Ethan Frome Essay

Ethan Frome

People tend to make choices because they are scared about the future. For example, people study for the SAT to help them get into a good college, and it can make or break admissions into some high level schools. I’m sure no one actually likes studying for the SAT they just want to have a good life in the future. This occurs in the movie, “The Dead Zone” and the story, “Ethan Frome”. Fear of the future causes characters to do actions that they would not normally do.

Ethan Frome has a wife, Zeena, who he really doesn’t like all that much. They get together purely because Ethan is lonely. Times have changed, Ethan loves Mattie more than he does Zeena. The smart thing to do would be just to leave, start a new life somewhere else, leave Zeena on the farm. Ethan just imagines this, he can’t do it. Zeena is always ill, always in need of help. Ethan does not want to be that person that lets his wife go. He does not want to be portrayed as that type of person. Ethan is so scared of the future that he must stay with a person he does not love and stay away from the person he loves with all his heart. This finally changed at the suicide attempt, however.

Johnny, in the movie The Dead Zone, is so scared of Stillson becoming president. He has a vision of Greg Stillson starting a nuclear war. Johnny decides he must stop it to save humanity so he takes matters into his own hand. He shoots Stillson when he is giving a speech to many people. Johnny makes this choice because he is scared of the future, and he wants to help everyone live a better life. He is one of the only people to see that this leader really is just a bad person.

The same idea happens in “Pomegranate Seed,” The wife is so worried about their marriage that she finally confronts him after he kisses the letter. She is determined to find out what is really going on and doesn’t want to live in a future with a husband that