varying degrees of courage - TTTC

"Courage was not always a matter of yes or no. Sometimes it came in degrees, like the cold; sometimes you were very brave up to a point and then beyond that point you were not so brave."

(p. 141)

isn't that true though? I mean, we can't ALL be brave all the time, can we? in "Speaking of Courage" O'Brien uses the post-war life of Norman Bowker as an anecdote. he shares with the reader the terrible stress and emotion and fear that accompanies any given situation during a war. in this particular anecdote, he tells of how Norman almost got his Silver Star (an award that my grandfather is also still hoping to receive). but how something happened in the heat of the moment, and his courage was gone. in this little side story, we are shown that Norman was not a coward. he did not let Kiowa sink into that field on purpose. there was something paralyzing, something uncontrollable about that situation that drained all of his courage. though he was courageous in general, this one instance his courage wasn't strong enough. the "temperature" had fallen too far too quickly, and there was nothing he could do.

so it goes.