Courage Quotes From The Book 'Behind Close Doors'

Words: 887
Pages: 4

Maddie Storts
LA Hr.2

Courage Essay

Courage, the ability to do something that frightens one. This is the dictionary definition of courage, but it can be defined in many more ways. Courage can be found throughout our lives in many ways and everyone’s version of courage may be different, but courage is also something that is very important. I will be using text from the book “Behind Closed Doors” to show why courage is important. Many of the characters from this book have to be courageous and in numerous ways. Being courageous to help someone else, protecting oneself, and forcing you to face what you are scared of, are all ways that courage is important.

Having the courage to take risks to help out someone else is significant. You
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If we don’t have the courage to stand up to the ones we fear, we may never be able to help ourselves. Grace shows a huge act of courage when she attacks Jack in attempt to escape. “Keeping my movements small, I moved the glass I was holding in my other hand under the paper and shook the powder into it” (278). She built up the courage to distract Jack enough to put the sleeping pills into his drink. If she had gotten caught, there would’ve been no telling what Jack would’ve done to her. “Incensed, I raised my glass and before I could stop myself, I had thrown the rest of my whisky in his face” (279). She also has courage here, because Jack is much bigger and smarter than her. And so to attempt to attack him and escape is very risky, yet brave. Grace then locks him into a room where he cannot escape from and quickly leaves the house. “Stunned by the fall, his body heavy from the pills, he lay without moving for a few precious seconds and before he could recover, I fled the room, slamming the door behind me” (281). These acts of courage show why it is important to protect oneself. If Grace had not risked her life to escape from Jack, she would never have seen Millie or her parents again. She would also have to face Jack and him either killing her or torturing her severely. And so, Grace had to risk it all and be courageous enough to outsmart Jack and escape from him to protect