Fear and Courage in To Kill A Mockingbird, by Harper Lee

634 Words2 Pages

To Kill A Mockingbird, by Harper Lee is an excellent story that gives a profound meaning to many essences in life. The story showcases many cases of great qualities such as fear and courage. Also this book contains characters with impressive personalities, but in contrast there are many characters with poor qualities and personalities. Back in the 30s, when a negro faced a white man in a courtroom, the white man will win whether he is lying or not. This would give many negros tons of fear. In addition to this book, there is a lot of mystery within the story. For example, there is a very mysterious character in the story. In the form of courage, there are many situations where characters defy odds and take huge chances for little reward. There will be 3 subjects about qualities or feelings of fear and courage. They are about the Radley family, Bob Ewell and Tom Robinson. The Radley family has a presence that startles nearly all of Maycomb County in some way. For example, every resident of Maycomb County would never set foot in even the Radley house yard. However, this was not the case for protagonist Scout Finch and her brother Jem. This show of bravery represents outstanding courage. Moreover, the main area of fear of the Radley family is provided by Boo. Boo is the child of the family, and is rumored to eat grotesque foods such as live rats. Although very few people had ever seen Boo, nobody dared to search for him. That is, except for Scout and Jem. Despite being terrified of what Boo could be, Jem and Scout searched tirelessly for him. Even after their father forbid them to search for Boo, Jem and Scout would not be denied and searched for him anyways. The courage shown by the young children in this novel is good. Bob ... ... middle of paper ... ...ough this act was very courageous, it was also extremely dangerous and ended up getting him shot and killed. Perhaps Tom would rather die than live in jail as an innocent man. Nevertheless, Tom was a very courageous character. Fear and courage are very important in this story. They change almost every important event that occurs. Fear and courage both go together, because without fear, there is no fear to overcome and be courageous. They are the most important qualities and feelings in the novel, along with empathy. Without courage, key events that happened would have been altered. For example, if Jem and Scout never went in the yard of the Radley family, Boo would not have saved them from the deadly attack of Bob Ewell. The major point is that fear and couirage played a large role in the novel of To Kill A Mockingbird. Works Cited To Kill a Mockingbird

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