Analysis Of Courage, The Arrest Records Of Rosa Parks, By Harper Lee

Acts of courage have been found throughout history in both real life situations and not so real life situations. A real life example of courage is found in the story of Rosa Parks, which is told in the article “An Act of Courage, The Arrest Records of Rosa Parks” by Stacey Bredhoff, Wynell Schamel, and Lee Ann Potter. The article explains Rosa Parks’ decision to stand her ground during the Civil Rights movement of the 50s. In contrast to that, a fictional account of true courage can be found in Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird. Mrs Dubose, a character in the book, shows courage when she chooses to end her morphine addiction although she may suffer. Both Rosa Parks and Mrs. Dubose show true courage when they do something difficult, knowing

On December 1, 1955, Rosa parks “...quietly set off a social revolution when [a] bus driver instructed her to move back, and she refused” (Bredhoff et al.). Parks worked as a seamstress in Montgomery, Alabama and had gotten on a bus to head home. “On the city buses of Montgomery, Alabama, the front 10 seats were permanently reserved for white passengers… Mrs. Parks was seated in the first row behind those 10 seats.” (Bredhoff et al.). When Parks refused to move her seat, the bus driver told her to move her seat again but she argued “that she was not in a seat reserved for whites” (Bredhoff et al.). Rosa Parks was then arrested, charged with “refusing to obey orders of bus driver”, and brought to court. In 1956, “...a panel of three judges in the U.S. District Court for the region ruled in another case that racial segregation of public buses was unconstitutional” (Bredhoff et al.). Rosa Parks was released from jail and is now known as the “Mother of the Civil Rights Movement.” Rosa Parks’ story stands out among all the other stories like this because her one simple act of saying “No” resulted in a change of law and change of thinking for most

Dubose, a character from To Kill A Mockingbird, shows true courage in a fictional account. In the book, by Harper Lee, Mrs Dubose is an older lady with a morphine addiction. She shows true courage by ending her addiction even though she knows that she will most likely suffer in the end. From this story, courage is defined as doing something when you know there is a slim chance of succeeding. Courage is also defined by another character. Atticus is a lawyer and father in To Kill A Mockingbird. In the story he is talking to his kids and says “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 before you begin, but you begin anyway. You rarely win, but sometimes you do. Mrs. Dubose won, all ninety-eight pounds of her” (Lee 149). This relates to the idea that courage is doing something before you know you will succeed when he says “you’re licked before you begin, but you begin anyway” (Lee 149). It also relates to Rosa Parks’ story because she said “No” to the bus driver when she knew she most likely wouldn’t