I asked my mom (haha) if I had always been afraid of clowns and she told me that I did. When I was about 4 years old, my dad took me to this Christmas party at his work and they had a clown show and I was very upset. The more I thought about it, I remembered that as a baby, I had a clown theme in my room and my mom reminded me of a this hideous portrait of a clown my dad received as a gift that I was absolutely horrified of. Finally, I remembered I was given a clown toy; it had a key that when turned, it would play music and would make the clown's head move from side to side in time to the music. I hated that toy. But why? What is it about clowns that makes them frightening? I actually searched the question on Google and found an answer on Yahoo that said that we are afraid of the unfamiliar; clowns tend to exaggerate an emotion with their make-up and hide behind that mask (http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080531201551AAAkLEP).
I suppose it is true that we are afraid of the unfamiliar. I think of moments when we are lost and aren't sure which way to go. Clowns wear a mask that is meant to hide the real person, but what about when that mask brings out the real person? I think of the Joker from Batman and of course, Nights at the Circus. The clown's make-up seems to allow the characters to show their true colours. But what happens when the mask is off? This reminds me of Rorschach from Alan Moore's Watchmen. Of course, he isn't a clown per say, but he wears a mask but feels the mask is his "face." When the mask comes off, it's as if the clown is removing their face, they're not the same person. Is this what makes them a freak?
No comments:
Post a Comment