Courage in To Kill a Mockingbird
In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird there are many examples of courage. Courage plays a big role in the story from the Tom Robinson case to Boo Radley saving Jem and Scout from Bob Ewell. Courage is not something people are born with. It is also something very few people show at every needed time. There are many ways you can show courage in your everyday life even if it is in the smallest way.
Atticus Finch shows courage several times throughout the story. He raises Jem and Scout on his own and no matter what he always tries to do what is best for them. One major act of courage shown by Atticus is the Tom Robinson case. Atticus got judged by most of Maycomb for helping a black man but Atticus still stood up for what he thought was right, that took a lot of courage. Another strong act of courage is when Atticus shot the dog he knew that Jem and Scout would look up to him for this action. Atticus wanted Jem and Scout “To know what real courage is instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand ( Harper lee chapter 11)”. What Atticus
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means by this is that courage is more than what most people see it as. According to Atticus courage is when you know something isn’t going to go well or work out but you see it through and do it anyways. After Mrs. Dubose died and Jem was upset about her giving him the camellia Atticus explained this to Jem. This is definitely an important part of having courage. Atticus understands what real courage is and shows it very well throughout the story. Someone else who shows courage a lot in To Kill a Mockingbird is Boo Radley. A lot of people in Maycomb believe all the rumors about the Radleys and especially Boo. They think he is a bad person who has done many bad things. All of the rumors about him end up being lies and Boo Radley is actually a good person. Although he is not a bad person he is a very antisocial one. He has not spoken to anyone outside his family in years. Boo first starts to show courage by leaving Jem and Scout gifts in the tree. It was very kind of him to do that for Jem and Scout. Since he hadn’t had any interaction with anyone outside his family in years it took him a lot of courage to do that. He also shows courage by putting the blanket around Scout after the house fire. The most courageous act Boo did was saving Jem and Scout from Bob Ewell. “Courage is the greatest quality of the mind next to honor.” This quote means that courage is a great and important quality to have and Boo Radley had many courageous moments in the novel. Almost all the characters in To Kill a Mockingbird show courage at some point in the story.
Like people in the real world they all have different perspectives of courage. Courage is not an easy quality to have. It takes a lot of bravery to have courage at all appropriate times. “True courage is not just showing it at chosen times but at all needed times no matter the situation.” This quote means that to really have courage you can not just show it when you want to. To have courage you have to be able to see a good outcome before it happens, you have to always keep a positive attitude even when it may be hard. courage is like a lot of things in life, people want to have it and want to be able to say they have it but aren’t willing to do what they need to do in order to have it. There are some people who do have what it takes to have courage and we should try to be more like
them. It is shown in To Kill a Mockingbird that courage is in everyone but only some chose to show it. there are several characters that show courage in the story. Acts of courage in the story can be compared to real life. In life courage is truly used by only a few people. With more courageous people like Atticus and Boo Radley in life the world would be a better place.
Courage is a deed that can be portrayed in many ways. In the Historical Fiction novel To Kill a Mockingbird written by Harper Lee, there are many acts of racism and problematic cases where acts of courage are demonstrated in different and unique ways that can only be deciphered if one reads in between the lines of the words. There are three characters in particular who show courage in diverse ways. First, there is Arthur Radley who anonymously shows courage by performing tasks that cause him to face the outside world where he’s been isolated from for so long. Secondly, there is Scout Finch who demonstrates courage through her adolescent age. Lastly, there is Atticus Finch who displays courage through his selfless and kind actions. Therefore, in the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee uses diverse characters to represent different acts of courage.
"Courage isn't an absence of fear. It's doing what you are afraid to do. It's having the power to let go of the familiar and forge ahead into new territory." ~John Maxwell. In To Kill a Mockingbird, Scout (Jean Louise Finch), Jem (Jeremy Atticus Finch), and Atticus Finch display acts of valor that contribute, and in some cases encourage their rectitude. Harper Lee demonstrates that acting courageously can lead to an improved, sustained, or newly developed personal integrity.
