"[Courage is] when you know you're licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what." Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird told his daughter, Scout, that real bravery can only happen when a person is uncertain whether or not he will succeed. Along time ago people did not want to break away because they did not want to take the chance. They did not want to go past the threshold. Joseph Campbell explains the hero's journey and going through the threshold is when you go from the known world to the unknown world. They went through to a New World. "Courage is doing what you're afraid to do. There can be no courage unless you're scared" Eddie Rickenbacker. Some people did not want to take the chance to change. What would it be like if no one passed through the threshold? Patch Adams and Mr. Keating went through the threshold and tried to break down the walls of tradition and the status quo. Mr. Keating taught his English class to break away from the status que. Patch Adams found a new way to cure the people and he did not want anyone to try to stop him. Mr. Keating failed in what he tried to do, but Patch Adams succeeded. Patch Adams and Mr. Keating both tried to break away from the status quo and break down the walls of tradition.
First of all Mr. Keating taught his English class to break away from the status quo. He was an English teacher at the private school for boys. At that school there were a lot of traditions the "four pillars" Tradition is one of them. Mr. Keating had to pass through the threshold and wanted to change the school. He taught the boys to think on their own. The tradition was that they should just be like puppets that their fathers control. Mr. Keating said to the boys "No matter what anybody tells you - words and ideas can change the world." That means that anyone can make a difference if they don't hide. Mr. Nolan the Principal and Mr. McAlester did not like that Mr.