My Review of the Elephant Man

     The Elephant Man shows how unlucky some people turn out to be in this world and shows the harshness they have to go trough because of others. It also shows the cruelty of humans to someone that they don't perceive as normal, someone that they think doesn't fit in society so has no right to be treated as an equal. Throughout the movie I felt lucky and glad that I was born "normal", that I actually had nothing that would make me stand out as much as John did. Yet at the same time I felt sad for John, for everything he had to go through- being put on display, chased around, abused, mocked and ridiculed.

      I was also disgusted with myself, with humans in general, for seeing how we treat each other, how we don't care for another's well being if it brings us amusement or profit. How we express our disgust and fear so bluntly to someone without any care of how it can affect them. The movie seemed to show the ugly side of humans so thoroughly that I was depressed in how correct society was represented. Humans are selfish, greedy, and sometimes uncaring creatures and we do what we believe is right without caring about the affects it can have on others. 

     Yet at the same time it was heartwarming to see how some people helped John, how they showed the good side of humanity. Some of us actually care about others and will do what is needed to keep each other happy and safe. I was also inspired by John's happiness, how no matter what happened to him he didn't let it push him down, he continued living his life to the fullest. The movie seemed to show how ugly humans are but at the same time it showed how caring we could be, it showed both sides of the coin, and at the same time it showed the unwavering hope that we all have within us, even when it seems that everyone else is trying to push us down. 

My Name is John Merrick

    Doctor Treves took me to a Doctor convention today. They stared at me the same as everyone else has. All my life I have been on display and it seems that even when they are studying me- they say it is to help me, but is it really?- it is the same. Turn around, turn around, stand up, turn around, that seems to be the only thing that they can tell me.

    They look at my body, at my face, and because I'm already so ruined there who is to say that my brain isn't as well? They don't bother to see if I understand, they have made up there minds already and to them I'm completely destroyed in body and mind, I'm nothing but a shell of a man who was unfortunate enough to be born this way. That, of course, does not stop them from staring at me like a freak. Even when they try not to they still stare. 

    Is it so hard to believe that I am a man? I'm human, human, just like the rest of them. I'm not an animal, I never asked to be an animal, but it seems that they all like to think that I decided my fate. They stare, and they sneer, and they scream, and they mock, and they like to have themselves believe that I don't understand. But I do understand, and I see, and I feel, and I wish day and night that there was a cure to be just like a normal person. 

   Doctor Treves is trying to understand what is wrong with me- for my benefit?- but as all the other doctors stare at me with disgust and curiosity I know that even if they are doing this to try to help I'm once again put on display for another's benefit. Turn around, turn around, stand up, turn around, that seems to be my life. 

Welcome to My Nightmare

     Fear is a funny thing, it affects people differently and is different for every person, and even if people have the same fears they have different reason for acquiring that fear. I have a fear of the dark, I don't really know how it started but ever since I was little I've been afraid of being alone in someplace dark. I think its not even the dark that scares me but what it can hide inside of it. What can be in the same room as me without me even knowing.
    Ever since I was little I've imagined someone, murders or kidnappers, hiding in the corners of my room, covered by the dark, watching as they waited for me to sleep. I always felt like I can feel their eyes on me, hear them breathe. Sometimes, when I was younger, I would even confuse the things in my room as a type of monster. In my mind the shape of a hanged coat, for example, would change into a headless one armed monster.
     What also seems to scare me of the dark is the pressure it seems to omit. Or at least I feel like it omits some sort of pressure. When its dark enough that i can barley see my hand in front of me I feel like something is closing in, like I'm in a box with no way out. To me the dark seems like the time when the ugliest, the most evil, of things come out to hide in corners and shadows to wait to take someone away, to take you away.