S.S. Rebel Alliance (Silent Sustained Reading Discussions) discussion

This is a place for you to discuss how the themes of courage and/or cowardice appear in the books you are reading. How do your characters display these traits? What are their thoughts on others who display these traits? What are your personal thoughts? Don't forget to tell us what book you are reading.

He at first was a coward but throughout the book he has to have courage to become a fighter and protect his family

Memoirs of a Geisha

The main character chose courage over cowardice when finding her sister and leaving her home to run away back to her family.

Be sure to tell us which books you are reading! You can tell us in the post or by using the "add book" feature.

In the Hobbit, the main character shows clear signs of courage versus cowardice. This theme is best portrayed in one portion of the book in general when the main character is forced into a life or death riddle battle with a horrifying creature. The main character displays courage and the creature displays cowardice. The main character does not think much on the differences, he admires courage but doesn't despise cowardice. This is because the main character shows some cowardice a lot through the story.

A girl choose courage over cowardice because she took her life to make sure her friends would live to see another day.

In the titans curse, annabeth was left to her own luck and its up to her friends to save her and look for her but their debating either to go or not since it is a very hard path full of dangers ahead of them.

In shark wars grey is starting to over come his fears and stop being a coward. He is starting to be brave and take up the responsibillites as seazar. Grey is becoming more diverse and building up courage

In the hunger games the characters face/ overcome many different issues throughout the book, But in this current chapter Katniss and Peeta are training for the 74th annual hunger games. They both face courage while they are training and pushing their bodies like never before, even when they know in the back of their mind what the out come of the games might be. Instead of backing down and remaining fearful that their life's may be ending soon both Katniss and Peeta go in front of the fellow competitors showing off the skills they hold and the mental strength needed to gain the upper hand in the challenge of the Hunger Games.

The Dead

Ed, one of the main characters, chose cowardice vs. courage. He is too afraid to kill the zombies, even when his friends are in danger. His friend Jack, chooses courage over cowardice, and is often angry with Ed for not being brave. The characters of this book have to learn to be courageous in order to survive. They must face the zombies, and kill them.

In The City of Heavenly Fire (the final book of The Mortal Instruments series) the main character, Clary, has to overcome her cowardice. Her mother was kidnapped by her brother, Sebastian, and taken to a different dimension full of demons. Clary has to overcome her cowardice and fight against Sebastian to rescue her mother. She often gets frustrated with herself for not being courageous. She is envious of her friends who are more courageous than she is. I think that I would have the same mindset Clary has. I would also be very envious of my friends if they were more courageous than I am.

In Star Wars: the Empire Strikes Back, the first main characters, Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, and Leia Organa are almost immediately forced the run away from the Empire. I see this as cowardice. However, this cowardice is more or less acceptable, due to the fact that if they were to have stood and fought, they would have surely been defeated, especially since Darth Vader was accompanying the Storm Troopers.

In Forrest Gump, Forrest has to overcome many difficulties in order to be successful. He has to overcome everything from being bullied to playing football and even being in the army. He needs have courage in order to successfully do all these amazing things.

In the Hobbit the character Bilbo Baggins is offered to go along on a quest however Bilbo lacks the heroic characteristics and throughout the begging Bilbo tends to be a coward afraid of everything that he might encounter. but after a certain point the character starts to confront goblins, spiders and other horrific creatures and the main character begins to develop courage.

In my book, The Eleventh Plague, the main character, Stephen Quinn, shows much cowardice as he tends to rely on his family for support through the apocalypse, But, this changes as his grandpa dies and Stephen's dad goes into a coma. He slowly overcomes his cowardice as he has to find any supplies to help him and his dad, and protect what little he has left.

in the book Cress, the character named Cress shows great courage because she doesn't tell her Queen where Cinder. Cress knows that if she doesn't tell and that if the Queen finds out that she helped them she will be killed. she helps them any way, because she wants to free her people and herself

In the book Carnal Innocence, the main character is a professional violinist. She had a breakdown a few months before the book picks up the story. She is now living in her grandmothers home in rural Mississippi. She went to live in the south so she could be able to recuperate from her breakdown and decide if she wants to continue performing. She has to find the courage to either stop professionally performing or be a coward and succumb to her parents wishes to continue playing. All the while, in her town, a murder is going around and killing women just because they are there.

Percy Jackson knows he needs to take on this quest. All though he doesn't know if by doing so will get him killed. He doesn't even know if doing it would earn him respect. Would it be cowardly to not go? Or courageous to go? I think he needs to go so that if something bad happens at least he wasn't a coward and did nothing.

The Last Star
In the book The Last Star one of the main characters Ben shows courage when he decides to go back and look for Ringer even though he knows there's a good chance he could die.

The 5th Wave
In this book the main character Cassie has to choose between being courageous and being a coward a lot. The book is about an alien invasion of earth, and the only two people still alive in her family are her and her brother, Sammy. While at a refugee camp, American soldiers come to "save" everyone, but only take the children on the first bus. This is when Cassie and Sammy are first split up. Soon after he is taken away she realizes that they are the bad guys and she needs to get back to her brother. On her journey to find Sammy she has to kill so she is not killed, She has to make some hard decisions that no 16 year old should have to make, and all so that she can get to her brother and protect him.

In the book Highest Duty Capt. Chesley Sullenberger talks about courage all the time. He showed extreme courage when he landed flight 1549 on the Hudson River. He says that the real leaders are the ones who step up in stressful situations and show courage. The ones who don't step up and take charge are the cowards. I agree with Capt. Sullenberger because every great leaders has shown some type of courage.

in the Emerald Mile, the men are faced with having either the courage to go down the river and risk dying, or dont go and be a coward.

I am reading The Nightingale. Nazis have taken over France and Isabelle, the main character, doesn't want to obey them. Most of the French have accepted the new way of life but she is against it. She has joined a secret group determined to stop them. She must now try to get a travel pass so she can deliver a secret letter to someone in Paris.

Im almost finished reading the Hobbit so far Bilbo has become less of a coward and more of a courage person he even confronts the dragon Smug.

I am reading the "Eleventh Plague". Throughout the book, the main character tries to survive in the so called, "wilderness". His character becomes more courageous and obtains bravery.

The Last Star
In the book The Last Star one of the main characters Cassie shows a lot of courage when she goes to try and rescue her friend from the military base.