Courage Against All Odds, Portrayed Through Actions in the World, Develops one’s Outlook on Life

Courage against all odds, portrayed through actions in the world, develops one’s outlook on life. Courage refers to the quality of mind or spirit that enables a person to face difficulty, danger, pain, or the like, despite fear. Two dominant actions in the world impacting on our daily life are: racism and isolation. These incidents assist in the developing of one’s outlook on life, demonstrated effectively through successful techniques in Harper Lee’s novel, To Kill A Mockingbird, and Tom Hanks film, Cast Away.

Courage against all odds, portrayed through isolation, develops one’s outlook on life. Isolation refers to the act of being separated from other persons or things; alone. The film produced by Tom Hanks, Cast Away, portrays the act of isolation when the main character of the film becomes stranded on an unknown island. Chuck Noland was travelling over the Pacific in his company’s FedEx plane when there was an onboard explosion and the plane went down in flames. As the only survivor, Chuck learns to fend for himself, with no basic food, drink or shelter. After four years on the island, and an unsuccessful attempt to kill himself, Chuck comes to realise what it really means to be isolated. In the film, the producer utilizes the technique of a zoom out to an extreme long camera shot when Chuck is floating in the middle of the Pacific sea immediately after the crash, in a horrific storm. This helps the audience to visualise his fate of isolation. One is able to notice the expanse of sea surrounding him evoking a sense of mystery in the audience as to when Chuck will come to live his normal life again. Chuck demonstrates courage through this camera shot because he is saving his own life by ensuring he stays afloat on the inflatable yellow life ring given to him on the plane. Later in the film, when Chuck is back in Memphis, he recalls his shocking experience, “I knew, somehow, I had to keep alive, somehow, I had to keep breathing, even though there was no reason to hope.”. The use of emotional dialogue and repetition emphasises his trait of resilience, he ‘HAD to keep alive’. The repetition of the word ‘somehow’ reveals his sense of the unknown, he did not know what was to become of him, but he knew he had to keep living despite his isolation. The emotional language, ‘there was no reason to hope’ demonstrates that he did not think he was going to survive, but he had to be resilient, and make himself believe something impossible. Hence, one’s outlook on life is developed through actions in the world, in Chucks case, isolation. Chuck’s courage against all odds aided his survival on the island, portrayed in Tom Hanks’ film, Cast Away.

One’s outlook on life is developed through the action of racism in the world, and the courage to stand up against it. Racism refers to the belief that races have distinctive cultural characteristics determined by hereditary factors and that this endows some races with an intrinsic superiority over others. Atticus Finch, a main character in Harper Lee’s famous novel, To Kill A Mockingbird, demonstrates incredible courage when defending a Negro man in a court case. Atticus was a lawyer living in Maycomb, a small town in the Southern United States. Mr Finch was asked to defend Tom Robinson, a Negro man wrongly accused of taking advantage of and beating a young white woman. Living during the 1930s, a period of widespread racial prejudices, Atticus knew there was little chance of Tom Robinson being freed from his convictions in the trial. Atticus is courageous in supporting the African American man, resisting the racism occurring around him. Believing in a fair trial, and hoping to set a precedent and cease prejudice in the future, Atticus