Preview

Courage In To Kill A Mockingbird By Harper Lee

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
106 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Courage In To Kill A Mockingbird By Harper Lee
A present theme that is displayed throughout the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, is courage. Harper Lee uses her characters to reflect upon people in everyday life, creating awareness of societal norms. Although the characters’ courage is not displayed directly, it can be identified in the events of their lives. Based on their surroundings, the characters develop, producing new morals. Some of which oppose the normalities of society. In To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee uses her characters to demonstrate that courage is doing what you believe is right, proving that it is not only shown through a person’s actions but through their words and ideas.

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Courage is characterized as mental or moral strength to surpass notions of fear. As demonstrated by Atticus Finch and Mrs Dubose in Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, the development of courage gives the character’s strength and courage to hold their heads high, while fearing none. Harper Lee depicts the theme of courage incalculable amount of times, detailing courage as “ when you know you’re licked before you being, but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what.” (Chapter 11, Page 124) All of the characters have an alternate kind of perspective of what courage is exactly, which will be examined in depth.…

    • 126 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the novel, To Kill A Mockingbird, courage is a theme shown by many characters in…

    • 330 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Harper Lee makes the theme of courage clear and strong in the book “To kill a mockingbird”. Throughout the story there are many demonstrations of courage. Some of these are firstly masked to later be uncovered and at first they may not seem obvious. Some moments of the courage portrayed aren’t physical courage but rather mental and psychological. The story is narrated to us by Scout who is growing up in a small town known as “Maycomb” which is situated in the Southern part of The United States. At the time the novel takes place, racism and segregation was very common in the south and Harper Lee makes this very clear as Maycomb is a stereotypical early twentieth century,…

    • 1139 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Courage is defined as "that quality of mind or spirit enabling one to meet danger or opposition with fearlessness." According to Atticus Finch, one of the main characters in To Kill a Mockingbird, "Courage is when you know you're licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what.” (124) No matter how one defines it, Harper Lee clearly portrays the theme of courage in her novel, To Kill A Mockingbird. It is one of the most predominant themes and is shown in many of the characters because what is a hero if they are not courageous? One likes to think of a hero, as strong, brave, meeting all challenges head on. All of the characters have a different view as to what courage is, and they all show it a different way; however, they do show courage in their everyday lives. Younger characters, like Jem and Scout, see the physical aspect of it, whereas Atticus believes this to be an extremely weak form of courage. He believes in the mental quality of courage; he admires Mrs Dubose for her attempt to rid herself from some of the evil that still grasped at her life as she died.…

    • 343 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    During the book, To Kill a Mockingbird, written by Harper Lee, Atticus Finch showed a lot of moral courage. He defended a black man accused of raping a white woman, which was an impossibly difficult task in Maycomb County, Alabama. His actions helped many people, like the whole of the black community. However, some people in the book demonstrated a lack of moral courage, and this caused harm to people, both physically and emotionally.…

    • 399 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    “It’s easy to stand with the crowd, it takes courage to stand alone.” The courageous acts of individuals in Harper Lee’s novel, To Kill A Mockingbird (TKAM) present the determined minds of the characters to stand-alone to positively impact society. Composed in 1960, set in a time in America’s history when African-Americans citizens were discriminated against and were segregated away from the rest of society. Set in the fictional town of Maycomb, where racial prejudice prevailed the characters experienced many trials and tribulations that required great courage to overcome these boundaries. One of the main characters Atticus, a local town lawyer who defended an African-American who was accused of raping a white girl, endeavors throughout the…

    • 217 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    In the book To Kill A Mockingbird, author, Harper Lee sends a message through the most important theme of the book, courage, as explained through the actions of Atticus, Jem, and Mrs.Dubose, with their…

