Fear In The Terror, By Junot Diaz

“Fear keeps us focused on the past and worried about the future.” The main character of the short story “The Terror” by Junot Diaz would agree with this because he is stuck in a cycle of fear after getting beaten up. He got into a fight with a group of brothers and was paralyzed with fear for a long time after that. The author uses the character's actions and his feelings to show that the only way to conquer fear is to stand up to fear itself.

The author uses the character’s actions to show that the only way to conquer fear is to stand up to fear itself. After the fight, Junot didn’t tell anyone what had happened. He bottled it up in hopes it would just go away. “[He] started looking around buildings to make sure the coast was clear” (Diaz 9). He was so paranoid that the brothers would be around the corner waiting for him to start another fight. He finally got fed up with hiding and being afraid. He knew he

After the fight, Junot was a wreck, and it didn't make it any better that he would keep all of these feelings to himself. “[He] would be a mess for days: depressed, irritable, hypervigilant, [and] ashamed” (Diaz 10). Junot was so scared that another fight would break out between him and the brothers, leading him to feel this way. He also was dealing with the thoughts of the fight. Finally, Junot realized living with this constant paranoia was worse than just accepting what had happened and walking by them as if nothing had happened. He was scared the entire time as he walked by them. “[He] couldn’t make [himself] walk toward them, [he] could barely even look at them, so [he] settled for standing still” (Diaz 14). Junot was terrified the entire time while walking past the brothers. But he knew that he had to do this in order to get over this life-controlling fear. So he stood his ground and the brothers walked past him without saying a