Fool or Hero?
...ade fun of his foolishness, “Well, if yeh want a drink so bad, why don’t yeh go git it” (418). After being made fun of, Collins didn’t think twice about going to the well, “Dern yeh! I ain’t afraid t’ go. If yeh say much, I will go!” (419) His first impulse was to prove he was not afraid to make this journey. If Collins wasn’t under the pressures of both the battle and his peers he may have thought twice about risking his life for a drink of water. He was Guenthardt, 2 too caught up in making a point to think efficiently. Collin’s comrades prepared him for his ordeal and he was off. During his walk he began to realize that he had succumbed to his emotions and had fell to the pressures only to walk up to the face of death. He found it strange himself that he had allowed his brain to take his body into such a situation. Still, Collins had no fear and was not about to turn back toward the regiment of troops in worry of shame. Again, without the pressures he probably would have turned back after he realized what was actually going on and the risks he was embarking towards. When the arrows and bullets began to fly panic struck him and he sprinted to the well. He came upon the well and peered into its darkness, he was suddenly filled with terror, and “it came upon his heart like the grasp of claws. All the power faded from his muscles. For an instant he was no more than a dead man” (421). Collins made a foolish decision when he was put on the spot and later realized it when the risks he ignored came to life. Collins is not alone in the struggle between being who you are and who you think others expect you to be. Expectations of others can many times influence the decisions people make. Collins tried to prove to his comrades that he was a man they didn’t truly know. He shocked a soldier, “Well, sir, if that ain’t the’ derndest thing! I never thought Fred Collins had the blood in him for that kind of business,” he couldn’t believe Collins was actually braving such a journey (420). ...