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How Does Atticus Finch Show Courage In To Kill A Mockingbird

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Being able to do something that scares oneself is courage, and standing up for what one believes in. The novel To Kill a Mockingbird is a coming of age tale of three children growing up during a time when people of color were treated unfairly because of skin color. At a young age the kids had to grow up sooner than other kids their age. The children watched racial prejudice happen all around them and it caused them to become less naive towards the world. Atticus and the kids all show courage while the whole town shames them and says they shouldn’t stand up for Tom. In the novel To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Atticus Finch shows courage throughout the novel but, particularly when he shoots the dog with rabies, when Bob Ewell spits …show more content…

Jem and Scout are outside playing in front of their house when Jem saw the dog, he ran inside to get Cal, the kids’ housekeeper she immediately called Atticus and he brought the sheriff. The sheriff decides that he cannot shoot the dog because is not a very good shot, so he tells Atticus to take it. The author says “I haven’t shot a gun in thirty years --”(Lee 110) . Atticus knows that he had not shot a gun in a very long time knew, that Heck Tate was not going to shoot the dog because he was afraid he would miss. So even though he hadn’t shot in a while he took it anyway to make Heck Tate feel more …show more content…

Scout comes home one day after school and Cecil Jacobs tells her that her daddy “defends niggers” Scout comes home and asks Atticus, he then goes on to tell her why and not to let what her people are saying about him get to her. Atticus says “..The main one is, if I didn’t I couldn’t hold my head up in town, I couldn’t respect this country legislature, I couldn’t even tell you or Jem not to do something again” (Lee 86). Atticus knows that if he does not take this case he could not respect himself anymore. Not taking the case would go against everything that Atticus stands for he knows that even if there is a slight chance that he could win he knows he has to try. Atticus is always about doing the right thing, and that takes

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