Courage exists in several forms in Harper Lee’s novel, To Kill a Mockingbird. As defined by Atticus Finch, real courage "…when you know you're licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what” (149). The novel explores the how this real courage can be shown in different ways through the lives of many characters in Maycomb, particularly, Tom Robinson, Mrs. Dubose, and Atticus. Their courage is evident through their lifestyle, actions, and beliefs.
Courage is the ladder on which other themes in to kill a mockingbird mount on. With courage people tend to take risks, have strength to be compassionate, and the wisdom to be humble. How many times have you considered yourself as courageous? At the end of the novel, you see reasons why being courageous could help you as a reader live a better and braver life. In Conclusion, courage is the foundation of integrity.
Courage is not something that we are born with, it is a skill that takes time to learn and only a few are lucky enough to have it. To Kill a Mockingbird is not only about life in a world full of hate, it is about standing up for anyone’s beliefs being brave enough to do it. In this story, Harper Lee says “Courage is not a man with a gun in his hand. It's knowing you're licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what. You rarely win, but sometimes you do” (Lee 112). In To Kill A Mockingbird, Harper Lee illustrates courage through Atticus Finch, Mrs. Dubose, and Arthur Radley.
Courage is having the strength to do something that is frightening to most people. It can be something large scale like the responders on 9/11 risking their lives for hundreds of people. Courage can also be something of smaller scale but just as significant like standing up for a black man in a town of racial prejudice. In Harper Lee’s novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, many of the characters she has initiated show courageous qualities. One of those characters is Atticus Finch, father of Jem and Scout who demonstrates courage many times throughout the novel. Standing up for his beliefs, restraining from the negligent tauntings of his neighbors and defending a man whose innocence will not be proved, all show Atticus is the most courageous character
Courage is the ability to do something that frightens one, which Atticus displays throughout the story. Firstly, Atticus has the courage to take on a case that he has a high probability of losing. Judge Taylor assigns the case to Atticus for a sole reason, that Atticus has the best chance of winning or creating a change in society with this case. “I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hands. It’s when you know you’re licked before you begin but you begin anyways and you see through it no matter what” (112). Atticus knows he will most likely lose the Tom Robinson case but he proceeds through it, despite the problems the case will cause him and his family. Secondly, Atticus Finch stands in front of Tom Robinson’s jail cell protecting him from the lynch mob. Lynching is a very common way of killing in the time period of this story which was commonly done by hanging the person for an alleged offense. “You know what we want’ another man said, ‘Get away from the door, Mr. Finch’. ‘You can turn around and go home Arthur,’ Atticus said pleasantly.” (202). Atticus is willing to stand up to a lynch mob and protect his client Tom Robinson even at the cost of his own life. Thirdly, Atticus continues on with his life normally despite the constant hate he gets. “Not only a Finch waiting on tables but one in the courthouse
As Martin Luther King Jr. quotes in A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings and Speeches “Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that” (qtd.in. Goodreads.com). Atticus’ words of wisdom for the duration of To Kill a Mockingbird are used as a guiding light for not only his children, but the nation as a whole during the Civil Rights Movement. Through the 1950’s and 60’s African-Americans all over the U.S. were fighting to end Jim Crow Laws. Their movement inspired many and was what also influenced by Harper Lee’s to write her first literary work. In To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Lee uses the character Atticus Finch as a moral compass to show that true courage comes from
"Courage is when you know you're licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what" According to Atticus Finch, an honest lawyer in Harper Lee's novel "To Kill a Mockingbird" courage is not a man with a gun in his hand. "Real courage" is when you fight for what is right regardless of whether you win or lose. Atticus fits into this definition of what "real courage" is and demonstrates it several times throughout the novel.
