What is Courage?
What is courage? Is it the ability to prove yourself in war? Or the strength it takes to decide you will not fight? Is courage being yourself when you’re different from everyone else? Is it doing something that even your own father thinks you can’t do? Is courage synonymous with honor? Is it speaking up, even if doing so puts you in danger? Risking death for the person most precious to you? Or risking death for strangers? Is courage facing your fears, no matter how big or small they might be? Is it forging forward into a new life when you still miss the old one? Is courage all of these things? None of them?
The following text set is designed to help ninth grade students create and examine their own definitions of courage. In addition to asking, “What is courage?” it also lends itself to the question, “Where do our conceptions of courage come from?” Courage is the focus of this text set because it is a theme that is prevalent in American society. To be courageous is considered a positive quality, but the examples of courage most often seen in the news and in history books are often narrowly defined. Students need to think more deeply about what courage really is, and to get inside the minds of so-called “courageous” people and learn about their motivations and their fears. Students will be asked to consider a wide variety of characters and situations, all of them potentially courageous, but more in depth focus will be placed on three specific categories. The first is courage during war or revolution, beyond the stereotypical portrayal of the one-dimensional “war hero.” The second is the courage to be different from your peers or to voice your opinion even if it’s not a popular one. T...
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...are designed to help them with this difficult task. By reading and thinking about a variety of possibilities of what courage is, students can both expand and come to a better understanding of their own beliefs on the subject. Through class discussions and writing activities, they can also share these beliefs with others.
Works Cited
Brozo, William G. and Ronald V. Schmelzer. “Wildmen, warriors, and lovers: Reaching boys through archetypal literature.” Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy
41 (1997): 4-12).
Feinberg, Barbara. “Reflections on the ‘Problem Novel.’” American Educator Winter 2004-2005. 13 Apr. 2005. <http://www.aft.org/pubs-
reports/american_educator/issues/winter04-05/problemnovel.htm>.
Wolf, Shelby A. Interpreting Literature with Children. Mahwah: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers: 2004.
Harmon, William, William Flint Thrall, Addison Hibbard, and C. Hugh Holman. A Handbook to Literature. 11th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2009. Print.
Courage is not simply about how well you deal with fear, how many noble deeds you accomplish, or how you overcome life threatening situations. Courage is the practice of determination and perseverance. Something like, an unwillingness to abandon a dream even when the pressures of society weigh down on your shoulders; society will make you feel tired, humiliated, broken, and confused. Actually, it can be effortlessly said that daily courage is more significant than bouts of great deeds. Since everybody undergoes demanding circumstances on a daily basis, and most of us will not be called to perform a great deed, courage comes from those daily struggles and successes. However, Kate Bornstein is one person who has been able to transform her everyday life into a brilliant deed of courage. She threw herself into an unknown abyss to discover truth that many others would never dare tread. Ingeniously combining criticism of socially defined boundaries, an intense sense of language, and a candid autobiography, Bornstein is able to change cultural attitudes about gender, insisting that it is a social construct rather than a regular occurrence, through here courageous writing.
you to see what real courage is, instead of seeing courage is a man with
Courage is the thing which can be found in a child to an old man. It needs a lot of courage to take out courage from the heart. It is like a brain. It depends on the person, how and when he uses it. This tiny word has the power to convey the whole gesture of a person. According to Harper Lee?s genius ?To Kill a Mockingbird?, Courage is when you know you are licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through it through no matter what.
In the literary work, Speaking of Courage, Tim O’Brien highlights the trying struggle of a post-war solider attempting desperately to integrate himself back into American society. Paul Berlin’s trials and tribulations exemplify the “dominance of a citizen culture in the United States,” as mentioned by Dr. Decker in class. American society does not allow for the soldiers we have sent off to fight to return as warriors.
One of the best explanations of courage is the following by Maya Angelou: “One isn’t necessarily born with courage, but one is born with potential. Without courage, we cannot practice any other virtues with consistency. We can’t be kind, true, merciful, generous, or honest.” Her explanation summarizes all that courage can lead you to who you are in life. Courage is standing up for what you believe in, despite disapproval, pain, fear, uncertainty, or intimidation. Courage is challenging what is normal. Courage is giving voice to those who cannot speak for themselves. Courage is using whatever power available to educate the world about injustice. Courage is following your heart even when the path is not known. Courage is trying after failing.
“[Courage is] when you know you’re licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what” (Lee 149). In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, courage is an obvious overlapping theme that portrays radical, determined characters that have the willingness to defy common views. Likewise in The Help by Katheryn Stockett, the reader sees what happens when people persevere against the evils of society and take steps for the good of all. In both texts, the reader can see that courage is doing what is right without worry of the repercussions or opinions of others.
“It’s such a complicated subject, it’s hard to know what to say. It’s easy to break down courage into categories.
Courage: the ability to do something that frightens one, meaning the act of being courageous is not to be deterred by danger. This one word can categorize a person on a whole higher level. Stonewall Jackson exemplified tho word better than anyone else ever could have. For example, at the first battle of Bull Run, while several Confederate units were falling into disorder and panic, their general pointed to Jackson and his men who were withstanding the attack and said "There stands Jackson like a stone wall!" thus urging his men to gather their courage as well and regroup behind Jackson's position. In spring 1862, in Shenandoh Valley, Virginia, Stonewall created the Valley Campaign. In Jackson’s Valley Campaign, he marched
In life there are many terms that are relative to individual cultures. That means that the definition is different depending on the culture's location and its persons believe. The definition for one such term, courage, as defined by both Daniel Webster and Funk & Wagnalls is "That quality of mind or spirit enabling one to meet danger or difficulties/ opposition with firmness/fearlessness." The words that make courage a relative term are danger and opposition.
“Courage - a perfect sensibility of the measure of danger, and a mental willingness to endure it.” Courageous people understand the danger that they face when they act how they do. That is what courage is all about. Many historical events occur due to people having the courage to do what they think is right, or because of those who use their courage to do what they want. Having the courage to stand alone in one’s beliefs may be one of the hardest thing a person can do.
Courage is a state of mind that enables a person to overcome fear, pain, danger, or hardship. Although different from one another, all aspects of courage involve taking risks.
Moral courage, as defined in ADRP 6-22, is the willingness to stand firm on values, principles, and convictions. It enables all leaders to stand up for what they believe is right, regardless of the consequences. Leaders, who take full responsibility for their decisions and actions even when things go wrong, display moral courage. In most cases, one who displays moral courage is usually taking a stand against something that they know is wrong. Normally, it is not the popular decision. With physical courage, the fear factor is usually physical where with moral courage it is psychological. Often, a display of physical courage makes you the hero, while the same display with moral courage sometimes makes you appear to be the villain.
What is courage? Courage is the spirit that enables a person to face difficulty, danger, pain, and bravery. Courage to me is bravery, heroic acts, and people that put their life in danger. Many people show acts of courage everyday in the world. You might not know if you are showing courage, unless it is a big act.
As stated by Yeung Kathryn, “You get in life what you have the courage ask for”, courage is a highly acclaimed trait that shows the action on the consequences of fears and doubts. This is not a single characteristic. It is the combination of numerous quality such as bravery, passion, faith and so on which makes a perfect human being. Though it is very easy to pronounce, it needs lots of struggle to raise up. The value of courage is profound by motivation behind it. By being brave simply is not considered as courage.