Courage
No one is born with courage, but rather born with the potential to be courageous. Courage is not always an act of great bravery, but can also be expressed in the most average day to day actions. But when death is staring into your eyes, only a handful of people can persevere through the hardships and challenges using the courage in their hearts. Courage is being scared to death...and saddling up anyway. Many composers portray courage in the presence of death, danger and fear and show that to be able to go beyond the boundaries of death, danger and fear one must show the courage to stare into the eyes of death itself. Roberto Benigni in his film 'Life is Beautiful' (1997), Sir Alfred Lord Tennyson in his poem 'Charge of the Light Brigade' (1854) and Andrew Stanton's 'Finding Nemo' (2003) all contain characters who display tremendous amount of courage and be able to stand up against life risking situations. In these texts, composers have implemented techniques to show that courage is fumed by the feelings of determination, love and to save a life.
To be able to act upon a life risking situations one must show determination. Roberto Benigni's film, 'Life is Beautiful' is 'jam-packed' with characters that show extremely courageous characteristics who are ambitious and make a genuine attempt to maintain them. The character Dora displays the feelings of determination as she attempts to unite with her family, as her son, husband and uncle are forced on a train which is transferring them to a concentration camp. Dora understanding that this train will lead to unavoidable danger is the courage that was displayed. Dora asks the officer courteously to get on the train, when she is rejected her tone and facial expressions suddenly change into a more serious state when she demands, “I want to get on that train. Did you hear me? I want to get on that train!” It is evident through this speech that Dora is determined to stay with her family,