The book To Kill a Mockingbird was published in 1960 by an author named Harper Lee. Harper Lee born was April 28, 1926 in Monroeville Alabama Lee had made 2 novels in the time she was alive she had wrote To Kill A Mockingbird and Go Set A Watchman. Harper lee had also illustrated a few children's books. So what is courage? To Kill A Mockingbird gives the readers a look into how terrible things were in the south during the 1930’s from prejudice to racism to morality and even youth. When an African American man named Tom Robinson is wrongly accused of raping a young, white girl a lawyer named Atticus Finch takes the case. Atticus Finch is the main character's father. Atticus is very different from most people in Maycomb county, Atticus believes in justice for all and that
Scout believes at the beginning of the book that courage is all to do with physical feats like fist fighting. Scout and Jem though Atticus was courageous when he shot the mad dog, but Atticus just shrugged it off telling his children that that is not ? real courage?. The children soon see that moral courage is more valuable after Miss Dubose said "Your father's no better than the niggers and trash he works for!" Chapter 11, Page 113 after they walked past her house.
Atticus is brave because he had to deal with Mr. Ewell after the trial. In chapter 23 the book says,”According to Miss Stephanie Crawford, however, Atticus was leaving the post office when Mr.Ewell approached him, cussed him, spat on him, and threatened to kill him” (Lee 295). This shows that Atticus was brave stand up for Tom because he had to deal with Mr. Ewell. Another reason that Atticus is brave because of things that might happen in his family. In chapter 9 the book says,”But do you think I could face my children otherwise? You know what’s going to happen as well as I do, Jack, and I hope and pray I can get Jem and Scout through it without bitterness, and most of all, without catching Maycomb’s usual disease” (Lee 117). This shows that this could cause bitterness and other things in Atticus’s
Harper Lee gives us a glimpse of Jem’s courage right off the bat when “Jem threw open the gate and sped to the side of the house, slapped it with his palm and ran back past us…” When Jem runs on to the Radley property and slaps the house it takes a lot of courage. Jem had to put aside all of the rumors and horror stories he has heard about Boo Radley and slap that house. Sometime later, Jem learns to be brave from Mrs. Dubose. When Jem tore up Mrs. Dubose’s flowers he was punished by having to read to her."Mrs. Dubose was a morphine addict...She took it as a pain-killer for years.” Mrs. Dubose was brave enough to kick her addiction to the side despite her agony. From this Jem learned that true courage is “when you know you’re licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what.” Jem uses this lesson to show huge amounts of courage when he goes to defend Atticus from the angry mob at the jail. Jem and scout “were accustomed to prompt, if not always cheerful acquiescence to Atticus's instructions, but from the way he stood Jem was not thinking of budging.” Jem was well seasoned on the idea of courage. Jem, a young boy, stood up to an angry mob of men just to protect his father. He knew what courage was and he showed it. Jem had courage to begin with, but went on to learn true courage and went on to show
Atticus tells Scout that real courage is, “when you know you’re licked before you begin but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what” (Chapter 11, Pg. 149). Atticus description of courage shows that he is a courageous man because he defended Tom Robinson even though he knew he would lose the case. Atticus also demonstrated extreme courage when he put his life and the life of his children at risk in order to protect Tom Robinson, a man who in the eyes of Maycombs citizens was unworthy of help. Atticus risked his family, friends, reputation, and career in order to attempt to prove right from wrong in a trial that was doomed from the
Courage is the ability to do something that frightens you, it’s what makes ordinary people extraordinary. It is the strength in the face of pain or grief. But most importantly “real courage is when you know you’re licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and see it throughout no matter what”- Harper Lee. In the Novel To Kill A Mockingbird the theme courage is well shown throughout. In a small town of Maycomb, Alabama, two Kids face growing up in an unfair world affected with major racism. Harper Lee displays courage as standing up for what you believe in, even when it means getting in a tough spots. The display of courage in to Kill a mockingbird is shown through characters such as Atticus, Boo and Jem and Scout.