The Unvanquished Courage Quotes

Huh. Uncle Buck's assessment of the situation is a little counterintuitive. The boys think that John Sartoris is a hero because he's always off fighting, but Uncle Buck calls him a coward for the same reason. Maybe he's afraid of staying home, which makes fighting the cowardly thing to do.

The chinks in the armor grow… John Sartoris is supposedly a big, bad, fearless hero, but he's accused, again by Uncle Buck, of actually stealing horses rather than fighting Yankees. That would make him less courageous and more cowardly than he's made out to be.

Drusilla's outnumbered in many different ways here. She's surrounded by Yankees that literally outnumber her, for one. But she's also a girl surrounded by men, putting her at a definite disadvantage. She's also about to lose everything, including her prized horse, but her courage in the face of all these difficulties saves her and her horse.

Here's our first hint that Ab Snopes is a big old coward. He claims that he fought with Sartoris, but no one can confirm that. In a time when every able-bodied man around is risking his life, Snopes just saying he has done so is an insult to the real courageous folks.

What a great word, indomitable. It comes from the Latin indomitabilis, where in- means "not", and domitare means "to tame." That means that little old Granny can't be tamed, mostly because of her courageous spirit.

Uncle Buck's another old-timer with a lot of courage. He goes with the boys to hunt down Grumby and make sure they get their revenge, but along the way he is shot in the arm. Instead of letting it get the best of him, Uncle Buck ignores the pain and even bravely hides it from the boys, so that he can stay with them a little longer.

In contrast to the great, courageous examples of Granny and Uncle Buck, Ab Snopes is a yellow-belly who refuses to admit his mistakes or even fight back when Bayard tries to make him pay for what he did to Granny. His attempt at legalese, trying to make it look like he's being attacked unfairly, just makes him look like more of a coward.

We gotta admit, we'd be afraid to keep going after Grumby after getting a message like this. Especially when you consider that it's pinned to a dead body hanging from a tree. But the boys must summon all their courage to continue, even in the face of such danger.

What a weird way to talk about nerves. You'd think that losing your nerve would mean being afraid to do something and losing the bravery you need to do so. So that means that Grumby's men are calling him a coward for killing Granny, because he lost his nerve when he did it.

When Bayard hears that his father has been murdered, he knows that everyone will expect him to kill the killer—vengeance is the Southern way, after all. However, he has been studying and thinking, and has decided that he wants to live a different way, without killing. Breaking with tradition, even if it means doing what you believe is right, takes a lot of courage.