Courage
Courage is a powerful yet challenging action to accomplish. Tim O’Brien shows courage when Elroy took him on the boat. At first, when Tim O’Brien went to war he was embarrassed by what people would think of him if he didn’t go, he was fearful of the war. When he witnessed Lavender’s death was when he realized he needed to have courage in order to believe he could do it.
Tim O’Brien is reflecting back on when he graduated in 1968 and was drafted to go to war and fight for a war that he hated. Courage is shown through the chapter “On the Rainy River” when O’Brien states “Courage, I seemed to think, comes to us in finite quantities, like an inheritance, and by being frugal and stashing it away and letting it earn interest, we steadily increase our moral capital in preparation for that day when the account must be drawn down.” (O’Brien 38). O’Brien’s fear took over him after Lavender’s death but he realized that many people were going through the same difficulty including his company. This definition is told to have power and impact on the reader. For O’Brien, power and feeling were shown through his war journey and the friendships he made along the way.
Our societies definition has become a lot different because of how much technology is used. When we communicate through technology it is a lot easier than in person because it isn’t a face to face conversation. When texting many people can read sentences in different ways and tones but in face, to face conversations there are specific tones going back and forth. Back then having courage was hard because you had to be brave with your actions and today courage can be easy but also very difficult depending on your situation.
Being a teenager can lead many people to think we don’t have the proper communication skills and that can also lead to people disbelieving our true abilities. Courage is something that frightens one but they have the ability to go through with their action. Us as teenagers have courage with many different things and aspects.
This rock climber is portraying courage because it is dangerous and it is something that many people are scared of and this is one type of courage that people take on in there lives to achieve something so amazing.
Courage can be shown as something being done such as when someone takes courage to do an action or it can be sown as a verb and it is used to describe someone, it could mean they are a courageous person in how they act towards someone or something.
People in the war have courage because they are risking their lives for their country and their people and that shows true courage because you are constantly fighting and witnessing death and that takes a lot of courage to be there and risk your own life for someone else. Tim O’ Brien and the relationships that he has with the other army men have grown closer. This is true because when they saw lavender die they grew closer together but also grew fear because of not knowing what is held for them in the future. They realized that courage was an important aspect because without it the people wouldn’t be able to survive in war because they are constantly seeing death and violence.
This quote relates to Tim O’Brien and the people he is fighting with because they all have fear and reacted to the death and violence happening to others in one way or another. The decisions they make will affect the future of the war, they have the choice and decision to make whether they are to sit in fear or fight back for their friend Lavender.
In conclusion, O’Brien is a powerful character that has been impacted by the people he is surrounded with. So, whenever you get the chance to be courageous you should because fear will take over and it will impact what you do in the future.