Comparing Character Traits Between Lt. Cross in the Things We Carried - Afraid but Courageous Leaders

Afraid but Courageous Leaders

What if you had to walk for miles in unknown territory with an enemy ready to kill? How would you carry yourself? What if you were young and were told you were less deserving than others because of your skin color? How would you prove otherwise? One young man struggles with the adversities of war and another young man struggles with the adversities of racism and although both are afraid they portray great courage and leadership.

It is courageous of the unnamed narrator to accept the invitation to speak at “a gathering of the town’s leading white citizens.” The time period of Ralph Ellison’s “Battle Royal” was a time when African Americans weren’t respected or treated equally. He arrives and expects to give his speech but instead finds himself blindfolded and being thrown into the portable ring with nine other young black men. We can feel his humiliation when he states, “I could no longer control my motions. I had no dignity. I stumbled about like a baby or a drunken man.” This allows us to see the courage he must have to speak in front of these white men who humiliate him. Lt. Cross, in Tim O’Brien’s “The Things They Carried,” depicts great courage as he and his men carry out their obligations as soldiers. One soldier is killed and Cross has no choice but to keep “humping on.” His anguish portrayed when O’Brien says, “They shared the weight of memory.” Lt. Cross “took up what others could no longer bear. Often, they carried each other,” and courageously carried on. “Each morning, despite the unknowns, they made their legs move. They endured.”

Both men are courageous, but they are afraid as well. Each character allows their fear to show only to the reader. The young black man in “Battle Royal” fears he will become a victim of his own society. The white men hold the power, prestige, and the key to unlock the chain society places on him, related to his skin color. “I stood against the ropes trembling,” he explains as he enters the ring. Even during the “complete anarchy” of the battle royal he thinks about his speech and fears it will not go well. He finally gives his speech to the room full of drunk, white men. He is nervous and accidentally says social equality. The already smoke-filled air thickens, he meant social responsibility. He says to us,

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