Examples Of Courage In To Kill A Mockingbird

There is nothing harder in life than being truly courageous. When you know you will be defeated, but you begin anyway and go through with it no matter what. That's what courage is, and there are tons examples of courage, but in the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee uses character development to to show courage. In To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee develops Atticus to be a very courageous man. Atticus is brave enough to take on the Tom Robinson case, despite knowing it will be difficult on his family warning scout that she might, “ hear some ugly talk about it at school, but do one thing for me if you will: you just hold your head high and keep those fists down. No matter what anybody says to you, don’t you let ‘em get your goat.”

Harper Lee gives us a glimpse of Jem’s courage right off the bat when “Jem threw open the gate and sped to the side of the house, slapped it with his palm and ran back past us…” When Jem runs on to the Radley property and slaps the house it takes a lot of courage. Jem had to put aside all of the rumors and horror stories he has heard about Boo Radley and slap that house. Sometime later, Jem learns to be brave from Mrs. Dubose. When Jem tore up Mrs. Dubose’s flowers he was punished by having to read to her."Mrs. Dubose was a morphine addict...She took it as a pain-killer for years.” Mrs. Dubose was brave enough to kick her addiction to the side despite her agony. From this Jem learned that true courage is “when you know you’re licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what.” Jem uses this lesson to show huge amounts of courage when he goes to defend Atticus from the angry mob at the jail. Jem and scout “were accustomed to prompt, if not always cheerful acquiescence to Atticus's instructions, but from the way he stood Jem was not thinking of budging.” Jem was well seasoned on the idea of courage. Jem, a young boy, stood up to an angry mob of men just to protect his father. He knew what courage was and he showed it. Jem had courage to begin with, but went on to learn true courage and went on to show