To Kill A Mockingbird Moral Courage Quotes

To Kill a Mockingbird: Moral Courage “Physical courage, which despises all danger, will make man brave in one way; moral courage, which despises all opinion, will make a man brave in another,” Charles Colton. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee is a bildungsroman that explores life through the eyes of six year old Scout Finch. Raised in the small and quiet town of Maycomb Alabama, Scout is surrounded by the hardships stricken by the Great Depression. Around her she experiences poverty, grief and most importantly, bigotry. Throughout the novel, Scout realizes the true beauty of life, but also the inevitable factors of ignorance and narrow-mindedness within her community. Living with her father Atticus, and her brother Jem, she realizes one

Although Lee had intended for this symbol to have an ambiguous meaning, one could interpret the mockingbird as the African American community as a whole. When Scout and Jem got their new air-rifle guns, Atticus had told them, “I’d rather you shot at tin cans in the back yard, but I know you’ll go after birds [...]. But remember it's a sin to kill a mockingbird (Lee 90).” One can infer that Atticus was connecting people killing birds to people attacked others of different cultures and ethnicities; the African American community being the mockingbirds. Ms. Maudie had agreed with Atticus when she stated, “Mockingbirds don't do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don't eat up people’s gardens, don't nest in corncribs, they don't do one thing but sing their hearts out for us (Lee 90).” This symbol represents that the African American community not only is treated unjustly, but offer generous help to the population of Maycomb. They are at their every wish and command if heavy duty is needed, but yet people still consider such a peaceful and helpful community as somehow “unequal.” Lee had also used an example in the novel that even further established the African American community as the symbol of the mockingbird. Just before Atticus is ready to take his shoot at the mad dog, Lee explains the tension and silent atmosphere of the anticipation. “Nothing is more deadly than a deserted, waiting street. The trees were still, the mockingbirds were silent (Lee 96),” It was if the the African American community had metaphorically observed the suspenseful scene from the tree. They hoped and anticipated that Atticus would soon end all of their burdens that rested heavily on them for generations. That he would end the racism that separates ignorance from unity. This symbol enhances the theme of moral courage because it explains how Atticus and Ms. Maudie had believed in the liberal view of