Captain Johansen tells O'Brien, "I'd rather be brave than almost anything" (134). O'Brien ponders bravery, wondering what it is and who has it. He recalls Laches, a philosophical dialogue by Plato. In Laches, Socrates and Laches consider the nature of courage. Laches says courage is "an endurance of the soul" (137). Socrates points out enduring is not always courageous, so they amend their definition of courage to "wise endurance" (137). The courageous person must know why they are enduring, and for what purpose.

In a village near Pinkville, the soldiers come upon some boys and cows. The soldiers fire at them, and the boys run, "but one cow stood its ground" (139). The cow is not showing courage, according to Socrates' definition, because she doesn't understand the danger she is facing. To be courageous, one must survive through more than dumb luck. O'Brien points out many men of Alpha Company are determined to survive the war, and they are not above faking illness or injury to do so. Their endurance is also not wise, O'Brien thinks.

O'Brien decides caring about courage is a common trait of the courageous. He thinks about his pre-war heroes, who were all fictional characters: Humphrey Bogart's character, Rick, in the World War II movie, Casablanca; or Frederic Henry, from Ernest Hemmingway's war novel The Sun Also Rises.