The Meaning Of Courage In 'On The Rainy River'

In this chapter he faces the splitting conflict between the guilt of avoiding the war and the guilt of killing other humans, resulting in him to feel like a coward in both decisions. Due to his fear of the law, he chose to go to war, because he knew societal pressures controlled a moral influence that overpowered his own aversion to the war. At the end he says, “I was a coward. I went to the war,” (O’Brien 61) indicating that because of the guilt and rejection he would face if he didn’t go to the war, he made the decision even though he thought it wasn’t the right thing to do.

Nelson Mandela said, “I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear” (Brainyquote.com). This means that courage is shown by someone who conquers fear, like how Odysseus in The Odyssey shows courage by facing many obstacles with his crew on their journey back to Ithaca. Odysseus from The Odyssey, by Homer, shows courage throughout his journey. Odysseus is the protagonist from The Odyssey, who was determined to return to Ithaca after the Trojan War.

After being drafted, several thoughts came to his mind. O’ Brien thought about how his life will be if he goes to war. He states, “I imagined myself dead. I imagined myself doing things I could not do- charging and enemy position, taking aim at another human being” (44). It seems that O’Brien thought about his principles and morals as a human being. He believes killing innocent people was not a heroic act; it was an act of shame. On the other hand, he clarifies that not all wars are negative, “There were occasions, when a nation was justified in using military force to achieve it ends” (44). He considered to fight only in the cases were war is necessary to achieve a significant purpose. O’Brien uses examples of Hitler, referring him as an evil and one of the reasons he would have validated a war, and even joined the military if it were necessary. Yet, he does not want to play hero in a war that had not sense. For that reason, he decided to run away from his draft.

Courage is defined as "the quality of mind or spirit enabling one to meet danger or opposition with fearlessness." According to Atticus Finch, one of the main characters in To Kill a Mockingbird, "Courage is when you know you're licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what." (pg.121). Harper Lee clearly portrays the theme of courage in her novel, To Kill a Mockingbird. One likes to think of a hero, as strong, brave, and meeting all challenges head on. All the characters in this book have a different view as to what courage

O’Brien has struggled with coping with horrific war memories like fellow member deaths, poor conditions, and being forced to fight a war that he doesn’t believe in fighting. He is still reflective of certain actions that he had taken that he wishes he could have done different for the better.

Furthermore, O’Brien himself admits he went to war not out of courage, but out of embarrassment and cowardice. In the chapter “On The Rainy River,” O’Brien received a draft letter for the Vietnam War. He was in shock, “I was too good for this war. Too smart, too compassionate, to everything. It couldn’t happen. I was above it. A mistake, maybe—a foul up in the paperwork. I was no soldier… I remember the rage in my stomach. Later it burned down to a smoldering self-pity, then to numbness” (41-42). Obviously, O’Brien did not want to go to war. However, he was

Courage is as stated in The New International Webster’s Dictionary of the English Language to be “the capacity to meet danger or difficulty with firmness.” In my mind courage has always meant doing what you had to do, and dealing with it because you had to. I never had a choice in my life whether I wanted to move to a different city

The Vietnam War had a life changing effect on the soldiers, including O 'Brien. They came into the war as boys as young as seventeen and left either in body bags made of their own poncho or they came out alive. But were they ever really alive? No, they had their innocence ripped out. They weren 't young boys anymore. Their young selves were killed out in that jungle and all that was left was a carcass of gruesome memories of the tragedy of war, the deaths of their fellow soldiers. They changed as people. O 'Brien came into the war as a young man against war. A young soul believing that the Vietnam War was wrong and there was no need for fighting or killing. However, toward the end of the book he tells us the story of how he got revenge on a fellow soldier. This soldier, while in the middle of war, took too long in treating O 'Brien for a bullet wound and also should have treated him for shock. O 'Brien almost dies on the field but fortunately

Courage’s importance comes into play if choosing to live life to the fullest. “The quality of mind or spirit that enables a person to face difficulty, danger, pain, etc., without fear.” A revealing and mysterious novel “Jasper Jones” by Craig Silvey has Jasper (14) appearing at Charlie Bucktin’s (13) home late one night. Feeling the exhilaration Charlie takes up Jaspers offer to follow him into the woods, nervous and excited they crept through the night. Charlie and Jasper discover something that never will leave their conscience.

