Introduction
Courage. I chose the topic of courage because I found it to be the number one topic that I had the strongest feelings about. Courage to me is something that started off as a sort of unknown, as I went into the first couple PA's, I was hoping that by the end I would have had enough background information from multiple American authors and their opinions on a wide scale of different aspects from art to movies, to quotes and poems, to fully understand the meaning of courage. For me this topic was a sense of a journey to find the true meaning of being a courageous person and what it does and does not take to succeed. Throughout the writing adventure I have found many different aspects of what makes up courage, from a courageous warrior fighting battles to stand up for his country all the way to sitting down and listening to others when you want your voice to be heard, yet having the courage and respect to listen to the ideas of others. My writing process improved from each piece, I found the writing style that worked best for me and went best with my topic. My writing process consisted of an outline for each paragraph containing what aspects need to be placed into each paper. I started off with finding an American author on my topic for that PA than finding background information on the author and their piece so that I knew the maximum amount of background knowledge to base my writing on. While writing I came to a realization of what being an American really is. The conclusion that I found after researching some of the most famous American authors including Dr. Seuss and Martin Luther King, I found that being an American is believing in yourself and that if you act upon your dreams they really can come true. As Americans with writers from a variety of different time periods we strive for the best and we go to any lengths for justice. For example with Martin Luther King he stood up for an entire race in a time period where African Americans were devalued. He had the courage to give up his life and stand up for what he believed was right. And in the end, Martin Luther King changed the outcome of America making it a stronger and united powerhouse. The ending of my journey had become clear that courage is not what I had initially expected and that it is really a variety of different meanings that our shaped by the characteristics of each and every person because it is something that we all possess.