Instructions: Please complete the three questions and worksheets. Thank You 1. What are some things you are afraid of? How do you manage these fears? 2. We all "know-how fear feels" Walker claims, "bu

Worksheet for Karen Thompson Walker’s “What Fear Can Teach Us”

Pre-Writing

1) What are some things you’re afraid of, and why are you afraid of them?

____________________________________________________________________________

2) How do you manage these fears?

____________________________________________________________________________

3) What can you learn from these fears?

____________________________________________________________________________

Breaking Down the Text

1) Walker begins by telling readers a story about the whaleship Essex, a story she returns to periodically throughout the course of her essay. Why do you think she structures her piece this way? How does the story of the Essex relate to the larger argument she is making? (You might have to return to this second question after completing all the questions.)

___________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________

2) We all “know how fear feels,” Walker claims, “but I’m not sure we spend enough time thinking about what our fears mean” (1). Explain what Walker means. In general, do we spend time thinking about the meaning of our fears?

____________________________________________________________________________

3) Walker suggests that we should think of fear not as something to be conquered, but as “an amazing act of imagination” (1). What is the link between fear and imagination, according to Walker?

___________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________

4) Walker indicates that we can learn something “about fear from visionaries and young children” (2). Why is this? What do visionaries and young children do that regular adults do not do?

____________________________________________________________________________

5) Walker describes fear as “a kind of unintentional storytelling” (2). How is fear like storytelling?

____________________________________________________________________________

6) What is to be gained, according to Walker, from thinking about our fears as “more than just fears but as stories,” and ourselves as the authors and readers of those stories (3)?

____________________________________________________________________________

7) What is “productive paranoia,” and how can it be helpful to us (3)? (Look up the term if you have to.)

____________________________________________________________________________

8) Walker contends that we need to be able to “tell the difference between the fears worth listening to and all the others” (3). Why is this distinction important, and how can we begin to identify which fears are worth listening to?

____________________________________________________________________________

9) Walker believes that “our subtlest fears” might be “the truest” (4). Explain what she means.

____________________________________________________________________________

10) Walker concludes by describing our fears as “an amazing gift” (4). How can fears be a gift? Do you see your own fears this way?

____________________________________________________________________________

7of 7