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How Does Lee Show Moral Courage In To Kill A Mockingbird

767 Words4 Pages

TKAM essay
In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, the author Harper Lee uses literary devices to convey the theme of moral courage to his readers. The two literary elements that stuck out the most were irony and climax. These two devices develop the theme of moral courage by showing that every person has different ethics and no matter the ethical background of the individual, if you have courage and stick up for what you believe you will be internally happy in the long run.

By using irony to convey his theme, Lee shows her readers that the most unlikely character can be a very critical part of the plot. Boo Radley, the town’s scapegoat came to acclaim when he saves the children from being attacked by Bob Ewell. Boo was normally known for being …show more content…

His character in the book represented one of the mockingbirds in the story, a good person injured by the evil of mankind. Boo was one of the characters that the reader would not expect to save Scout and Jem due to the analysis of his character, throughout the whole book. The children always engaged in ways too see Radley and they were a little obsessed with the idea of getting to see him. When it was found out that Boo was the perpetrator of the crime, ultimately killing Ewell it was a turn of events, something that was not expected to happen in the story due to his character perpetrating throughout the novel. With the events in the story such as the conviction of Tom Robinson and the feelings of the Ewells about Atticus defending a black person, the reader would be lead to believe that Ewell would be a evil overruling force in the end. Lee uses the turn of events to make the theme stand out more, because when ewell is killed the town sheriff declares that Boo did not kill Bob but instead they say “he fell on the knife”. The sheriff and Atticus know the truth, that Ewell was the attacker and they know what his …show more content…

It forces the children to face the harsh realities of life by knowing that what atticus has taught them may not always be the case in real life and human nature has evils that they will encounter again and again in life. In the climax of the book, you see this harsh reality come to life when Bob Ewell attacks they children as they are on their way home from the school play, and as things are looking bad when bob is attacking Jem, and scout helplessly stands by you see Boo come out and saves the children. Boo takes Jem home and scout runs behinds them and Atticus is there waiting for scout. In the turn of events you see how morals and ethics Come into play when Bob, the towns villain is dead and Boo is the one who did it, and they decide not to turn him in to do the right

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