How Does Goethe Show Courage In To Kill A Mockingbird

The famous German writer, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe once said, "Courage is the commitment to begin without any guarantee of success"(Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.) Johann is trying to say that courage is the ability to do something that frightens one, even if you might not be successful. Harper Lee explores this motif in her book, To Kill a Mockingbird. The book, "To Kill a Mockingbird" by Harper Lee is set in the 1930s. It takes place in Maycomb, Alabama during the Great Depression. “The Great Depression (1929-39) was the deepest and longest-lasting economic downturn in the history of the Western industrialized world.” The people of the 1930s needed courage to rise above their struggle It is written from the viewpoint of a young girl named

Scout is a very bright young girl, thanks to all of the times that her father has read to her. She is very advanced for a first grader, and could read and write like no one else in her class. On her first day of first grade Scout met her teacher Mrs. Caroline. After Mrs. Caroline found out of her talents, she told her that she must stop reading with her father because he is teaching her wrong. After hearing this it distresses Scout a great deal, and she did not want to attend school anymore. She begged her father if she could stay home and avoid her teacher. Scouts wise and unshakable father of course denied and said “‘You never really understand a person until you consider things from their point of view"(Lee 39.) The school is taking away a lot of her freedom, and Scout does not like that. Even though it will be difficult Atticus knows that it is the right thing to do. In addition to what he taught Scout, he is also teaching Jem. Mrs. Dubose is an elderly, ill, racist woman who lives near the Finches. She is very rude to both Scout and Jem, and whenever they walk past her house she says something insulting towards them. Not only was she disrespectful and heinous towards the children but she would call Atticus unacceptable names. One day when Jem and Scout were walking past her house Jem just snapped. She wasn't sitting on her porch like usual, so Jem ripped Scout’s baton right out of

Atticus Finch is a lawyer. Tom Robinson was a 25 year old, crippled, black, married man who is accused of raping a young white woman named Mayella Ewell. No lawyer would come even close to defending a black man. Atticus decides that he will defend Tom, because he values equality and justice. He believes that everyone is equal and therefore just because Tom Robinson is black, does not mean that he should not have a chance to be proven innocent. Atticus told Scout, ‘“Simply because we were liked a hundred years before we started is no reason for us not to try to win.”’ Despite all of the people that told him he couldn't do it, and called him a "N---- lover." Atticus knew that it was not going to be easy, and he wouldn't be very popular in the town of Maycomb but, he did it anyway. Tom Robinson was being held in jail until the day of the trial. The sheriff Mr. Heck Tate show arrives at Atticus’s front door and says he has received word that Tom Robinson was being moved to the Maycomb County jail. He informs Atticus that there might be some sort of trouble. A group of drunk men were going to the jail to kill Tom, and if he was in their way they will kill him too. As soon as Atticus heard of this he drove straight to the jail and sat outside Tom’s cell, without even having to think twice. When the men showed up Atticus took a stand against them. Atticus refused to let them near Tom. Despite his orders to stay home, Scout, Dill, and