How Does Courage Build Personal Integrity

Improved Essays
Having courage is important to humans in everyday life. Courage helps humans through periods of inevitable difficulties during one’s life, requiring one to stand firmly and face challenges head on. In return, this nurtures and builds personal morality. W.H. Auden’s poem, “There Will Be No Peace”, exemplifies this, demonstrating that acts of strength in the face of pain or obstacles encourage the growth of personal integrity.
Being strong and working through times of struggle is crucial to developing personal integrity. This theme is explored in the poem, “There Will Be No Peace” by W. H. Auden. In the poem, Auden writes about an eternal struggle with darkness and negativity throughout life. He continues to state throughout the poem that fighting back with courage and integrity is important to combat with situations like these. “There Will Be No Peace” suggests that moral courage, and the courage to stand up in what one believes in is important to strengthen personal integrity. For example, Auden writes, “…the storm has changed you: / You will not forget, ever, / The darkness blotting out hope, the gale / Prophesying your downfall.” This represents the negative times in life, such as a
…show more content…
However, as the poem progresses, Auden includes the idea of fighting back these “beings” with as much as courage as possible. Through his descriptions, he suggests that in order to have courage, it is a necessity to be strong in the face of the obstacles life throws at you, in addition to maintaining moral strength. This will nurture one’s personal integrity because it is not cowering in these moments of struggle that builds a strong character for people, but pushing through

Related Documents

  • Great Essays

    As History shows us, war at times can be preventable and at time it is not. In the long run, war has an everlasting effect on soldiers whether it is directly or indirectly. In some cases, the horror of war is at time difficult for us to understand how men and women in the battlefield cope in times of fear. The poem "Facing it" by Yusef Komunyakaa allows us the readers to see what happen during and after the war, and what mentally goes through one 's mind in terms of how one copes with the war and how one deals with their mental breakdown during and after the war. The Poem "Facing It" demonstrates how the effect of war can most likely damage one 's life due to PTSD (Posttraumatic Stress Disorder).…

    • 1612 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Decent Essays

    The author uses pathos on page 149, “Courage is not something that you already have that makes you brave when the tough times start. Courage is what you earn when you’ve been through the tough times and you discover they aren’t so tough after all.” Most of us can relate and have experienced situations that have changed us emotionally. Courage is thought to have a strong connotation and is displayed in this context. For example, Soldiers may lose a limb from battle or suffer from brain damage where they can’t functionally walk or communicate.…

    • 258 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Plato introduces the concept of courage as one of the main virtues present in the city he creates throughout The Republic. The virtues (wisdom, courage, temperance, and justice) are compartmentalized and found in specific classes or parts of the city. Plato states upfront that “Now whoever call the city brave or cowardly will think first about its armed forces.” So it follows naturally that courage finds its foundation in the auxiliary class of warriors. Those who protect and defend the city should and do represent this courage, because it is their given role to fulfill.…

    • 748 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Feelings Art can give meaning. It can make us feel something within us that we did not know was possible. It also can make us think of what we can do to make others be able to feel this way as well. Yusef Kumunyakaa’s poem, “Facing It” has us feel something for the war and how it is like for some veterans afterwards. The art of this poem had many critics commenting on it and seeing the value of which this poem has on many things in our own lives such as mistakes, memories, and imperfection.…

    • 302 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Introduction The three most important concepts I picked from chapters 3-4 are Courage, Wisdom, and Integrity. Three Concepts My first concept of courage, our book has many definitions of courage as well as categories but what I like how are book defines courage as being related to your heart, your mind and your thought. When you couple courage with a resilient leader, this displays someone who shows nothing but quality because a good leader will display courage and people who see leaders with good courage often will follow them and want to learn from encouraging people.…

    • 412 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    What if it was a world that was declining towards extinction already? A post-apocalyptic world? Bradbury was able to give readers a glimpse of the kind of future the family lived in and, most importantly, gave away the type of person the mother was, so to speak. Mrs. McClellan’s favorite poem, according to the house: “Sarah Teasdale.…

    • 945 Words
    • 4 Pages
    • 2 Works Cited
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Epiphany In Beowulf

    • 1987 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Life is an epiphany! No matter what we achieve in life disaster or tragedy will strike and destroy it but this does not mean you have to throw the towel. Values such as; courage, bravery, strength, loyalty, and reputation allow individuals or communities to face such adversaries and survive in spite of them. Beowulf is an example of how individuals survive adversaries in life regardless of endless challenges that one face in life. The character of Beowulf in the poem Beowulf demonstrates courage, bravery, strength, loyalty, and reputation regardless of adversaries Beowulf faces, showing that life will always have challenges, but what matters is what you do to deal with such challenges.…

    • 1987 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Many people presume that courage is simply a person who accomplishes a grand feat rather than having the quality of mind that enables a person to face difficulty or danger without fear. However, true courage depends on the eyes of the beholder. Courage is many things. Slyly embodied in both reticent and vital characters, Harper Lee in To Kill a Mockingbird and Reginald Rose in 12 Angry Men both create a broad representation of courage. In both works of literature, the idea of courage that is being conveyed is the ability to do something that one knows is right or gracious, even though it is extremely difficult.…

    • 1003 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Is courage always beneficial to society? Some people might say that it’s not beneficial to society because of the negative effects that the world has. However, evidence suggests that, overall, courage could have some positive impacts throughout life. Anne frank from the book Diary of Anne Frank, is one example of a positive courageous person. Another example of a person showing courage is Melinda from the book Speak By: Laurie Halse Anderson Anne Frank is a courageous young lady that lived during the time Hitler was executing the Jews in the concentration camps.…

    • 298 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Superior Essays

    “Courage is the most important of all the virtues, because without courage, you can 't practice any other virtue consistently.” A quote by Maya Angelou. Courage is a recurring theme in Khaled Hosseini’s “The Kite Runner”. In my essay, I will be explaining and showing acts of courage by three characters.…

    • 1281 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Mockingbird Symbolism

    • 903 Words
    • 4 Pages

    “Courage is not a man with a gun in his hand. Its knowing you're licked before you begin but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what. You rarely win but sometimes you do” -Atticus Finch,…

    • 903 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    “When you face difficult times, know that challenges are not sent to destroy you. They are sent to promote, increase and strengthen you.” Every day, each individual faces both obstacles and conflicts in every aspect of life. How individuals deal with these events influences who they become and their identities. How others see people handle their obstacles and conflicts impacts their own identities and question their morals.…

    • 953 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Some rise to the challenge adversity places on them, becoming more sure of themselves than ever before. Others fall victim, losing parts of themselves that they used to consider an integral part of their identity. Many face adversity as a mixture of both losing parts of themselves and creating even stronger values. Adversity is the foundation…

    • 920 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The short story “Sudden” written by Duncan Long and the poem “Anthem for Doomed Youth” by Wilfred Owen presents how war has corrupted our humanity throughout history. Writers reflect their belief on the tragedy of war. This is presented through Duncan Long’s story which shows the reality of war that is brutal and violent through imagery and characterisation, suggests that war destroys innocence in youth. Through the use of symbolization, the poet, Wilfred Owen explores the idea that deaths in war are not truly commemorated. Therefore, the authors convey a message that war is not glorious or honourable and will never bring peace; however war destroys lives and is meaningless.…

    • 1049 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Courage is not the absence of fear. It is fighting one’s way through even though they are afraid. Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner, features various character’s utilizing their courage to overcome the adversity waiting for them both in America and Afghanistan. Amir, the protagonist who is coward at first, faced a lot of situations requiring audacity which eventually changed him to a person who can stand up to his ideals.…

    • 972 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays