Courage is not an innate quality, a person gains it throughout his life, making a moral choice: surrender to grace to fear or overcome it. It is impossible to be born with courage in the chest, because life sets priorities in different ways: someone will face something that no one has ever encountered, and it will be difficult at that moment to remember whether the heart is endowed with courage? At such moments, the moral maturity of a person is checked, and not the pedigree. My words are easy to find confirmation in the literature.
In Garshin’s story “Coward,” the hero is afraid to go to war, because he fears that his life will be cut off in vain, and no one will even notice the loss, fluently reading the list of victims in the newspaper. He did not want to become part of that faceless black and white column, he was burdened by the realization of the meaninglessness of such an end. He longed to do something more, but, of course, his deep fear of the futility of being was attributed to the banal instinct of self-preservation. As a result, the hero was able to overcome himself and go to battle, although he died, like hundreds of his compatriots. But he was sure that he had put his strength in the great goal - the salvation of the homeland. He was not born a daredevil, but became him, realizing the need for courage.
In Twardowski’s poem “Vasily Terkin”, the hero was not born a daredevil either: he was an ordinary village boy who fell into war. This explains his phenomenal sense of humor. He never discourages and always jokes, even when he does serious things, risking himself. For example, in the chapter “Crossing”, he crosses an ice river under shelling of the enemy in order to deliver important information to the command about the position of the troops on the other side. As soon as the goal is achieved, the brave man negates all the pathos of his feat: he asks to pour him alcohol, and not spend the drink on rubbing the frostbitten body. Vasily became such at the front, although he could not think that he was born for brave conquests. It was just that life turned around, and he made his choice in favor of the road of honor, rather than betrayal, that is, honestly fulfilled his duty.
Thus, daredevils are not born, but are formed in the process of life. Courage is a measure of moral maturity, consciousness and honor, and not an innate quality like beauty or a sonorous voice. People bring up courage in themselves, but do not find out for no reason.
