In Antigone, the play begins with a dispute between Eteocles and Polynices about the ruling of Thebes. The battle ended when both Eteocles and Polynices died by each other’s hand. Creon, the new ruler, ordered that Eteocles have a proper burial and Polynices be left unburied and anyone who attempted to bury Polynices’s body will be put to death. Antigone decides she must disobey; a law which violates a law by the gods cannot be a law at all. She honorably buries her brother, Polynices, but is caught by the guards and taken before Creon. He decrees that she will be buried herself, sealed in a cave and starve to death. Antigone was willing to risk her life and reputation for what she believed in despite of the disapproval of others.
In the book Cry the Beloved Country, there are many forms of moral courage. Reverend Stephen Kumalo receives a letter at his home in Ndotsheni from a minister urging him to come to Johannesburg. The letter says that he is needed there to help his sister, Gertrude, who is not well. Kumalo agrees to take the journey, in hope of helping Gertrude. Following his arrival, he finds that Gertrude is spiritually ill; she has fell away from the church and her religious ways. She now involves herself with prostitution and sells illegal liquor with a son in her custody. In aid to her, Kumalo persuades her and her son to come back home to Ndotsheni with him. It took a lot of moral courage