To Kill A Mockingbird Heroism

Depleting the Cowardly Lion

“It is curious that physical courage should be so common in the world and moral courage so rare,” said Mark Twain. As young people, we believe that courage is only a physical notion, but as we grow older, we start to realize that sometimes you require the use of moral courage too. The novel To Kill a Mockingbird is a coming of age story about two young children, Jem and Scout Finch, growing up in Alabama in the 1930s and learning what real courage is through their father, Atticus, and the people of Maycomb. They learn to see the world from other points of view, which is also how they express empathy towards others, persevering and standing up for what you believe in, and putting yourself in danger to help others.

Boo shows heroism when he saves Jem and Scout from being killed by Bob Ewell. Jem and Scout were walking home from the pageant and Jem got the feeling that they were being followed. Then someone attacked them and broke Jem’s arm and knocked him unconscious, and then he proceeded to attempt and kill Scout, but someone else pulled him off of her. Scout later realizes that the man standing against the wall of Jem’s room was Mr. Arthur (Boo) Radley. Boo had courage leaving his house, which he had been locked up in for a very long time, to help Jem and Scout and finally reveal himself to them.“His lips parted into a timid smile, and our neighbor’s image blurred with my sudden tears. Hey, Boo,” I said. (270) Another act of heroism is Mr.Avery going into Mrs. Maudie’s burning house. Mr. Avery has the willingness to help others because he goes to the upstairs of Mrs. Maudie’s house alone, and he tries to save more of her most valuable belongings. Then he gets stuck at the window and almost can’t get out, but then he goes down the porch pillar into shrubbery and is safe. “The men of Maycomb, in all degrees of dress and undress, took furniture from Miss Maudie’s house to a yard across the street…Then Mr. Avery’s face appeared in the upstairs window…He swung his legs over the railing and was sliding down a pillar” (69-70). This is relating to the idea that you don’t really know a person until you get to know them better. Jem and Scout thought that Mr. Avery was a mean person, but when they say him going to the upstairs of Mrs. Maudie’s burning house, they started to think that maybe he was a kind person after all because he is risking his life to save things that are sentimental to someone else. “You never really know a man until you stand in his shoes and walk around in them” (279). Jem and Scout finally saw what it was like to be Mr. Avery and Boo Radley. They believed that Mr.