According to Ambrose Redmoon, "Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more important to you than fear." In other words, in life there is always going to be things that scare you but one has to be able to be courageous enough not to let fear over take their life and stop you from doing what is important. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee and Thunder on Sycamore Street by Reginald Rose, illustrate the truth of the statement.
The literary element of plot works effectively for Lee to express her ideas about how courage overcomes immense fears when there is something meaningful and important on the line. In Thunder on Sycamore Street, Rose uses the literary element of theme is used to portray his ideas about how no matter how much fear you have you need to over come it and be courageous and do what is important.
Rose also addresses how "courage is not the absence of fear, but the judgment that something else is more important than your fear." In his story Thunder on Sycamore Street, Rose also expresses ideas about fear and courage through the literary element of characterization throughout his story. The character Arthur Hayes would never stand up for himself and then finally at the very end he was able to overcome his fear and do what was important, and right. Lee also uses characterization in his book To Kill a Mockingbird. The character Atticus Finch relates to the quote because he is a lawyer and he has to defend a black man. He too did what he knew was right and overcame the fears of other people who could hurt him or his family because he knew had good judgment.
Both Rose and Lee use literary elements to express ideas about courage and fear, and doing what is right, to prove Redmoon was correct when he said, "Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more important to you than fear.".
