March leapt from the bushes to come to his defense.īy his definition of bravery, one can see some underlying factors that cause him to self-identify as a coward. Clement, whom he initially admired for his culture and love of books. He’d come there as a young peddler and become a guest of the master, Mr. Also, when Canning was about to be executed, Mr. In 1861, John March, a Union chaplain, writes to his family from Virginia, where he finds himself at an estate he remembers from his much earlier life. March by Geraldine Brooks: 9780143036661 : Books Winner of the Pulitzer Prize-a powerful love story set against the backdrop of the Civil War, from the author of The Secret Chord. He committed himself to abolitionism through risks both legal (funding Brown) and physical (joining the war effort). March doesn’t think of himself as a brave person however, there are reasons to consider him brave. Rather, bravery is achieved when one faces their greatest fears to attain moral ends. One is not courageous because they fight to avoid the label of coward. March’s view, if one is fighting in the war without “honorable conscience,” then their fight is not a brave one. Sometimes, true courage requires inaction that one sit at home while war rages, if by doing so one satisfies the quiet voice of honorable conscience (168). And yet I do not think it heroic to march into fields of fire, whipped on one’s way only by fear of being called craven. The brave man, the real hero, quakes with terror, sweats, feels his very bowels betray him, and in spite of this moves forward to do the act he dreads.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |