The Treasure Of Lemon Brown Theme

Would you sacrifice yourself for the well being of someone you barely know? Well that is what Lemon Brown did. In the fictional short story, “The Treasure of Lemon Brown” by Walter Dean Myers, Myers portrays the theme that although you may be fearful, having courage is the heroic thing to do. Lemon and Greg meet in an abandoned house attempting to get out of the rain, but when thugs come to rob Lemon of his “treasures” Greg becomes scared and Lemon protects him by hurting the thugs and in the process puts himself in danger.
In the short story “The Treasure Of Lemon Brown” Lemon shows courage when he sacrifices himself for the well being of Greg. This is shown when, “ Greg saw Lemon hurl his body down the stairs at the men who had come to take his treasures.” Lemon Brown hurled himself down the stairs to make sure that the thugs couldn’t hurt Greg. Lemon knew that he could have seriously injured himself by doing this heroic thing. Also, Greg could not have protected himself against the thugs, “ Greg felt himself near panic.” Because Greg was in so much panic he could not have protected himself, so Lemon stepped in and hurled himself down the stairs at the thugs so Greg wouldn’t have to face them.
Lemon Brown protected Greg even though he had just met Greg moments before the thugs came to the abandoned house, yet Lemon trusted the brief relationship

Greg describes Lemon when he thinks, “ seemed to separate his head from the layers of dirty coats piled on his smallish frame.” This line of text shows that Lemon was usually out in the cold due to his homelessness. He had a small body which made a risky decision and didn’t think it through when he hurled himself down the stair courageously saving Greg. Also , “ He was an old man.” Older people are usually at a higher risk of injury so Greg knew that what Lemon did was very