“Being tough” “Scout's Honor” by Avi is a realistic short story about three nine-year-old boys that go camping in an entire different state on their own. In the beginning, three boys join Boy Scouts and want to move up to the next rank. In order to do so, they have to go camping by themselves in the country, which they decide to go do. Later on, they all begin to struggle being tough and face their own individual challenges. Because they are nine and don’t know much about how the world works, they think nonsense things that lead to them having to face many challenges. In the end, the boys admit that they are not as tough as they wanted to appear. They admitted that they weren't brave enough to do the bravest …show more content…
In paragraphs 45,46, and 50 Max gets left on the subway when the narrator and Horse get off because Horse left his mattress somewhere at the station. When Horse and the narrator find him at the next station, they noticed wet streaks on his cheeks, but when Horse asked if he’d been crying, Max replied in paragraph 51 “Naw. There was this water dripping from the tunnel roof. But you said don’t move, right? I was just being obedient.” Max wasn’t brave enough to admit to his friends that he had been crying. He was trying to keep looking brave in a bad situation by denying the truth. This is important because it proves that Max wasn’t tough enough to tell his friends he was, in fact, scared. Horse struggled with being tough. In paragraph 99, Horse tripped over his mattress that he brought from home and was going to sleep on. He then fell into a puddle. However, in paragraph 105 when the narrator asks why he was rubbing his arm(After he obviously hurt himself) Horse only replied in paragraph 106. “I’m keeping the blood moving.” Horse doesn’t want to admit to his friends that he hurt himself. He wants to make it seem like it didn’t bother him at all, when it probably did. Horse wants to continue seeming tough. This is important because Horse doesn’t want to seem physically not