Courage

It was once said “Courage is measured by an individual’s willingness to continue

fighting, even when the likelihood of victory is small.” In other words, even though

people know the outcome of what their doing might not be what they want people still try

their hardest. Two pieces of literature that prove this statement true are Night by Elie

Wiesel and Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck.

First of all, in Night Elie Wiesel was a young boy forced to work because of his

religion. Elie Wiesel uses the literary device, setting to describe how hard things were

during the Holocaust. He describes each camp that he was sent to clear enough that the

reader could get a clear image in your head of what those places must have looked like

and how hard it must have been to work there. For example, he was forced to sleep in

small disease infested houses with an abundance of people; they barely had clothes on, had

one blanket for each person and some people did not have shoes. Each concentration

camp they went to was a whole different world and had to work with little strength during

the worst conditions. For example, all the prisoners were forced to run miles and miles to

the Buchenwald camp while there was snow on the ground. Furthermore, characterization

is also used throughout the story to describe Elie and how he survived the way did during

horrible times. For instance, Elie knew and saw people die in the concentration camps

everyday and he knew that it could happen to him at any time or day but he kept the hope

in surviving and always tried his hardest. For example, when Wiesel was in the hospital

for his foot the camp was being evacuated and he had the choice of staying or leaving and

walking to the other camp, Elie didn’t know what the right chose was but he had the

courage of leaving the hospital with his father and later being liberated.

Secondly, in Of Mice and Men George took