How Does Atticus Show Courage

Courage is defined as “the quality of mind or spirit that enables a person to face difficulty, danger, and pain.” It is portrayed in the novel To Kill a Mockingbird multiple times by the main characters, Atticus, Scout, Jem, and Dill. The events that involved courage in the novel was Atticus defending Tom Robinson while the kids, Scout, Jem, and Dill messed with Boo Radley, which led to Scout and Jem reading to Mrs. Dubose.

Atticus showed the most courage in the novel and influenced the kids and the people around him to also have courage. Atticus showed courage when he was appointed as Tom Robinson’s defender in court. He constantly had to deal with the hate and disapproval of defending a colored man around the town. Though he received

hate and name-calling, Atticus remained calm and collected. He accepted the names he got called, by explaining to Scout that a “nigger-lover is just one of those terms that don't mean anything—like snot-nose,” telling her that he is “hard put,” does his best to “love everybody,” and that “it’s never an insult to be called what somebody thinks is a bad name. It just shows you how poor that person is, it doesn’t hurt you” (144-145).
Though Atticus knew he was most likely going to lose the case, he continued to show his determination in front of the court by standing for his defendant, Tom Robinson. This stirred up conflict between Bob Ewell and him. Bob was a forceful, prejudiced man who felt insulted that Atticus had the audacity to stand up for a colored man and speak against him. Atticus was a model of strength that taught those around him to stand for what they believed in, regardless of the circumstances.
Scout, Jem, and Dill, through curiosity, gained courage by playing games and messing with the Radley house. The kids, young and naïve, saw Boo Radley as a psychotic monster locked away. This causes them to experience fear and wonder what Boo would look like. The kids go through a series of various games to see who can get the closest to the Radley house. These games that involved Boo established a spark of courage in each of the three kids. At the time, it is pure courage that the kids have to mess with their image of a monster. Eventually, Jem works up the endurance to run up the Radley’s porch and hit the door, which opens up a new profound strength in Jem.
With Jem’s newly developed strength, courage is used again in the novel involving Mrs.

Dubose. When Jem comes across Mrs. Dubose one day, she slashes him with rude and hostile name calling towards Atticus. Jem, outraged, while knowing the consequences, had the fearlessness to destroy the sick lady’s Camellia bushes. As punishment, Mrs. Dubose gives Jem orders to read to her for a month. With the image of a crazy lady, Jem and Scout are hesitant of coming over and reading to her. Encouraged by their dad, the two siblings gather the strength to enter the house of what they thought was an insane lady’s. The kids finally get used to entering her house everyday to read for a month. Though they came over every day, the kids never comprehended Mrs. Dubose to be a morphine addict. When Mrs. Dubose passed, Atticus once again taught his kids a lesson of courage by explaining to them why he made them go over to her house every day; he wanted them “to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It’s when you know 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. Mrs. Dubose won, all ninety-eight pounds of her. According to her views, she died beholden to nothing and nobody. She was the bravest person I knew” (149). Atticus explained the whole concept of courage to the kids, giving them a new perspective of Mrs. Dubose and how she was the

best image of it.
Courage allowed the kids to have fun, and also brought out morals in the main characters. Atticus was a model of courage that impacted everyone around him, especially his kids who experienced courage involving Boo Radley, which gives Jem the fearlessness to destructively use courage affecting Mrs. Dubose, who was the prime example of courage in the novel To Kill a Mockingbird.