Essay on Bravery and Cowardice in Private Peaceful free essay sample

In this essay I’ll be discussing the topic of bravery and cowardice and also stating whether or not Tommo and all the other characters are cowards or brave. Throughout Novel there are many examples of bravery and cowardice and is compared to many acts of bravery; as a result, as soon as you’ve read an act bravery the author chose to write an act of cowardice to balance it out such as when Charlie displays courage as he protects his younger brother from bullies and corporal punishment such as the colonel and his sergeant. This obviously shows bravery. Another way to show Charlie’s bravery is when he disobeyed a direct order, but he did so in order to protect his comrade, Tommy and also because he knew it was suicidal order ( because of the Germans using equipment, that as soon as they get to the front line they would be killed). Furthermore, Charlie is not given a chance to present his side of the story. Ultimately, the negligence of the chain-of-command resulted in the death of an innocent soldier. But even at the end you may argue he was still showing bravery by not shivering: to show he was week, wanting to see the bullets coming towards him rather than putting the hood on, that the guards persisted he had on (maybe they showing cowardice) Big Joe is a symbol of innocence that Charlie takes comfort in before his pending execution, he thinks about him by singing oranges and lemons before his death rather than pitying himself because he knew he wasn’t a coward regardless to what his sergeant or anyone else had said. It was brave of Tommo to reveal his secret to Charlie, as Charlie had no clue how his father’s death really happened. Tommo proves to be brave by telling Charlie his biggest secret and it was obviously hard telling the truth to his brother as Charlie never knew the truth. All his actions prove him to be someone we should look up to. It was very brave of Tommo to tell Charlie as he had dreams about this. In contrast, Morpurgo uses â€Å"evil† in some of the characters such as Colonel, Grandma Wolf, and Sergeant Hanley. Grandma wolf delights in torturing the vulnerable Big Joe. Grandma Wolf knew that Big Joe liked the rat but she  killed it to tease Big Joe. This obviously makes it’s cowardly as she is punishing Big Joe just for being different. In this book, sergeant Hanley is displayed as a very cowardly person. Throughout the whole book he has been giving grief to the soldiers, making their lives hell, and frightening them to death especially to Charlie. Hanley has never had a soft spot for the Peaceful’s let alone anyone and makes sure that the soldiers don’t disobey him or even enjoy themselves. I think sergeant Hanley is a selfish and cowardly person. For example sergeant Hanley wants the soldiers to go out of the dugout and face the guns; however, he himself knows that most of them will face their death this way. It is not a must that he has to tell the soldiers that they need to go out there, but he does so anyway because he’s following his bosses orders ( even though he knows inside that it’s a stupid idea but unlike Charlie he’s too much of a coward to disobey these orders) . Charlie refuses to go with him and knows that going out of the dugout at the moment would be suicidal; he wants to stay with Tommo as Tommo seems to be fatally injured and dying. So therefore Charlie disobeys him, after a few threats the court martial calls up the firing squad to execute poor Charlie. Overall, at the end of the novel Tommo showed a lot of bravery. When he told Charlie about his secret, he was brave and courageous because it may have taken a long time to say but he still said it even though he was scared of what his brother might say, or think about him. I admire Tommo because from being shy and quiet he was brave and fearless. I feel that Michael Morpurgo did an outstanding job by making these two characters, Charlie and Tommo because in their own way they’ve shown bravery such as when Tommo felt he was a coward for not joining up to go to the army but showed a tremendous amount of bravery by joining up because he was terrified and that was the day he became a man. That is why I feel he should be admired and he would be a great role model someone to aspire to be like because yes you can argue he had some cowardly moments but all in all he had some great courageous ones as well.let alone anyone and makes sure that the soldiers don’t disobey him or even enjoy themselves. I think sergeant Hanley is a selfish and cowardly person. For example sergeant Hanley wants the soldiers to go out of the dugout and face the guns; however, he himself knows that most of them will  face their death this way. It is not a must that he has to tell the soldiers that they need to go out there, but he does so anyway. Charlie refuses to go with him and knows that going out of the dugout at the moment would be suicidal; he wants to stay with Tommo as Tommo seems to be fatally injured and dying. So therefore Charlie disobeys him, after a few threats Hanley court-martials Charlie and this leads to yet another young soldier’s death. let alone anyone and makes sure that the soldiers don’t disobey him or even enjoy themselves. I think sergeant Hanley is a selfish and cowardly person. For example sergeant Hanley wants the soldiers to go out of the dugout and face the guns; however, he himself knows that most of them will face their death this way. It is not a must that he has to tell the soldiers that they need to go out there, but he does so anyway. Charlie refuses to go with him and knows that going out of the dugout at the moment would be suicidal; he wants to stay with Tommo as Tommo seems to be fatally injured and dying. So therefore Charlie disobeys him, after a few threats Hanley court-martials Charlie and this leads to yet another young soldier’s death.