Comparative Essay Example: The Tell Tale Heart and The Landlady

The Tell-Tale Heart is an all-time favorite horror story written by Edgar Allen Poe. The Tell-Tale Heart is a horror story where a madman insists on his sanity after killing an old man. The murder of the old man was cleverly planned and each step is revealed to the reader and later the narrator cuts the body into pieces and hides it under the floorboard and reveals it to the police officers. On the other hand, the short horror story called The LandLady is a classic tale written by Roald Dahl where 17-year-old Billy Weaver’s first and final bed and breakfast. After asking Porter for the recommendation, he opts to stay at a boarding house, where the landlady looks good at first but has a dark untold truth and the unexpected happens.Do you think these stories are appropriate for kids to read? In the modern-day world, there is a lot of controversy over what kind of books or shows are appropriate for kids. Children should be able to enjoy horror books like the Tell-Tale Heart and the Landlady. These days children are growing at a fast rate where they're learning stuff that they shouldn't know at their age. Kids are exposed to age-restricted content daily. If they are already being exposed to so much content that is above their age level then what is the problem of children reading horror stories like the Tell-Tale Heart and The Landlady? Plus, horror stories may benefit kids rather than harm them. A recent study conducted in the UK  has shown children who are exposed to horror are more likely to take risks that end up benefiting them, and horror can even help children forge resilience.

Although the Tell-Tale Heart and Landlady are horror stories filled with explicit details about death and insanity, this could be beneficial to children because it helps children have the courage to take risks that may end up benefiting them. The news article called One-third of parents avoid reading children scary stories by Allison Flood talks about a study conducted in the UK. The psychologist in the article who conducted the study says” Risk and fear are something we need in childhood. We know that people who take risks, in the long term, do better than those who don’t”. Thus, even though horror stories like the Tell-Tale Heart and Landlady are explicit in details of death and insanity, children should be able to read them. As the psychologist says, children who read or experience horror are more likely to take risks throughout life that could lead to success. The study’s result came as 53% of children who read or experience horror are more likely to do a better job at dealing with difficult situations and taking risks. Horror causes children to take more risks because fear helps children know what safe and secure means. When children are put in risky situations, they can confront their fear and that’s not the only benefit of reading horror, horror can also help children forge resilience as well!

Although horror stories such as The Tell-Tale Heart and Landlady contain explicit details of death and insanity, they may help promote resilience in children. The psychologist who conducted the study said in the article “Being frightened by a book, “helps forge resilience”. “The world can be a scary place – children will get into situations where they’re told off by teachers, or fall out with friends.” As a result, horror can help forge resilience in children which is crucial to have a well-rounded child. If a child does not experience horror how will they know what safe and secure mean? Like, a child must experience horror to know what it feels like to be safe. A child who is terrified of the dark has a chance to get through it, If a child sees a monster, they'll scream for help;  it's an all-or-nothing decision that's extremely difficult to make when there are so many other things going on at once and a child's mind- but the fear a child faces helps forge resilience. This is why horror stories like the Tell-Tale Heart and Landlady should be considered appropriate for kids.

Despite there being a tremendous amount of benefits of kids experiencing horror stories as there are people who still disagree. As they say “No matter how thin the pancake is there are always two sides to the story”. Everyone has to understand no matter how good the thing is there will always be bad to it. Although experiencing horror is good for kids there are always gonna be negative effects to a child experiencing a good old horror story. An article called Are Horror Movies/Stories Bad for Kids Mental Health?  written by Healthline says” A study conducted in the University Of Maryland says horror can contribute to anxiety during bed and can be quite a disruption”. Yeah, even though horror can disrupt sleep, has anyone brought up the idea that kids are daily exposed to age-restricted content. If children are exposed to age-restricted content what is the big issue of children experiencing horror stories? As children whenever we were told to sleep by ourselves we would always have thought that such scary mythical creatures were under our bed and that happens without the influence of horror. At the end of the day, the parent decides whether their child should read or watch horror.

In conclusion, children should be allowed to watch horror stories like the Tell-Tale Heart and Landlady. From all the studies conducted horror does more good than harm.  The form helps children take risks in difficult situations to help them forge resilience.  Now there are always going to be negative effects. But all there is to see is that there are more positives than negatives. Children can learn how to confront their fears. If a child simply does not notice a specific piece of horror they next time avoid it. The reality is the world can be a dangerous place and children should be able to experience fear and read horror stories because if children don’t even don’t experience fear how will they know what the words safe and secure mean? Yet, again it’s truly up to the parents whether their child should read or watch such things.