How Does Lee Show Courage In To Kill A Mockingbird

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee is a domestic fiction novel written through the perspective of a girl named Scout. Scout, or Jean Louise Finch, and her brother, Jem, are raised by their father Atticus, a lawyer, in the prejudiced town of Maycomb, Alabama during the time of the Great Depression. Although the story is mainly about Atticus defending a black man named Tom Robinson, who is falsely accused for rape, there were many more things happening in the lives of the Finch family, like the children interacting with their neighbors and facing the constant judgements from the narrow-minded townspeople. At the same time, Jem, as a naive child, has a misconception about courage. His perception is limited to fighting physical fears. However,

He was constantly afraid of a monster showing up if he went near the Radley house, but tried his best not to show it. Dill tries to make fun of Jem, which motivates him to try to touch the front door of the Radley house to prove himself and his boldness. After doing as Dill asked him to, Jem has a feeling of immense pride for what he did. This is also demonstrated when they are acting out the life of Boo Radley, where Jem feels overly confident that he is not being hesitant to play the game. Although it seems that he does it for fun, it is confirmed when Scout says, “he had thought that up to make me understand he wasn’t afraid of Radleys in any shape or form, to contrast his own fearless heroism with my cowardice” (Lee 51) that it was another one of his attempts to prove himself. In fact, he seems to develop a sense of superiority over Scout whenever he notices her being hesitant to join because it makes him feel like he is better at hiding his anxiety. Additionally, Jem finds it very heroic of Atticus to have shot the aggressive dog almost effortlessly. It surprises him to the point that he tells Scout out of excitement, “’d you see him,

She wanted to get over the morphine addiction before she passed away because she did not want to be beholden to anything. In order to accomplish this, she asked Jem to read to her everyday as a distraction from the morphine. Although she would struggle to battle the addiction, she tried her best and was able to overcome it, becoming a true hero in Jem’s eyes as well. Not only does Mrs. Dubose set an example of a daring person, but so does Atticus, twice. Firstly, he displays courage by accepting Tom Robinson’s case, even though there were very few chances of him winning it. He knew it because he says, “The only thing we’ve got is a black man’s word against the Ewells’. The evidence boils down to you—did—I didn’t. The jury couldn’t possibly be expected to take Tom Robinson’s word against the “Ewells” (117) which proves that he was sure that they would not listen to Tom over a white man. He also knew that it was going to be very controversial and people were going to give him and his children a hard time but he still decided to do what was right and tried his best which showed his bravery to the children. Similarly, Atticus shows fearlessness when he decides to go to protect Tom at night although he was well aware that it was