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In the chapter “On a Rainy River” from Tim O’Brien’s novel The Things They Carried, O’Brien defines courage on page two as “…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. It was a comforting theory. It dispensed with all those bothersome little acts of daily courage; it offered hope and grace to the repetitive coward; it justified the past while amortizing the future.” (Obrien 38)

 

This makes me believe that every time there is a little act of courage, it builds up and then when there is a moment when you have a big decision that requires a lot of courage and you are ready for it and can be prepared for it. In this case, it was deciding whether or not Tim should join the war that he did not want to fight but because he was drafted and did not want to let down his family, friends, or country.

 

I think that I would define courage as the ability to do something even if you are afraid to do that task because there is a danger or there could be a negative outcome. There are a lot of other words that are similar to courage but none of them actually mean the same thing. There are words such as bravery, fearlessness or valor but none of those mean the same thing as courage. Courage is often times very personal and a problem or issue that you are afraid to face. Bravery and fearlessness are more after the fact. The dictionary defines bravery as “courageous behavior or character.” You need to be courageous in order to be brave or fearless and it takes courage to be brave or fearless especially when saving yourself or another. 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQjnW3_78a8

 

In the talk that Simon gives, he has a few main points, he says that courage is something that you feel that is external and that you do it to help someone else even if it puts their life before yours. He also said that he had talked to many people who had done courageous acts and why they did it and the response was unanimous; they did it because they knew the people standing next to them would have done the same.

 

This relates to my definition and the book because Tim O’Brien really didn’t want to fight this war but it wasn’t until he was on the boat on the river when he realized that all of those people along the shore would have done the same for him. He knew that if he ran to Canada he would betray each and every one of them. In my definition, I mentioned that it is also a mental difficulty because you need to be strong and know that you are doing the right thing even if it makes you uncomfortable. 

Now you know what it truly means to be courageous and why people like Tim O’Brien do the courageous acts that they do. They are courageous because they want to save the people next to them because they know that they would do the same.