To Kill A Mockingbird - Courage

I think that there are four main themes in the book "To Kill a Mockingbird" by Harper Lee. These being benevolence, prejudice, innocence, and most of all, courage. I believe that courage definitely plays a major role as a theme in scenes throughout this novel. For a younger child though, like Scout, courage is most often associated with some type of physical act, which involves danger. It is difficult for younger children to grasp the concept that greater courage is most often required in other aspects of life. Scout learns that the greatest courage can be found in a situation where a person knows that they are going to lose, yet still continues to fight the battle.

"I wanted you 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

. . .

View the whole essay, without interruption

e you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through

no matter what.

Scout and Jem soon encounter the seemingly vindictiveness of Mrs Dubose.

"Your father's no better than the niggers and trash he works for!" Chapter 11,

Page 113

When Mrs Dubose bad-mouthed Atticus, Jem decided that the best way to settle things was to ruin Mrs Dubose's camellias. He is wise enough to know that the prejudices of people will never allow justice to be done, but at the same time, he is determined that the truth be told so that those who convict Tom Robinson will be aware that they are convicting an innocent man. She fought against great odds, even though she knew that she would most certainly die. Just like Mrs Dubose, Atticus knew that he could never win the case, but he tried anyway. But shooting something wasn't really Atticus' idea of courage.

Harper Lee portrays the idea of courage by first having Scout observe her father perform a physical act of courage when he shoots the mad dog.

So you can see that Atticus, Scout, Jem and Mrs.

This realisation forces Scout to stop fighting with her fists and try to overcome opposing opinions with her head, rather than with physical violence. It wasn't until after Mrs Dubose passed away that Atticus explained to Jem and Scout how courageous the lady was because she knew that she was dying but was still determined to die free of the morphine. Mrs Dubose was a very sick lady, and had morphine to ease her pain. Although Atticus didn't consider the act very courageous and was completely uninterested in proving anything to his children, Jem and Scout were proud of, and impressed by, his courage in such a precarious situation.

"This case, Tom Robinson's case, is something that goes to the essence of a man's conscience - Scout, I couldn't go to church and worship God if I didn't try to help that man.

Approximate Word count = 582
Approximate Pages = 2 (250 words per page double spaced)

Simply subscribe to view this paper, and 100,000 others.