Bewilderment

Fanny Howe, in his essay Bewilderment, gives examples of how he and others have observed and applied bewilderment in their stories, poems and life. Howe, as the essay goes along, attempts to better define bewilderment by providing poems and stories that create the felling of bewilderment that show how they have successfully created this feeling and confusion. Although he gives great examples of bewilderment he does not give a straight definition of what bewilderment is but creates an understanding within one’s self. By crafting an environment of bewilderment within the essay, one is left confused with the feeling of bewilderment. Because one is able to experience the feeling of bewilderment as it is being explained in a bewildering way, one is better able to comprehend and associate the feeling with the text. Given all the information, stories and poems within the essay, one is left juggling information in a puzzling balancing act, attempting to understand it all at once. This struggle to understand and just not knowing what to do, one becomes engulfed and dazed by the overload and begins creating an understanding of the composition of this feeling. Understanding this feeling of healthy confusion, as the author describes, gives people the ability to know how to deal with all-of-a-sudden type situations. Without these types of feelings and situations people would be certain of everything and never be left wondering and pondering new and greater ideas. In that case we’d be stuck on a plateau of innovation and be left bored and lifeless. Bewilderment therefor not only is defined but is what causes life to be confusing but better because it allows the creation of new thought because of the need to know and understand what other thoughts mean. Certainty is what people are attempting to achieve with the constantly revolutionizing of innovation and something they will never achieve because it is continuously changing. This is not a bad thing, this is actually a great thing because, as human beings, this is what has allowed us to survive and reinvent the world around us.