Friday, April 17, 2015

Fear Itself

~Blog Post #1~
Topic F
April 17, 2015
By: Andrew Pono

     In Frank Herbert's Dune, when Paul is being tested whether he's a human or not, he feels fear.  He has to put his hand into a box, and if he takes it out, he will be killed by the gom jabbar, a needle with deadly poison.  To calm himself down, he remembers a litany taught to him by his mother.  After reciting it in his mind, he calms down and readies himself for the test.  This passage describing how to overcome fear is significant because if Paul didn't find a way to calm himself down, he'd have panicked and gotten himself killed.  Paul coaching himself through the fear shows the correct process of how people should get over fear; Frank Herbert describes this as though the reader is there themselves, trying to calm themselves for the test.
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1 comment:

  1. AnonymousApril 20, 2015 at 6:17 PM

    I agree that it feels like the reader is present with the main character. Paul is proving himself to be human even before he takes the test; he is afraid of the box and has to work to calm himself. In these ways the reader can relate to Paul and become more attached to his character.

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