Examples Of Atticus Finch Showing Courage

A Hero’s Sacrifice Joseph Cambell, a retired American writer, once wrote, “A hero is someone who has given his or her life to something bigger than oneself.” The novel To Kill a Mockingbird is set during the Great Depression, and portrays the racism of society during that time. The novel A Rebel in Auschwitz is set during the holocaust and shows the sacrifices made to find the truth about concentration camps. In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, the hero Atticus Finch compares to Witold Pilecki, a real life WW2 hero, because of their shared traits of courage and determination.

Atticus Finch and Witold Pilecki compare by displaying courage in their lives. Atticus Finch has to show courage because he has to defend a black man

He shows this when he goes to Tom Robinson’s cell to protect him from the lynch mob: “ In ones and twos, men got out of the cars … moving towards the jail door. Atticus remained where he was … ‘He in there, Mr. Finch?’ a man said.” Atticus replied with “‘He is,’ … ‘and he’s asleep. Don’t wake him up.’” (Lee 171). Attcius knows that the men in the town want to kill Tom for supposedly raping Mayella, but Atticus knows that Tom is a harmless man. He shows his courage by staying at the jail until the mob gets there to keep Tom safe from them and doesn’t stand down even when he gets threatened. In a similar way, Witold Pilecki shows courage by voluntarily going to a concentration camp. Even though he has no idea about what could happen to him he still decides to go and start a resistance group in the camp. He is hesitant at first to go but “Knowing that his comrades were in the camp might have been what decided Witold to accept the mission. He told Jan that he was ready to volunteer. He decided against telling [his

Atticus shows determination by fighting for an African American while being discouraged by the white citizens of his town. When Scout asks Atticus why he’s defending Tom even though people of the town had started talking bad about it, he says “‘Scout, you aren’t old enough to understand somethings yet, but there’s been some high talk around town to the effect that I shouldn’t do much about defending this man. … the main [reason] is, if I didn’t I couldn’t hold up my head in town.’” (Lee 86). Despite the fact that Atticus was the talk of the town, he still showed determination by accepting the backlash he would receive, and continuing to fight for what he believed in. He remained persistent to find ways to get justice for Tom. Witold Pilecki also shows determination, but in a different way. Pilecki is determined to create a resistance group in the concentration camp and gather information about the Nazis, which is hard because prisoners are scared to be caught. He realizes that in order to convince people to join his resistance group, he must bribe them so “Witold understood that if he was going to build a resistance, it would need to be capable of withstanding the crushing pressure of starvation. He had to be able to offer food- as an incentive and reward.” (Fairweather 52). Even though Pilecki didn’t have enough food to nourish him to begin with, he was still willing to give it up to get