Critical Lens Quotation Connection

“Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that
something else is more important than fear.”          Ambrose Redmoon

What this great quote means is that being courageous is not the same as being fearless. Having no fear is not what it takes to have courage. In fact, it may even be fitting to say that it is impossible to have courage in fearlessness, for there is no trouble in doing what someone with fear would be afraid to do. This idea connects with a series I have read this year, The Obsidian Trilogy. In this series, Kellen, the main character, has many reasons to be afraid. First of all, there are all the enemies that are trying to destroy him and the people around him. Additionally, he is heaped with huge responsibilities that would be nearly impossible to handle for anyone, much less a 17-year old boy. And he knows that he must even go beyond those responsibilities in order to save everyone. He is not able to go through these ordeals without fear; however, he judges that the safety of everyone else is more important than his fear, and he rises up to the challenge. He tries as hard as he can and, in the end, his resilient courage pays out.