"Tomorrow when the war began" by John Marsden: Courage as a Central Message in the Text

Essay by bransona08Junior High, 8th grade January 2007

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In the novel 'Tomorrow when the war began', courage is the central message. The WordWeb dictionary defines courage as 'a quality of spirit that enables you to face danger of pain without showing fear'. This is exactly what John Marsden, the author, tried to make clear in the novel. The novel is about 7 teenagers that were forced to live in the bush because of the invaders that took over their country. Each of the characters came to a difficult time in the novel and to overcome that difficulty they needed courage. Two instances of showing courage were when they planned to blow up a bridge and when they had to save a friend by risking their own lives, but the main point is not to give up and have courage in yourself.

One task that the 7 teenagers did that showed great courage, is when they went into the town and all of the enemy soldiers were patrolling the streets.

They needed to go into town to save their friend named Lee after he got shot and get him to his parents shop so they could heal him. They had to gather up a great deal of courage to be able to carry out their task because it isn't very easy to risk your life by sneaking into a war zone surrounded by armies of soldiers and taking the chance of getting shot. When the teenagers were planing to take Lee into town, Homer made it clear to everyone that they have to maintain their courage by saying 'we're not going to be safe anywhere, any time, until this war is over'. Therefore by risking 6 lives to save 1 life shows great courage.

One of the toughest and nerve-racking times for the teenagers in the...