Violent Media Is Good For Kids By Gerard Jones Summary

In the essay, “Violent Media Is Good For Kids,” Gerard Jones provokes the idea that violent media is essential for the minds of all children; believing that kids having exposure to violence produce a positive impact on our youth. A well-established writer of several notable books, Jones is mainly noted for his work “Killing Monsters (Why Children Need Fantasy, Superheroes, and Make-Believe Violence)”, a book that supplements this essay. He wants children to be able to ‘conquer feelings of powerlessness’ by inserting themselves into these fantasies, letting them live through them, not physically live them; “creative violence” if you will. Though Jones presented his argument concisely and acknowledged the counterclaim, his reasoning lacked

The influence of comics broke this wall built by his parents that shied away from violence. These metaphorical heroes of Jones’s childhood were notable in that they allowed him to grow as a person intellectually, and thus allowed himself to control his anger through violent media. He then watched his son grow, and through life stages, he was able to cope with violent media, passively allowing his son to get through it all and overcome fears, like climbing trees. "Fear, greed, power-hunger, rage: these are aspects of ourselves that we try not to experience in our lives but often want, even need, to experience vicariously through stories of others,” (Jones 231). This quote encompasses all of what Jones had gone through, and through violence, believes allowed him to have these experiences and be able to write because of the instillment of “creative violence”. Toward the end, Jones said; “I'm not going to argue that violent entertainment is harmless. I think it has helped inspire some people to real-life violence. I am going to argue that it's helped hundreds of people…”. His argument is concise, clear, and