When Does Walden Show Courage

Courage is when you believe in yourself that you can do anything. Well, In line 270, The Odyssey stated, ‘‘Odysseus was afraid of the cyclops but had the courage to keep moving and he escaped the cyclops cave (379).

Not only is courage one of the most important factors of life, but it is also a virtue held by many. According to Aristotle, courage is what creates attainability for all other virtues and therefore is the first virtue (Treasurer). Courage can be both useful and important in life because it can lead to success through good leadership. In the poem The Odyssey, the main character Odysseus possesses a valiant personality. Odysseus’s bravery in a time of need sets him up to be a more victorious leader.

The definition of courage is “the quality of mind or spirit that enables a person to face difficulty, danger, pain, etc., without fear; bravery” (“courage”). Is courage valued today? If courage did not exist, then the world would not be effective. Courage fetches the preeminent decisions and the impulsive decisions out of people. Dismally, people are frightened to expose their true colors. Consequently, this negative reason hurts people. Despite the fear, some rise up to the challenge of courage. Some people practice courage in a negative way as in reckless decisions. How can one simple word have so many outcomes? The answer is human nature. Human nature is what changes things for people. Courage, true courage, is not as common. Courage should be common. Edmund Rostand, who wrote the play Cyrano de Bergerac, shows how courage is used in different ways. Through his characters named Cyrano de Bergerac, Christian de Neuvillette, Comte de Guiche and Roxane, Rostand demonstrates the different types of courage.

Explaining what he once heard to be from Plato, O’Brien uttered that proper courage came from wisdom and nothing else. For one to be a true sublime human being, they must demonstrate wisdom, justice, temperance, and lastly courage. As for a man without wisdom cannot be courageous, something a man without courage cannot contain any of the other three virtues (wisdom, justice, or even temperance). To Plato, wisdom is simply not just knowing what is right and what must be done, but following through with it. Courage, portrayed so perfectly by Tim O’Brien, is “the endurance of the soul in spite of fear” (140). The act of bravery is a battle within itself. Bravery is not about acting upon one’s desires, but instead setting them aside and putting the needs of the people around them first. It is about humbling yourself to your best ability, no matter how much fear one may obtain. There are people who simply just do not understand what is right due to their lack of intelligence, states O’Brien. Then there are so many men who might know what is right, however, they have too much fear to build up the courage to fight for it. As fear so often overtakes one’s whole self without even true recognition, courage is acting against that (136). All throughout the war, soldiers are constantly faced with fear as fear tends to come hand in hand with death.

God gives every human being the gift of courage. Courage is knowing the risks of a task ahead of time and still going through with it. This is different from bravery because a brave person goes ahead with the task without even considering the risks. Courage goes back to the days when our ancestors needed to kill dangerous game or fight off invaders. God gave us this ability to survive and showed us the greatest example of courage through his son, Jesus Christ, who knew what he was doing and saying was going to get him killed, but he did it anyway. Many modern authors such as Harper Lee, Andrew Stanton, and E. B. White illustrate the importance of courage through their famous works.

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.

Courage or the act of being courageous is something that can depict if a person is being weak. This act ties into the classic tale when identifying the strength it took Sundiata to walk. Sundiata was at an age where other young boys were gathering objects for their mothers and he simply could not, due to the fact that he was unable to walk. However, “In a great effort he straightened up and was on his feet at one go, but the great bar of iron was twisted and had taken the form of a bow.” (Page 21) A boy who once couldn't walk was now walking. He who once had to depend on his mother can now be the one his mother depends on. Thus, “ When Sogolon saw her son standing she stood dumb for a moment, then suddenly she sang these words of thanks to god who had given her son the use of his legs”. (Page 21) Sogolon was so discouraged to the point where the sight of her son’s slow development became an embarrassment. She soon became joyful of the courage

A courageous action most often is associated with reaching a goal or task of importance, despite the dangers even risks associated with it (“Courage”). For any specific act to be considered truly courageous it must be reasonably thought about and determined that the goal is well worth the risk or danger (“Courage”). Courage so often can be put with words such as heroic, and bravery although with courage there can be a fine line between courageous acts and plain foolishness. All this can make people believe that courage only applies to physical actions. There are two kinds of courage moral and physical in many cases they are both displayed in a single courageous act; however, bravery must come before all else, because they are associated with reaching a task of importance regardless of risk.

