Having courage is not an easy task. It is fighting for what is right no matter the outcome. To Kill a Mockingbird is a story about racism in a small town called Maycomb. It is told from a child's point of view and shares her innocent thoughts on the situation. In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee characterizes Atticus Finch as a man of much courage and tolerance.
Harper Lee shows that Atticus is courageous because he is specially chosen to defend a black man in court when he already knows the end result. In chapter nine, Atticus tells his daughter, Scout, that he is going to defend a black man accused of raping a white girl. “Atticus, are we going to win it?-- No, honey.--Then why--Simply because we were licked a hundred years before we
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To repay her, Atticus makes Jem and Scout go read to her every day for a month. After the month is over, Mrs. Dubose dies. Atticus tells the children that she had a morphine addiction and wanted to quit before she died. “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 being but you begin anyway and you see through it no matter what. You rarely win, but sometimes you do.” (Lee 128). He tells the kids that real courage in his perspective. Earlier in the book, Atticus tells Scout why he took this case. He tells her he couldn't face the town if he didn’t defend Tom. He is not going to be racist like the rest of the town. “The main one is, if I didn’t I couldn't hold up my head in town, I couldn't represent this county in the legislature, I couldn’t even tell you or Jem not to do something again.” (Lee 86). He doesn’t to be like the rest of the town, and he doesn’t want his kids to be that way either. He tries to tell them this now so they don't grow up like the rest of the town. He wants to rub some of his courage off onto