Sydney Simpson
English 1- 4
March 26, 2015

In Elie Wisel’s memoir, Night, Elie is constantly affected by fear. Though Elie’s heart racing experiences with fear are dangerous and unexpected, Elie’s fear also keeps him alive and out of trouble. Sometimes fear may seem shameful, but fear is not always a burden. Fear can affect people’s lives in ways such as saving lives in some cases, but also causing people to miss opportunities.
Fear can be mortifying to people with the I’m-so-tough attitudes who think being afraid is for “wimpy” people. However, fear can sometimes keep people from doing something that could end his or her life. For example, fear of going to a party where alcohol is distributed could end up saving that person’s life after an alcohol-related accident at the party later on. If fear were non-existent, accidents like that would be more likely to happen because nobody would know their boundaries. In addition, when I was little, my family and I were planning to go on a road trip, but it began to rain cats and dogs. The fear of getting into a car accident kept us from going, and probably saved us from getting in a car wreck. Therefore, being a victim of fear can sometimes be what keeps us from the heart of danger.
While fear can be a savior, it can also be the opposite when it crawls it’s way into people’s heads and makes them worry about everything under the sun. To illustrate, if a person messes up on something, whether it be gymnastics, a game-threatening three-pointer, or a Mother’s Day dinner, fear takes over and causes the to never want to try what they failed at again, leading them to missed opportunities and not taking chances. Fear of embarrassment, getting hurt, or whatever the case may be can be the result of why people don’t take chances. Furthermore, when I was younger, I quit taking dance classes, not because I was a bad dancer, but because of my fear of performing. To this day, I regret not pursuing dance, especially after a hard-core Dance Moms marathon, because I realized my potential as a dancer. Consequently, fear causes missed opportunities and regret when we choose to let fear in and eliminate our ability to take chances.
Just like fear effected Elie Wisel, fear affects everybody in both negative and positive aspects, whether we choose to let fear take over and control if we take risks or not, or whether or not fear makes us more aware of our surroundings.