Essay Example on Independent Study Unit Essay Friendship and Sacrifice

The Nightingale In one of her interviews she comments This novel is a beautiful portrait of two women against this dark and terrifying backdrop that sort of ultimately reaffirms the power of love and friendship The resiliency of human being is to care for each other and to rise to challenges when they are presented https www youtube com watch v aCw2wUSHu84 The protagonist of the novel Vianne who is living under tough conditions with her husband captured during the war struggles to survive and provide for herself and her daughter When her best friend Rachel is sent to a concentration camp she endangers her family by adopting her three year old Jewish son Ari despite Von Richter a German Solider residing in her house When Von Richter realizes that Ari is not her biological son he threatens her by saying What would you do to keep him here with you Hannah 369 Vianne s loyalty to her friend is proven in her reply when she says Anything Hannah 369 He tells her she may only keep the boy if she has sex with him and then violently rapes her Vianne is constantly tortured by this soldier but chooses to endure the mental and physical trauma for sake of protecting the two children she is now taking care of She thus sacrifices herself proving her loyalty and true friendship Elizabeth Wein beautifully captures the essence of pain and endurance of true friendship during wartime in her novel Code Name Verity Highlighting the importance of friendship in an interview with Daily Figment she says I didn t mean the book to be about friendship when I started to write it 

The unbreakable bond between Maddie and Verity was something that was necessary to the plot so I set out to describe how they became friends But as I was writing and describing that bond I came to see the whole project as a real celebration of friendship and of being best friends http dailyfig figment com 2012 05 18 elizabeth wein interview Throughout the story Julie and Maddie the protagonists of the novel try to cling to their friendship as the war seeks to rip them apart In the chapter Accident Notes Maddie confesses that Julie s life is more valuable to her than anything else Her actions are aimed at saving her friend s life even if it means risking her own She says There is only one reason I did not go down in flames over Angers and that is because I knew I had Julie in the back I would never have had the presence of mind to put that fire out if I hadn t been trying to save her life Wein 212 Even though Maddie does everything she can to protect her friend Julie ironically she is the one who kills her in the end Sometimes friendship demands taking tough decisions including hurting the person you care about the most A quote by Lauren Oliver connects well to this situation as she says I guess that s just part of loving people You have to give things up Sometimes you even have to give them up Lauren Oliver Delirium Devotion An Epic Story of Heroism Friendship and Sacrifice is a historically enthralling and biographically compelling non fiction work done by Adam Makos who wonderfully depicts the meaning of a true friendship In an interview with WCVB US Adam expresses his thoughts about the friendship of two Naval aviators Jesse Brown and Tom Hudner the protagonist of the novel fighting in the Korean War 

He says Jesse crashed in a heavily wooded area and Tom did not think twice before flying his plane into the flames The thing that s so unique about Tom s story is his intentional crash landing in North Korea I was intrigued by that act and also the man because it says so much about Tom his selflessness that he would risk his life to try to save Jesse Brown http www wcvb com article heroism friendship and sacrifice 8076884 This story is an excellent alibi that extreme sacrifice for the sake of friendship is not a fictional notion Tom endangered his life to save Jesse s just as Vianne and Maddie risked theirs to protect their friends Tom s devotion to his friend did not just end after this incident He paid for Daisy Brown s wife of Jesse Brown college so that she could support her family Friendship is one of the greatest relationships gifted to mankind The highest form of friendship Aristotle argues is the friendship of virtue This type of friendship is based on a person wishing the best for their friends and sacrificing for them regardless of utility or pleasure