Courage Argument Essay

Winston Churchill once said, “Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.” Churchill’s definition of courage has this duality to it in the sense that courage is not just being able to fight this and that, but it is also being able to control that and fight only when necessary. Courage can be defined in so many ways and have so many aspects, but what is true courage? Despite common belief, courage is not just doing everything possible to help people because even helping others can cause damage. Aspects of true courage include control, including giving up control, as well as the ability to give it your all or even give nothing. In its purest form, courage is the ability to assess a situation and decide whether standing up and fighting or standing down and letting go of control is the best thing to do to for the greatest good. This definition of courage can be seen when standing up or standing down can aggravate a situation, help other people, and advance situations if not done in the proper moment. To begin, standing up or standing down can cause either good or harm which is why it is essential to true courage to know when to do which for good results. To stand up and fight can cause greater damage if not done in the appropriate situation. This damage is seen when Marianne, on her death bed, says, “You make me feel like a failure when you keep telling me to fight the illness” (Sapadin). Her husband can’t accept her severe illness, and desperately fights the inevitable which just makes her feel like a “failure.” He makes her feel worse because of his constant fight. In this situation, it would have been better to stand down and give up control and just allow the inevitable to occur. True courage would have been realizing that comforting her instead of forcing her; helping her, instead of pushing her was the best course of action to truly help her. Equally harmful can be the decision to stand down when

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