Argumentative Essay on Attack on Titan

Attack on Titan is a Japanese manga made by Hajime Isayama and follows the protagonist Eren Jeager.  It takes place in a world where people are forced to live inside walls because of the threat of huge man-eating monsters called titans. They have forced humanity into solitude from the outside world. One day the walls are broken and Erens mother is eaten. From then on, Eren swears revenge on titans and joins the military. Attack on titan covers many topics, but the two that stand out the most are war and mental illness. It also expresses extremely advanced philosophies and political beliefs purely about war and how it affects us.

While some readers of Attack on Titans might argue that children should be exposed to the cruelness of the world, I think the better way to do it is by gradually showing your kids the hatred, sadness, and selfishness of humans. I'm sure some 8th graders would enjoy the content, but I still would not recommend anyone under the age of 16 to read this series because of its frighteningly accurate depiction of mental illnesses.  Yes, at some point children do need to be faced with hard topics that apply to the real world, but I don’t believe 8th graders would understand what these characters go through.  For example, Eren Jaeger suffers from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. He shows symptoms such as self-harm, flashbacks, difficulty sleeping, and loss of interest. Children should not see these kinds of actions when they are still not fully matured, especially not self-harm. Showing self-harm to a child could cause them to believe that whenever they are sad that they hurt themselves. This is possibly the worst lesson for a child to learn.

I guess some readers might think that Attack on Titan is just a work of fiction, so it’s ok for children to read it. But Attack on titan has references to real-life tragedies. For instance, later in the story, we are shown how Eldians in Marley are treated, such as Eren’s Father being made to wear an armband that resembles the Star of David that Jewish people had to wear during WWII. The reason they are forced to wear these around their arm is that Marley (the country that oppresses them) was once oppressed by the Eldians. They are afraid that they will rebel once again. All of their fears came true with Eren Jaeger because he believes that this cycle of endless discrimination and oppression will continue if he does not stop it, and his way of doing that is to kill every single person that's not Eldian. He knows what he’s doing is wrong, but in his mind, there’s no other way. Marley took everything from him, his mother, the love of his life, his friends, and most importantly his freedom. Most kids do not understand this, but if they did, it would show them the unfavorable part of humanity., “I am the bad guy, I might destroy the world, But to me, you were the bad guys too”

While some say this series has great messages, which is true, it's still not appropriate for kids because of its graphic illustrations and imagery. For example, on the screen, it shows daughters eating their mother's body. That could affect the reader's mental state by showing them a dark twisted image involving children of a similar age as them. “To surpass monsters, you must be willing to abandon your humanity.” ― Armin Arlert. This shows that the reason for that disturbing art is for the reason that it wants to be in the shoes of the characters. It wants you to be as desensitized to violence as the characters. They want you to give up your humanity and look for the bigger picture. We shouldn’t want adolescents to be densitized we should want them to feel. Feel everything because that is how we truly embarrass our humanity.

After reading Attack on titan my view of the world has completely altered. I have never been more heartbroken, moved, and utterly devastated by a piece of fiction before, but Attack on Titan changed that. That's why children should not read it until they're older because most kids wouldn’t be prepared for the title wave of emotions thrown at them and then being forced to feel them. After all, you can relate to the character. Of course, 8th graders' problems may not be as existential as world peace or genocide but you watch these characters grow from innocent kids to people who refuse to feel because if they allowed themselves to they would only hurt themselves.