¶ … Right Stuff by Tom Wolfe was written and published during a time in American history where heroism was not contemplated for Americans. In fact, many have characterized the era featured in the book as the age of the "anti-hero." It was the time during which Nixon had left the White House in disgrace, Vietnam and its atrocities were uppermost in each American mind and Americans were held hostage by Iranian militants during 1979. Furthermore it was also during this time that statistics are not in favor of the average pilot. Wolfe in his forward notes that almost one in four career Navy pilots die in accidents at a point as late as 1970. The fact that men were happy to risk their lives for this profession intrigued Wolfe, and he proceeded to write the novel about the NASA space program, and the pilots involved in it. Below the concept of "The Right Stuff" is considered in terms of various definitions and connections. The aim is to ultimately arrive at what Wolfe attempts this phrase to mean.

Categorizing the Concept

The most obvious category for "The Right Stuff" would probably be courage or bravery. This human quality is what intrigues Wolfe in the first place. If it takes courage to be a Navy pilot, being an Astronaut would take even more of the same quality. The early astronauts have a daunting task in front of them. They are part of an entirely new and extremely dangerous program. Space travel is in its infancy, and everything can potentially go wrong. Thus the same fortitude that inspires a man to become a Navy pilot, is increased to inspire the same kind of man to become an astronaut. In this way the pilots Chuck Yeager and Joe Walker achieve...

These two men show what they are made of in terms of leadership skills and courage by piloting the first rocket planes as well as Yeager breaking the sound barrier. Thus it appears on surface that "The Right Stuff" is a synonym for the human quality of courage, skill and leadership. But many of the events in the book also call for a deeper consideration of the concept.
The Inner World

It has been seen above that the "right stuff" is primarily an uncritical acceptance of danger. This is however not the only ingredient of the concept. It also involves how the pilots react to accidents, mishaps and numerous deaths around them. In this way the astronaut is required not only to consider the danger that he himself is in, but also to consider this in terms of the reality of the danger and death of his friends. This quality calls for a calm inner fortitude which perhaps contrasts with the outward bravado of obvious courage. This inner strength then also enables the astronaut to learn from the mistakes of others and have the courage to apply such lessons to his own missions. The complications that kill a pilot are therefore not of as much importance as the feeling that a person with the "right stuff" could have handled such complications in a manner that would not have ended in death. In this way then inner fortitude is married with outer bravado and a wish to keep up one's reputation as a pilot with the "right stuff." Inner fortitude is ultimately proved then in the relentless ability to keep up the rigorous procedures involved in the space program…