"Moral courage is a more rare commodity than bravery in battle or great intelligence." Robert Francis Kennedy
This quote is saying that doing the "right thing" is often harder and less heard of than doing a physical act of bravery. Throughout the book Irene trys to make the right choice to do what is right no matter how much trouble she might end up in. Helping the Jews could have easily gotten you killed during that time. Irene sees the people in the ghetto and feels for them. She wants to help them. Though it might get her in trouble, it is the right thing to do. She begins to help them by placing a box of food under the fence everyday. If at anytime she got caught she could end up dead or as a prisoner. That didn't seem to matter to her as much as helping those people. Irene also recommends that people from the camps come and work in the laundry room so they have a better working environment. She begins to leave food for them in laundry baskets so they can eat. She gets extra blankets from Schultz so the Jews can make winter coats for themselves. She also goes into the ghetto to get Fanka out of there alive. Though all of these things were techinally the wrong thing to do, she new in her heart that it was the right thing to do. Her moral courage overpowered any fear that she might have had of getting caught.
2 comments:
I think it's interesting to see how Irene had that moral courage, and compare it to Shulz who didn't. He helped her but he would never acknowledge it, just pretended like nothing was going on.
This quote can relate to the quote I chose
"Courage is one step ahead of fear." -Coleman Young
No matter how fearful or, as in your quote, how wrong the situation was... she always managed to do what she knew would be best for others (if not for her)
The "physical act of bravery" as you said is definitely easier because it is what everyone is expecting you to do. Whereas, doing the "right thing" is something that takes more courage and is an act of selflessness in the end.
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