The Uncanny by Sigmud Freud(Jeff Barnard)

This week’s reading starts off posing the question of whether or not an animate being is really alive or is a lifeless object is animate. This refers to wax figures, dolls and other such things that are lifeless but are made to look so real that they might be alive. My opinion on this matter is that for some of these wax figures, they are indeed alive in certain manner of speaking. When a devoted artist creates a work of art, they don’t just work on it, they pour some of their life into it to give their art a life of its own to withstand time. I know when I work on a project, I try to put a little of myself into it so I would have a better connection to it and to share a bit of myself with others.

The reading goes on and talks about a short story called “Sand-Man”, where a figure in a story is compared to someone real after events in the story start happening. But in this short story the sandman throws sand in the kid’s eyes not red hot coals as stated by the main character. What I think this illustrates that the more we believe in something, the more it becomes real. We all have our own beliefs in various things and that makes us feel a connection to those things thus making them special to us. The character believed the story so much that when something happened to someone he knew, he immediately compared it to the story.

In conclusion, I think the purpose of this reading was to show us that various actions and objects can be seen as real depending on our thoughts. Whether it is a lifeless wax figure or a character from a story, they are made real by our beliefs in their appearance and demeanor . When artist’s do work, they use their imagination to give a better sense realism to what they are creating thus giving the art itself, life. When a person devotes themselves to god, though they can’t see him, they feel a better connection to god and consider him a moral guide in their lives. This thus proves to what people determine as real depends on their state of mind and the subject matter they deal with.