Beowulf chooses to battle Grendel with no weapons knowing he could face defeat as an outcome. Beowulf knows the possible consequences of fighting Grendel bare-handedly, but his confidence in battle allows him to take those chances anyway. Although he realizes he could die, Beowulf’s courage allows him to battle the monsters in order to defend, protect, and lead his people. “That mighty protector of men meant to hold the monster ‘till its life leaped out” (l. 366 - 368). Beowulf’s courage and his determination to kill Grendel allow him to do whatever it takes to protect his people from the horrible monster.
Winter’s Bone shows how family and unity is the key to survival. Life comes with many unexpected twists and turns and 17 year old Ree Dolly will be in the heart of it all. Living poorly without a father and with a depressed mother, young Ree Dolly finds herself raising her younger sister and brother alone. When the sheriff knocks at their door, the struggle of survival gets ten times harder especially when the sheriff tell her that her father has put the house up for bond and if he doesn’t show up for court they will lose the house and the land. Ree Dolly has a very dominant personality and nothing will keep her from saving their house and land.
David has grown up because of these three main experiences losing people he loved very dearly, standing up for the people he cares about and going against his parent’s rules and beliefs. David met tons of people while he was coming of age that impacted him greatly but lots of them were taken out of his life too quickly. David lost his first close friend Sophie very suddenly. Sophie was the first person David felt he could be his true self with. When she had to flee because she was a mutant David lost a big part of himself too.
Wes Moore grows up under very poor conditions, and barely makes it by with his small family. Wes' mother is forced to drop out of school, and forfeit getting an education, to keep food on the table for her kids, and because Wes' father has been out of the picture for several years now, there is no other source of income for the poor family. Wes tries to stay strong despite all the bad things in his life, and pushes through days looking for the light at the end of the tunnel to solve all his problem. When Wes heads off to private school years later, he is at first passing classes and learning at a steady pace. However, when his life at home becomes too much to handle along with school, Wes takes a fall and fails out of private school.
In the short story Rainsford has to fight against General Zaroff and his servant Ivan in order to survive. Even though he does not want to fight them, the situation presents him with difficult choices and actions that need to be taken quickly. In the movie people resort to extreme decisions in order to protect themselves, such as killing its own kind who have the rabies virus. Even though they do not wish to end other people’s lives, they have to do so in order to save their own. Overcoming adversity makes people stronger because they learn to fight for their lives.
Hektor chooses to risk his life and the well-being of his family in order to obtain glory over the Akhaians. Later on during the battle, upon a few occasions, Hektor ignores the advice of his peers and compromises the army’s well-being. Poulydamas, Hektor’s half brother, is ignored twice by Hektor because listening to Pouydamas’ directions would suggest that he has more power than Hektor. Because Hektor decides to only go by his own decisions, the army was forced to attack the ramparts at the Akhaian ships and sleep outside the walls of Troy the day before Akhilleus returns to battle. Both events result in
At the beginning of the book George tells Lennie to come back to the place where they were staying so they could meet up in case anything happened. This also foreshadows what happens on later in the book. After Lennie does actually kill Curley’s wife he runs to the place where they talked about. George finds him and he could either make the decision to kill Lennie or runaway before the other men find the two of them. George is a courageous person in the sense that he has to make all of the decisions on whether to kill Lennie, would it be right, or should they just forget about it and move on.
In many scenes of the story, several characters are searching for heroes. “What he wanted was a model. Someone who could teach him by example, how to kill,” (24). Robert is resilient and strong, but he is not emotionally prepared for war. His enrolment in the war is due to his guilt over Rowena’s death and his need for independence.
In the end Rainsford is the winner of the game but by winning the game he has become just like that dead general. Rainsford refused the hunting offer from Zaroff because they where hunting helpless humans who happen to make it to the island and Rainsford was not going to hunt a human being but when Rainsford killed the general, he killed him after the game was over, and Rainsford became what he had set out not to be, general Zaroff. In the end one will see that ironic reversal was used all throughout the story with the characters as well as the plot. To be successful, the hunter must become the hunted (Magill 1537). In the final battle between Rainsford and Zaroff it is easy to see the irony in Rainsford conquering murderer by killing him (Magill
Descending from difficult households, both my parents moved from Mexico to the United States in hopes to build better lives for my brother and I. Living alone in a foreign country has never been easy, however. My parents have built our lives from scratch with no outside family support. When I was young, my dad was always switching from menial job to menial job in hopes of find something better. My mom always helped out as best she could, at times selling coke and candy to neighbors, but her primary concern was always taking care of her children.