Hello, I wrote a context piece (expository) on the prompt: Our fantasies can be more powerful than our reality
Could someone please give me feedback? Also, could you see if i have properly answered the prompt? (I lost marks for not relating to the prompt well in the past)
My throat was parched and I had a feverish longing of water. Water could help me. Yes, the cool liquid would balm my throat and my lips. Bring a soothing lull over my tensed up body. As I was on the verge of calmness, I see another girl grabbing her arm looking like she had been mistreated and I feel sick again. Needles. My worst nightmare. The thought of silver metal cutting through my flesh and staying there for seconds - which feels like hours make me convulse with apprehension. I pull the sleeves of my shirt up and wait for the torture to commence. I clench my eyes shut - self-consciously as there were people around me and think of something pleasant. Food, yes. I was hungry. I think of a table full of my favourite food. Dumplings, succulent dumplings. Thousands of them . Chocolate, cake, pudding all laid out before me while I dance around in delight...
Like the immune system, It is by the very nature of humans that we have an instinctive impulse to repel or deny the existence of different realities others hold, that may not be in accordance with our own. As our experiences may themselves be perceived as threatening, we choose to shield ourselves from the tenets of harsh, ongoing reality either through denial or ignorance often by creating a fantasy. While it is humanely impossible not to do this in varying extents, when our imagination overtakes the reality- when we do not even acknowledge the existence of our ontological reality, too engrossed in our fantasies, is when serious implications can arise. While imagination offer a hand sometimes for us to deal with our harsher truth, if we become too dependent on its kindly smiles, it often result in our destruction, therefore proving to be more powerful when out of control. However, as they are a by-product of the inability to deal with our life, it can be said that reality has a control on the fantasy's existence. Sometimes is unclear whether which one is more "powerful" when an individual achieves a balance of illusion and actuality.
The harsh lights of reality is often dulled through fantasies, however heavily relying on fantasies to cope often result in a life confined in darkness, a destruction of one's sense of reality. In Enduring Love by Ian McEwan, Jed suffers from De Clerambault's syndrome, an intense delusion that a person is in love with him. After a brief encounter with Joe Rose on a fatal balloon incident, Joe becomes Jed's subject of intense admiration and believes that he too, shares his feelings of love. In the appendix, Jed was described as "lonely child, prone to daydreaming". His belief that Joe and he shares a strong emotional love is a fantasy he created in order to hide from a harsh reality - a life void of love and happiness. However, this fantasy overpowers his sense of reality. Jed sees nothing being an obstacle in his way to make sure Joe falls in love with him also - not even murder. He twists and distorts his reality in order to make it fit into his fantasy. Joe's brief touching of the leaves are some sort of secret code expressing his love producing a 'pattern that spelled a simple message' as well as flickering curtains. A thoughtless gesture is 'so simple, so clever, so loving' secret signs that attests Joe's love towards him he cannot admit to. A heavy dependence on fantasies ultimately destroyed Jed- he is out of touch with reality and is mentally ill. Jed's reality was shattered under his fantasies.
Whilst imagination can have the ability to overcome our realities and result in our pitfalls, essentially without a reality a fantasy cannot exist. Going back to my needle opening, if I wasn't faced with a mind-numbing reality of having to get a needle plunged on my arm, would I have necessarily created the illusion that I was having a good time enjoying my food in order to cope? Really, a fantasy is the product of our failure to deal with complications of reality, and without a reality, illusions are non-existent and so reality is essentially more "powerful" than a fantasy. In Shark Net, Eric Cooke, the "night caller" kills innocent citizens and shatters the "innocence" of Perth in the 50s. He was brought up under a dysfunctional family and was always in need of attention love, especially considering his speech disability due to his harelip. His unpopularity among girls, and his desire for them - so much so that he would "almost faint" when he neared them closely, forces him to create an illusion that he was indeed the ladies' man. His absence at home and Sally's suspicions of "infidelity rather than a crime" all attests that he has successfully promoted this illusory image of himself. The harsh reality that confronted him forced him to adopt a fantasy to substitute his reality, however without having such a circumstances, he would not have felt the need or the urge to have this imagination.
Sometimes it is not clear whether fantasy or reality is more "powerful" as evident in successful individuals who achieve a balance between the two so that their sanity is not jeopardised In Shark Net, Robert Drewe confronts his realities - his girlfriend's Ruth's pregnancy and their future together. Unlike most teenagers, he carries out in as mature and responsible way as possible in such a situation assuring Ruth that they will "get married." He does not delude himself that such baby does not exist, or worse still that it is not his, and has no need to have an imaginative life to deal with a stressful situation, a significant event that changed his place in the world "forever". Although he does confront his realities bravely, there are also times when fantasy is needed to keep him sane and functional. Drewe feels that the stress he had caused on Dorothy - news of Ruth's pregnancy had been significant in her death, and although his mother hovers only briefly on the pages, his guilt is evident throughout the novel . While fantasy is employed to consciously or unconsciously guard his own reality, he does not abuse it so that he becomes entrapped in this illusion he had created for himself. For some of us fantasy is not necessarily a stronger entity, only a temporary method of coping that leaves us with no long-lasting damage. In cases such as these, it is doubtful to say one of the two - fantasy or reality is more "powerful".
Fantasy is akin to a child covering their eyes in order to believe that an object that induces fear is non-existent- all the while feeling the actuality of the object. When we truly become to believe this object is not a reality, it often result in a regrettable pitfall of our mentality. However, it is when we finally remove the hands from our eyes and face our harsher reality our maturation really begins. Fantasies can only overpower our reality once we lose control over it; it is only then it can cause detrimental harm to us and others around us. It is unavoidable that we all delude ourselves to varying degrees but done appropriately, illusions can benefit rather than destroy. Ultimately, fantasy is beneficial to us in a certain degree but it has a dark power to insidiously infiltrate our mentality, destroying us in the process.
It's my first attempt at writing expository so it's probably got a lot of things to work on... Please be honest!
Thank you
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