Fiction and Fantasy: Tools to Escape from Reality

Fantasy movies, animes and cartoons, superheroes, wizardries, aliens, fairies, dwarves, elves, and computer games – They are very popular and famous nowadays. Remember when Spider-Man saved the world by defeating his monstrous enemies? When Optimus Primal sacrificed his life and resurrected to end the chaos that the fallen have done? When San Goku saved many planets especially the Earth from destruction? And when Harry Potter out-powered the dark sorcerer from slowly deceiving their school? Well, they are still very fresh and indelible in our minds.

But, have you ever wondered why these kinds of movies are so hit today? Apparently, it is because of the fact that we are in the era of crisis today not only in our country but also globally. The explosions of bombs and projectiles of bullets in the Middle-East are so noisy in the media; the nuclear experiments in North Korea are always in the headlines of the news; the conflicts between politicians also are so exposed; and lately, the terrorism here in our land, specifically in Cotabato. Our mother Earth is so tormented by our human acts that make us wish that somehow, there would be a hero to save us from all the chaos that we are facing right now.

That’s why we are so fond of reading comics, watching fictional TV shows, fantasy movies, cartoon series, science-fictional movies, and playing computer games. It is because they are the only way to relax our minds from the anxiety that we feel in the outside world. They meet our needs for tranquility in the world and show us examples on how to make the world peaceful. They let us temporarily escape the truth that we are living in a slowly demising world. Even children are dreaming to be superheroes just to save us from evil phenomena that we daily experience. Fictions and fantasies are our only way to illusionize ourselves from the great fear we feel.

Even though we try and try to live in the fantasy world, we really cannot escape our reality. The superhero things and save-the-world stuff are just temporary tools of closing our eyes from the truth. However, their one and only theme is we can still save our world not like a typical superhero that we see on TVs but in our own little ways. We must select our leaders wisely and critically. We must practice justice not only in the community we live but start it in our homes. Don’t wait for Christ to descend again here on Earth to resave us. We, ourselves, can be Christ in our hearts by doing his greatest teaching, which is love.

This is my essay composition for our project in Humanities. I just wanna share my insight about the topic. Hope you'll like it. I'm very open for comments and criticisms. Thanks...hehehee