Authors playing with our emotions in “The Fear” by Robert Frost, “Speaking Bitterness” by Chuck Palahniuk, “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson and “A Good Man Is Hard” by Flannery O'Connor to find » Some authors are very clever in the way they play with our emotions. It's not uncommon to find yourself laughing at a story while realizing that you probably shouldn't laugh at something that's actually pretty awful. These mixed emotions are stressful for the reader, and this anxiety is a way for the author to create paranoia. Paranoia is a fear caused primarily by extreme anxiety, and in many cases, anxiety is the result of dissonant emotions that create tension. Robert Frost's "The Fear," Chuck Palahniuk's "Speaking Bitterness," Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery," and Flannery O'Connor's "A Good Man Is Hard to Find" all use dissonant emotions to cause stress in the reader . Frost and Palahniuk focus on the conflict between fear and lack of reason to be afraid. Jackson and O'Connor focus on the dissonance between humor and gore, as well as the conflict between the need to feel sympathy for a character and the lack of connection with that character. But there are also fearless, daring and strong-minded people. There are people who may not be affected by the cunning methods of these authors. However, they are the exception, and just because they don't feel it doesn't mean they aren't supposed to. Despite these exceptional people, authors design their stories specifically to include the tension of dissonant emotions in order to elicit paranoia-related anxiety. It's natural to want to identify the source of an emotion, so when the perpetrators create an overwhelming feeling of fear without explanation. , the reader's experience...... middle of paper ...... the author wants him to be guided. The paranoid aspect is a theme that authors attempt to use as a means to achieve a certain goal of their choosing, and this is why they create such anxiety in their readers. A feeling of paranoia is sparked by the tension created by conflicting emotions. Works Cited Frost, Robert. “Fear”. Poems by Robert Frost. New York: Saint-Martin, 2002. 107-111. Print.Jackson, Shirley. “The Lottery”. The story and its author: an introduction to short fiction. Ed. Ann Charters. 8th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin, 2003. 586-592. Print.O'Connor, Flannery. “A good man is hard to find.” The story and its author: an introduction to short fiction. Ed. Ann Charters. 8th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin, 2003. 1042-1053. Print.Palahniuk, Chuck. “Talking about bitterness.” Haunted. Chuck Palahniuk. New York: Doubleday, 2005. 258-268. Print.