Bravery allows heroes to do what’s right and what they believe must happen, no matter the cost. Odysseus clearly exercises this trait in this, “(Odysseus) cheered my men along with battle talk, to keep their courage up… I drew (my stick) from the coals and my four fellows gave me a hand… straight forward they sprinted it into his eye (the

The courageous person and the cowardly person aren't simply black and white. Fearlessness does not necessarily go hand in hand with bravery, and fear does not immediately qualify a person as cowardly. Aristotle, in Nicomachean Ethics, has many guidelines when it comes to what makes a person brave or not, and what can appear as bravery on the surface may not actually be what it seems. This very truth is evident in the Greek tragedy The Oresteia by Aeschylus, specifically in The Liberation Bearers when we examine the role of Orestes. Orestes is not brave, which benefits Aeschylus' main point of the tragedy, as he becomes a more relatable character.

(The individual willingly agrees to face whatever challenge is ahead of them, and takes pride in doing so). However, this can cause the individual to become brash, but significantly through the consequences of being brash the agent will learn to properly scale their acts of courage (this way they are not consistently acting irrational when they face adversity too large of proportion). However, this can be problematic if one does not find pains from acting in an excess of courage (this is because the agent could get themselves hurt from acting brashly). The reason this can happen is because Aristotle states virtue is about pleasures and pains; the actions that are its sources also increases it or, if they are done badly, ruin it (NE 3.11). Consequently, the individual would find a greater sense of satisfaction/pleasure by taking on larger proportions of adversity, however by doing so they also face greater consequences that may harm

Excessive fearlessness and exceeding confidence, nor exceeding fear and lack of confidence (deficiency), does not make a courageous man. Aristotle talks about the courageous person, and that person acts with the awareness of the concept of honor and expresses it in a manner that is proportionate, knowing exactly what to really fear. Many different things can be frightening; one must decipher these things the greater fear from the lesser for the sake of the beautiful. (Aristotle 49, Sachs) To correctly aim at what is beautiful, one actively achieves moral virtue. The beautiful is the purest form of beauty and Aristotle states that beautiful action comes from a beautiful character and aims at beauty. Virtue aims at enduring fears and feeling confident with respect to rationality. Aristotle claims that the courageous man may fear things that not everyone feels the need to fear, but he will endure and overcome these fears and feel rationally confident.

Like all virtues discussed courage is the median, lying between the extremes of rashness and cowardice (rashness being excess amounts of courage and cowardice being the lake of courage). Due to human beings being different the mean is different for each individual. Because of this one person’s mean courage may be closer to rashness while another persons could be closer to cowardice. It is also important to know that no ones virtue can be rashness or cowardice. In order to understand virtue context is necessary, who is the person, who is involved in the situation, what is the situation, must all be answered because all these factors can cause deviations. By knowing what can trigger the vices, rashness and cowardice we can avoid people/ situations. By cultivating the mean, courage we begin to develop virtue, which allows us the ability to think before acting, therefore acting with

However, none of the virtues would ever be practiced without hope. Hope precedes all other virtues because it steers a person towards the realization that Plato’s “imperishable Idea” exists, giving them trust that our sensations and perceptions could not be all that there is (62). For instance, Adam Kadlac defines a courageous person as someone who embraces the reality and themselves and “attempts to live with the tension, the disappointments as well as the successes” (346). In other words, a courageous person is someone who is willing to take risks. Lear, on the other hand, emphasizes that tolerating and taking risks is a fundamental part of human nature (Kadlac, 346). Therefore, every man should ideally be courageous. Nevertheless, a courageous man is necessarily hopeful. When facing the uncertainty of the future, there is a possibility of disappointment and pain, and hope is what keeps the one in touch with reality (Kadlac, 346). In other words, when taking risks, a courageous person is aware that there is a possibility of a negative outcome; however, they still take the risk because they have hope that the outcome will be positive. To simplify, courage requires hope, so the virtue of hope precedes the virtue of

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,