Daniel Ackerman

Mr. McConnell

English 9

11/29/17

Courage

There are many examples of courage in the book To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee.

The book is a fictional story narrated by a young girl named Scout. Scout describes to the reader

the divisions of economics, gender, and race in her town of Maycomb. In the book Lee shows

some of the different kinds of courage through the characters. There are many examples of

courage in To Kill a Mockingbird, but the most courageous characters are Atticus, Scout, and

Jem.

The character Atticus has shown many times that he is courageous. For example, Atticus

took a court case that he knew he would not win. “The jury couldn’t possibly be expected to

take Tom Robinson’s word against the Ewells” (Lee 117). In addition, Atticus also took the shot

at a dog that was representing racism in Maycomb showing how only he had the courage to do

something about racism. “The rifle cracked. Tim Johnson leaped, flopped over, and crumpled on

the side walk. He didn’t know what hit him.” (Lee 127). Therefore, this shows that Atticus is

very courageous.
 Even though Scout is just a little girl, she has shown many times how courageous she is.

For instance, she shows courage when she stands up for Walter Cunningham. “You’re shamin’

him, Miss Caroline.” (Lee 28). In addition, Scout shows again how she is courageous when she

defends Atticus because people are saying rude things about him. “He [Francis] called “He’s

nothin but a n----r lover!” “He is not” I roared. “You better cut it out this red hot minute!”” (Lee

110). Thus, this shows how courageous Scout is, especially about defending people.

Scout’s older brother Jem is daring and courageous. Specifically, when he tries to look in

the Radley house window. This is courageous because the Radley house is a creepy old house

that has many strange stories surrounding it. The Radley house is gray with green shutters, has

rain rotted shingles, and oak trees to keep the sun away. (Lee 10). In addition, Jem also shows

courage when he apologies to Mrs. Dubose. Jem had the courage to apologize to Mrs. Dubose

after he had chopped off all her flower heads. He cut the flower heads off because of the things

Mrs. Dubose had been saying about him, Scout, and he especially got mad when she said things

about Atticus. “I cleaned it up for her and said I was sorry.” (Lee 140). Consequently, this

shows that Jem is brave, daring, and courageous.

To Kill a Mockingbird is full of themes but one of the most important is courage. The

book gives examples of different kinds of courage such as, standing up for what is right, standing

up for people, doing something that is frightening, and doing something that is outside the

comfort zone. In conclusion, it is good to be courageous if its for the good of everyone.