The story “The Red Badge of Courage” by John Hustson and the slave narative “Incedents in the Life of a Slave Girl” by Herriet Jacobs share the theme of courage. This theme is shown in different ways in each story. The main characters in these two narratives gain the same theme of courage in different ways though adversity. While living different lives Harriet Jacobs and Henry Flemming both learned to be courageous in order to make it through situations they faced. Harriet Jacobs had to gain the courage to escape slavery and better her life. Jacobs was born into slavery. Her owner Mr. Flint made her live in their house because they were scared she would try to escape if she lived in the slave quarters. Little did her owner know she was slowly …show more content…
She showed her true level of courage the night she left knowing her grandmother was trying to buy her and her children. After she left her grandmothers she knew she needed to continue without the help of others because she would put herself and her family at great risk. The fact that she left on her own with little to no help from others shows that she had great courage to get what she deserved as a person that was educated and had the ability to work. Along with her gaining and showing a high level of courage, she showed that she was not going to let her fear to control her. Though she never fought in a war she showed her high level of courage by fighting another type of battle. Henry Fleming gained courage not through escaping an awful situation but through facing his fears on the battlefield. Henry arrives at his camp after enlisting in the army. He then begins to wonder if heroism and fear can live together. This is seen in the first battle how much he was questioning if heroism and fear could coexist. As shown Fleming ran away from the first battle and showed himself that though he was not excited like some of the other men for …show more content…
Had Henry continued to let his fear of the battle control him, he would have never gained the level of courage shown in the story. Henry's gaining of courage is also what led him to become a war hero in the eyes of his fellow soldiers. Jacobs and Fleming lived very different lives, facing different types of adversity, yet they still had to gain a high level of courage to achieve their goal. Jacobs' goal was freedom from slavery and Fleming’s goal was to be a hero. Flemming showed his growth in courage on the battlefield, while Jacobs showed her growth by continuing her plan to escape slavery. The type of courage needed was not the same for them. The type of courage required for Fleming is the kind that most people think of when the word is talked about. He needed to have not only moral courage but also physical courage. Jacobs needed to not only have physical and moral courage but also social courage because there was no way of knowing if she would be welcome into society if she made it to the north. Lastly, Fleming and Jacobs started with similar levels of courage and grew to a much higher level by the end of their stories. Considering all aforementioned Fleming and Jacobs faced different types of