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Theme Of Courage In To Kill A Mockingbird

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Nelson Mandela said, “...that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear” (Greenberg). This perfectly describes one of the themes from Harper Lee’s novel, To Kill a Mockingbird. Most of the characters sometime in the book need to discover their inner courage to face fear or opposition. However, one figure stands out from all the rest of the characters. Arthur ‘Boo’ Radley is the most courageous of all characters in Harper Lee’s novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, because he faced the world, even though he is the timidest and thus the most secretive of the characters.
Some of the major reasons why Boo is the shows the greatest amount of courage appear early in the novel. Shortly after the beginning of Scout’s second year of school, Jem and Scout find a ball of gray twine in a knot-hole in one of the trees in the Radley’s yard. After leaving the string for a few days, Jem and Scout take it and claim anything that is in the hole as their treasure. After some time, they decide to leave a letter to the person that is leaving the gifts. As they leave the note, they discover that the knot is filled with cement. They ask Mr. Nathan Radley to find out who filled the hole. Jem asks, “‘Mr. Radley, ah-did you put cement in that hole in the tree down yonder?’ ‘Yes,” he said, ‘I filled it up’”(Lee 70). Later in the novel, the Finch children realize that Boo Radley was putting the items in the
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