was all because of his ambition (130). As a reader, this scene leads to an internal battle. Mary Shelly never outright argued against ambition, but rather she illustrated the consequences that too much ambition can bring upon an individual. Victor was so indulged with this Romantic mentality that he forget to take a step back and take a second to think about what he was doing. As a result, his ambition lead to the copious suffering he underwent throughout the…

    • 942 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    As a schoolteacher, Kathleen has the duty of ensuring the safety of not only the students but also other citizens. This sense of place (institution) develops her character of being caring and concern. As a result, she despises the violent tactics that are employed by the IRA group. Also, she is a widower with three children. This situation that forces her to take care of her children alone builds her character of being hardworking, caring and concerned. She is always keen to know the whereabouts and lifestyle of her children. This helps her to realize that her oldest son is a member of the IRA organization.…

    • 621 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Im Not Scared Theme

    • 335 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The fear of a bleak, poverty filled future following the adults, cause them to become violent, reckless and panic-stricken. As the monster-like future quickly approaches, they become more desperate to gain an advantage. Struggling to gain the upper-hand, fear now ahead and leading them with a thin lead. The desperation from the effect of fear, forces them to kidnap a child and demand a ransom. With…

    • 335 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Quite often it’s the not so life-threatening confrontation with life that we feel most threatened by. The standard of human fear is thus without definition. Everyone lays claim to a different host of particular sensitivities. We all have them, though. Ranging from the emotional to the physical, trepidations fill the void in us humans. They make us. They define us. They control us. There’s no doubt fear constitutes the greatest influence on the everyday person. In the excerpt of Wolff’s Hunters in the Snow, Tub’s fears explicate underlying character traits. From his fear of confronting Kenny and Frank decisively to his fear of death, Wolff indirectly elucidates the fundamentals of Tub’s deceptive streak, anti-combativeness, and child-like sensitivity.…

    • 403 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays

Related Topics