Reread the two essays above "Being Brave Means Overcoming Fear" and "What Bravery Means" and compare how the authors of the two essays develop the central idea of each passage.

Being Brave Means Overcoming Fear
by Oliver Hobbes

pg.1 Being brave can look different in different situations, but it almost always means that a person overcomes fear. According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, the word “brave” means “having or showing courage.” Courage is only necessary in a situation where a person is afraid. People are afraid of different things, so a situation that requires bravery can be different for different people. But everyone who overcomes his or her fear is being brave. For a student, being brave might mean notifying a teacher about someone cheating. It could mean deciding not to do something dangerous even though all your friends expect you to do it. It also might mean telling the truth when lying would be easier. All of these examples require a conscious choice to do something one is afraid to do.

pg.2 Karen Silkwood knew what it meant to be brave. She worked at the Kerr-McGee nuclear power plant in Oklahoma in the 1970s. Soon after she began work, Silkwood noticed that the plant’s health and safety practices were lacking. She found false records, dangerous-material spills, safety violations, and poor training. So Silkwood testified about the problems before the Atomic Energy Commission in Congress. Her company called her a troublemaker, and Silkwood was harassed daily at work. Nevertheless, she continued to tell the media about the problems at the plant. Several years later, the Kerr-McGee plant was closed.

pg.3 Karen Silkwood was brave enough to make an unpopular choice. She was surely afraid of the consequences of speaking up about the dangerous negligence she witnessed. But Silkwood overcame her fear. She knew that the plant’s poor safety practices endangered hundreds of people in and around the plant. Even when she experienced daily harassment at work, Silkwood chose to keep exposing the problems. Her choice was very unpopular, but she knew it was the right thing to do.

pg.4 Being brave means mastering fear. Often, being brave means doing the right thing, especially when doing what’s right is not what everyone else is doing. The world needs people who, like Karen Silkwood, are brave enough to overcome fear and make the right choice.

What Bravery Means
by Hannah Chase

pg.1 Many people believe that being brave means overcoming fear. But that definition of bravery is too limited. It implies that a person who is not afraid is not being brave. Yet people also show bravery by making independent choices or changing bad habits.

pg.2 It takes courage to go against what other people want you to do, even when you are not afraid of the consequences. For example, in 1810, a Polish teenager named Ernestine Rose took her father to court. He was trying to force her to marry a man, but she refused. Even though refusing was unusual in Rose’s time, the judge ruled that she did not have to agree to the arranged marriage. Rose grew up to become a tireless advocate for women’s rights. Sometimes being brave means staying true to yourself, just as Rose did. Making an independent choice is brave, even when the person does not overcome fear to do it.

pg.3 Mastering your own bad habits is also brave. Someone who lies frequently but chooses to stop this destructive habit is being courageous. It would be easier to keep lying because it is convenient and habitual. For example, a child who lies to his parents by saying that he’s finished with his homework gains the freedom to play. Changing this behavior means giving up freedom. By making the decision to stop lying and do his homework, the child is committing a brave act, regardless of his reasons for doing so. It is true that he might be afraid of being punished by his parents or teachers for not doing his homework. But he could also not be afraid at all. He might decide one day that having more time to play is not as important as being an honest person. The brave act is the decision to break the bad habit and the determination to follow through with that decision each day.

pg.4 Bravery looks different in different situations. It doesn’t always involve overcoming fear. Many people make choices that require determination and strength, and these people are no less brave than those who overcome their fears.