True Courage In To Kill A Mockingbird By Harper Lee

Courage can be defined in many ways, but for the most part, courage is taking a stand and taking challenges. In the book To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, the main character Scout and her older brother Jem face the difficulties of growing up while living in a small southern town in the 1930s. They deal with discrimination from their racist community due to the fact their father, Atticus, is defending a black man, Tom Robinson, in court. In To Kill A Mockingbird, Harper Lee uses Atticus to show true courage is standing up for what is right even when it is difficult. One way Atticus proves what courage is, is when he is explaining to Jem why he made him read to Mrs. Dubose as a punishment. “I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It’s when you know you’re licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what. You rarely win, but sometimes you do.” (Lee 112) Atticus shows that he doesn’t want his kids to get the wrong impression of what courage is, but he wants them to know that it is doing something that you know will not work out in

On pages 75-76, Scout ask Atticus why he would defend Tom Robinson in the trial, he explains that if he didn’t, even her and Jem wouldn’t be able to respect him anymore. When Scout ask why, Atticus says “Because I could never ask you to mind me again. Scout, simply by the nature of work, every lawyer gets at least one case in his lifetime that affects him personally. This one’s mine, I guess.” (Lee 76) Atticus then tells Scout that there is no possible way he will win the case. This shows Atticus knows his case will be mentally straining and that he won’t win, but he will still fight for it because he knows he has to and that it is the right thing to do. This is important because it proves Atticus is living up to his definition of