To O’Brien, both the Vietnam War and the Korean War were quite similar, as in both a simulated line separated a country while the same-race people killed each other (61). Death is inevitable in war, however, with fear comes the choice to be brave or to be a coward. O’Brien gives an example of bravery when he depicts how Arizona charged out on the field. Win or lose, bravery is partly defined in the charge: when one man puts his own life out on the line for a fellow soldier (134). While Arizona may have been shot that does not make him any less of a hero. He made the decision to humble himself for the sake of other people’s lives. He made the decision to be courageous in a time of need. At the beginning of the novel, Tim O’Brien thought that courage could mean just going to war, instead of fleeing. However as the war started to change him, he grew and learned what it truly meant. Major Callicles, Battalion Executive Officer, argued that courage was not about waiting around or hoping things will get better. Bravery is about is about going out, doing your best, and making things better yourself (200). Towards the end of the novel, Tim O’Brien realized that whether someone believed in the war or not, bravery means not backing down, chiefly when it happens to be sheltering your own

O’Brien uses explicit details and imagery to illustrate what the experience was like for the terrified men. Although they are sad for the loss of their friend Lavender, and try as hard as they can to be courageous, their major feeling is of relief, mainly because they are still living. Courage is shown in the “The Things They Carried” with this quote. “They carried the soldier’s greatest fear, which was the fear of blushing. Men killed, and died, because they were embarrassed not to. It was what had brought them to the war in the first place, nothing positive, no dreams of glory or honor, just to avoid the blush of dishonor. They died so as not to die of embarrassment.” (p. --) This quotation is O’Brien expressing his reasons for having the courage in going to Vietnam, instead of being a coward. At the same time he is giving the reader a generalization that foreshadows the later several references towards courage and cowardice.

In his novel, If I Die in a Combat Zone, Tim O’Brien attempts to discover an appropriate definition of courage by reflecting upon his comrades, philosophers, and himself. Throughout the novel, O’Brien grapples with whether to be courageous by staying and fighting even though he is fighting a war in which he deems as wrongly conceived and poorly justified, or be courageous by standing for what he believes is ethical but become a deserter. Through the influence of others and self-contemplation of the definition of courage, O’Brien exemplifies the extremity in which America viewed courage as a necessary characteristic for an American soldier to possess during the Vietnam War.

He chose war and went home. “I feared war, yes, but I also feared exile”(O’Brien 42). O’Brien considered himself a coward because he chose war, but above all, he feared that his family would dishonor him. He was embarrassed not to go to war and ended up putting others’ morals before his own.

O’Brien begins to describe the death of a fellow soldier Curt Lemon and how his best friend Rat Kelly dealt with his death. He explains that the two were playing catch when Lemon stepped on a booby trap and died. To deal with his pain from losing his best friend, Kelly shot a water buffalo thinking that by shooting the animal his pain would be relieved. Kelly wrote Lemon’s sister a letter to tell her “what a great brother she had (68). Lemon’s sister didn’t reply to the letter which hurt him even more. Kelly experienced a detachment between war and people that never experience. We get

Courage is a necessity to overcome fears and achieve a desired goal. Fear is something that exists in all of us. There is no hero or any particular courageous figure that is without fear. Being fearless is not required to be courageous, one simply has to look past or overcome their fears to possess this great quality. When overcoming fears and going against the norm, there are always risks involved. There are different types of risks that come about. Someone could risk life or limb, while others risk their reputation. Either risk is serious enough that a person must have courage to endure that particular risk. Courage can occur anytime, anywhere, and often in our everyday lives. Everyone will experience courage no matter how young,