Fortitude Throughout American History

When Americans are faced with the difficulty of making imperative decisions that can affect their country and the lives of others, they become dependent upon fortitude to help them accomplish their hopes and dreams for the future. Fortitude is something that is difficult to appreciate, even though many different societies and people throughout American history have shown fortitude in difficult situations by persevering and overcoming obstacles to achieve their goal. Fortitude is having the courage to face challenges and obstacles and persevering when things get tough; something that Americans have exemplified throughout their entire history. Even though the effort is put forward to try and appreciate fortitude, on occasion there are some who do not wish to see others overcome their obstacles, accomplish their dreams, or reach their goals in life. Unfortunately, situations such as greed, hate, and rebelliousness occur and every so often these factors allow those who don’t appreciate fortitude to be successful in destroying the hopes and dreams of others.

Appropriate examples of people who valued fortitude are Jay Gatsby from the book The Great Gatsby, George and Lennie from the book Of Mice and Men, and the American Revolutionaries who fought in America’s Revolutionary War in 1775. Perseverance and determination were prominent characteristics in these examples and they allowed these people to accomplish great things.

In the book The Great Gatsby, there was a young man named Jay Gatsby that owned a very large house in West Egg, (the side that represented “new money”, meaning that the money had not been in the family and it was “just” new found richness), whose only desire was to have his long, lost love Daisy Buchanan fall in love...

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...ven as something that is difficult to appreciate, even though many different societies and people throughout American history have shown fortitude in difficult situations by persevering and overcoming obstacles to achieve their goal. The best way that it was exemplified was with the colonists in the revolution defeating the British Army. Americans have exemplified fortitude throughout their entire history and since history tends to repeat itself, there is no doubt that it will continue to be shown in the years to come. Even though the effort is put forward to try and appreciate fortitude, there are some who do not wish to see others overcome their obstacles, accomplish their dreams, or reach their goals in life as shown with the slave owners of the south during the American Civil war and with Crooks being cruel to Lennie when he was trying to destroy his fantasy.