    • 1043 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    In Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird, there is an array of countless problems that must be faced by the citizens of Maycomb. How did they respond? After all, as the town was told, it had nothing to fear but fear itself. At least the more intelligent responded courageously. Relentless determination and perseverance were the only option to keep everything together. One character who shows this is Atticus, who stands up for African Americans inside and outside of court. Even though he’s called names and threatened, he supports Tom and promotes equality. In this novel, courage is defined as standing up for what you believe in. Lee tries to convey the point that readers can improve society using courage. Atticus has real courage because he stands up for equality when he defends Tom, faces danger to protect others, and doesn’t stop when the town’s residents insult him.…

    • 816 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Do you know what courage is? Have you ever done something that involved courage? Or have you seen someone have the courage to do something they possibly didn’t want to do? Well, courage is stepping out of your comfort zone even if it’s frightening; this is shown in To Kill A Mockingbird through pain, social criticism, and moral courage.…

    • 943 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Most people may not know this book was based off some of Harper Lee's childhood experiences. The theme is based off many things but main thing is moral courage and how it is used in conflict and characterization. In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee shows how conflict and characterization reflected this theme of moral courage through many problems that happened and through many of the characters actions in this novel.…

    • 654 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    In To Kill Mockingbird courage is presented to us as a desirable quality. Harper Lee suggests that there is some misunderstanding as to what real courage in the community of Maycomb actually is. Many aspects of courage are shown in To Kill a Mockingbird. There are examples of physical courage, such as Atticus facing the rabid dog. There is also moral courage, an example of this would be when Atticus takes on Tom Robinson’s case and he sticks to his principles, even though he knows that he can’t win. Scout shows this kind of courage when she doesn’t fight back when people criticise Atticus. Atticus sees Mrs Dubose as a strong example of someone with courage and he calls her the bravest person he knows. She has the goal of dying free from her drug addiction and she achieves it with great effort. Atticus teaches his children that the action of Mrs Dubose is true courage and it is not “a man with a gun in his hand.” In one way or another every character shows at least one aspect of courage, however two of the most courageous seem to be Atticus and Mrs. Dubose.…

    • 2765 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    “The one thing that doesn’t abide by majority rule is a person’s conscience”(Harper Lee). In the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird written by Harper Lee shows many great examples of themes. A lot of life lessons can be taken from the novel. In the 1960s in the south much discrimination against race was happening. Throughout time things have gotten progressively better. In To Kill a Mockingbird relationships for family, the perspective, and racism are all immense themes being portrayed in the novel.…

    • 665 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Bam! Bam! Bam! “Order in the court! I find the defendant guilty of all charges. You will be hanged for this offense.” This was the sentence for Tom Robinson, a courageous black who stood up to defend himself in court. It took great courage to stand up for blacks back in that time. Atticus Finch was very courageous to stand up for a man who had done no wrong; many people gave him grief for doing his job. There is indeed great courage in this story, not only Atticus’s defense, but in others, such as Mrs. Dubose in battling her morphine addiction, and Dill for running away after his parents lost interest in him. In the novel,To Kill a Mockingbird, courageous acts are seen throughout the course of the story, which makes the story far more exciting and adventurous.…

    • 859 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Most of the characters in the novel "To Kill a Mockingbird", written by Harper Lee, show the theme of courage in different ways. Courage is a difficult virtue for people to emulate in real life. Some believe that courage is when people have strong bodies and hearts. Others would say it is when people tell the truth directly instead of avoiding it. In this novel, Atticus Finch, Mrs. Dubose , and Boo Radley are similar in their courageous attitudes by taking multiple risks to stand up for innocent people while they are different in how they demonstrate their courage ; Atticus Finch announces his courage when he stands for what he believes…

    • 938 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In Harper Lee’s autobiographical narrative, To Kill a Mockingbird, characters like Atticus, Dolphus Raymond, and Tom Robinson demonstrate many forms of courageous behavior; in contrast, characters like Bob Ewell demonstrate cowardice. From these characters, Harper Lee’s audience learns that there are many characters in this book that are brave.…

    • 827 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays