The students have asked the class to write a blog post respondig to the followig questio: “Think of a time when you felt you had to use a lot of courage in your life.

Here I go:
For me, the times that I’ve felt the need for courage have been the times when I have to own up to something

Now they have a question about the title of the story, “Speaking of Courage.” I think it’s a good idea to break the title into two parts: “Speaking,” and “Courage.” First, Speaking. Norman is alone for this entire story — ironically, he never “speaks” to anyone — except a machine that tries to take his order at a drive-in restaurant. His conversatios are all in his imagination, and he is always thinking about what his father — or his ex-girlfriend — would say to him. In most cases, these people only allow him a chance to tell his story (of how he was NOT courageous) and then they offer some kind of encouragement to Norman. For the other part of the title, it seems that “courage” is an elusive idea — and ideal. The narrator often talks about how heroism and “courage” are things recognized publicly, but which are very hard to understand or measure. I think that courage, honor, and truth are probably the most important words in this collection of stories.