The Courage of Sarah Noble

Sarah Noble associates fear with a lack of courage, most especially when her father prepares to leave her with “Tall John’s” family while he retrieves Sarah’s mother and siblings from the Massachusetts Bay Colony. She says aloud, for the first time, that she is “afraid” and has “lost [her] courage” (36). Sarah evidently believes that being brave means that one is unafraid and that such strength is possible only in the absence of fear. However, as her father points out, this is simply not true. He says, “To be afraid and to be brave is the best courage of all” (36). Sarah’s experiences and her father’s advice illuminate the idea that fear and courage coexist because, in fact, one does not need courage if one feels no fear. It is, ultimately, the presence of fear that enables a person to develop courage.

Early in the story, when Sarah finds herself surrounded by unfamiliar Schaghticoke children, fear prompts her to believe that “their eyes were going all the way through her,” and she thinks they do not “hurt [her] because they like the story” (26) she reads to them, and this fear is what enables Sarah to be brave (27).