Ty's essay

Ty LeVarge
Mr. Salsich
English 02
April 8, 2009

Medal of courage
An essay on the theme in the poem courage and how the poem relates to my life

There is a medal of honor in the military, but why isn’t there a medal of courage for daring sacrifice? Sacrifice is something that makes courage. You need to be ready to lose something to be courageous if that were to be the cost. Courage is a lesson that someone has to learn and with courage comes sacrifice.

The poem Courage contains a theme of sacrifice. The quote, “if you faced the death of bombs and bullets” says that you died for someone or something. Whether you die for your country, or if you die to protect someone you love, you made a sacrifice and that took courage. You need courage to protect someone or something you love and would vow to protect. Also, the quote, “if your buddy saved you and died so doing” is another example of sacrifice. It takes love to provoke someone to do so. That is sacrifice to save and protect someone. Sacrifice plays a large role in the focus of this play and is mentioned several times in this poem. It is mostly focused on the sacrifice of one’s life to protect another. You also sacrifice help from your friends to prove that you can accomplish something on your own. Sacrifice is a theme in this poem that is not very easy to describe by words but by their actions and the feats that is required to be courageous.

I have not accomplished something as great as saving someone else’s life, but I have sacrificed some elements of my former self to make my current self even more outgoing. I had to sacrifice a part of my old self or risk losing that part to succeed. I once sacrificed my dignity by randomly saying something at lunch that was followed by an awkward silence. Sacrificing a piece of you can be risky but well worth it. For me, I had to become friends with people and that took courage on its own. I had to take that large extra step that may make me look crazy, or someone cool. It mostly worked except for a few people but I was able to be friendly because I took that risk. Random ideas are what gave me the courage to take that step forward and to be a cool and funny person. I was able to tell of random ideas and be able to make everyone laugh and have a fun time. This took much risk of losing my friendliness with everyone, but my friends have even become better friends. Courage has earned y friendship with everyone and now I am glad that I took that first awkward step towards having a better life.

Courage can be rewarding, but it can also lead to disaster. It is a weapon at your fingertips that only you can control. It can be a disaster of your life, or it can be a boost to your life. Courage is something that you do not want to try unless you know the people that you are talking to.