Question
What Fear Can Teach Us
Karen Thompson Walker
2013
One day in 1819, 3,000 miles off the coast of Chile, in one of the most remote regions of the Pacific Ocean, 20 American sailors watched their ship flood with seawater. They’d been struck by a sperm whale, which had ripped a catastrophic hole in the ship’s hull. As their ship began to sink beneath the swells, the men huddled together in three small whaleboats. These men were 10,000 miles from home, more than 1,000 miles from the nearest scrap of land. In their small boats, they carried only rudimentary navigational equipment and limited supplies of food and water. These were the men of the whaleship Essex, whose story would later inspire parts of Moby Dick.
Even in today’s world, their situation would be really dire, but think about how much worse it would have been then. No one on land had any idea that anything had gone wrong. No search party was coming to look for these men. So most of us have never experienced a situation as frightening as the one in which these sailors found themselves, but we all know what it’s like to be afraid. We know how fear feels, but I’m not sure we spend enough time thinking about what our fears mean.
What is the connection between the men of the whaleship Essex and the audience Walker is addressing?
Both have ignored their fears.
Both have feared for their lives.
Both have experienced hopelessness.
Both have experienced variations of fear.
Karen Thompson Walker
2013
One day in 1819, 3,000 miles off the coast of Chile, in one of the most remote regions of the Pacific Ocean, 20 American sailors watched their ship flood with seawater. They’d been struck by a sperm whale, which had ripped a catastrophic hole in the ship’s hull. As their ship began to sink beneath the swells, the men huddled together in three small whaleboats. These men were 10,000 miles from home, more than 1,000 miles from the nearest scrap of land. In their small boats, they carried only rudimentary navigational equipment and limited supplies of food and water. These were the men of the whaleship Essex, whose story would later inspire parts of Moby Dick.
Even in today’s world, their situation would be really dire, but think about how much worse it would have been then. No one on land had any idea that anything had gone wrong. No search party was coming to look for these men. So most of us have never experienced a situation as frightening as the one in which these sailors found themselves, but we all know what it’s like to be afraid. We know how fear feels, but I’m not sure we spend enough time thinking about what our fears mean.
What is the connection between the men of the whaleship Essex and the audience Walker is addressing?
Both have ignored their fears.
Both have feared for their lives.
Both have experienced hopelessness.
Both have experienced variations of fear.
Answers
GPT-4o mini
The connection between the men of the whaleship Essex and the audience Karen Thompson Walker is addressing is that both have experienced variations of fear. While the sailors were in a life-threatening situation far from help, the audience is encouraged to reflect on their own fears, whatever they may be. Walker suggests that although the contexts differ greatly, the emotional experience of fear is universal, and she invites the audience to consider the significance and lessons that fear can impart in their own lives.