How Does Atticus Show Courage

The definition of courage is the ability to do something that frightens one, or strength in the face of pain or grief. People all over the world perform countless acts of courage every single day. Many characters in Harper Lee’s book, To Kill a Mockingbird portray these courageous traits also. Many of them performed acts that took great courage to do. Atticus’s definition of courage is going through with something you believe in even when you know it might go wrong. In the book, there are many courageous acts that happen but Atticus Finch shows the most courage all around.

To children like Jem and Scout Finch, being courageous is completing a daredevil like task to impress others; however, as they grow up they learn what true courage is as they face situations where their courage is tested. They also witness an obstacle Atticus Finch overcomes that enhances their definition of courage. In the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee distinguishes foolishness from real acts of courage through the experiences of Jem, Scout, and Atticus Finch.

In the book To Kill A Mockingbird, Atticus tells Scout that courage is “when you know you're licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what.” Atticus has shown a lot of courage to his kids. Atticus showed courage by accepting the Tom Robinson case, by standing his ground at the jailhouse, and by standing up to Aunt Alexandra about Calpurnia. He even tries to get his kids to follow in his footsteps.

Courage is strength in the face of physical pain, hardship or death. It is also the choice and willingness to confront shame and personal loss. In Harper Lee's novel 'To Kill a Mockingbird', people demonstrate courage by standing up against prejudice, and overcoming their own loneliness and fears to live a good life. Mrs Dubose faces up to her morphine addiction. Atticus faces down the racism of the town. Jem shows his courage in trying to protect his sister. Harper Lee believes that courage requires perseverance and fearlessness in risking a life to save another.

Courage doesn 't just help you it can also help other people around you too. Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry, Mildred D. Taylor uses Cassie Logan as an example of courage, although she has faced many rough and harsh times she has used courage to overcome them. Cassie faces many challenges but some of the ones that stood out to me were, standing up to the teacher when Little Man did not want his book because of the condition that it was in, standing up for herself at the Mercantile when she was not waited on, and T.J when he was not being so nice to Cassie and the Loganś. Cassie was a very smart and intelligent person. She always wanted to know what was going on because she wanted to know if there was something that she could do to help. Cassie could always come up with a way to help

Atticus’ courage is shown in multiple ways through his court actions and his stand against racial discrimination. For instance, as a lawyer, Atticus defends the innocent, despite controversial thoughts of others, this is proven true in the Tom Robinson court case. During this discriminative period, most African Americans brought to court for an accused crime were deemed guilty, despite the clear evidence that proved their innocence. When Jem thought Atticus’ defense of Tom will bring Tom to justice, Reverend Sykes said: “I ain’t ever seen any jury decide in favor of a colored man over a white man”(Lee 279). This proves Atticus’ courage because he chose to fight for a colored man to prove that he is not guilty of an alleged crime, despite knowing the usual outcome of the case and the disapproval he will receive from others.

Courage has gone through many changes. It has been altered throughout races, cultures, religions, sex, and time. However, the core values of courage has always remained parallel. It is difficult to explain in words the meaning of courage, like describing a color, but everyone knows what courage is, how it feels, and how to perform it. In Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, Atticus explained to us a type of courage that was shown in Ms. Dubose. These attributes were also apparent in a man named Liu Xiaobo. Both Ms. Dubose, and Mr. Liu, rose above social views to fight for their beliefs, did not give up in times of trouble, and had the audacity to face demons that were far more powerful than themselves.

"Courage is when you know you 're licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what" According to Atticus Finch, an honest lawyer in Harper Lee 's novel "To Kill a Mockingbird" courage is not a man with a gun in his hand. "Real courage" is when you fight for what is right regardless of whether you win or lose. Atticus fits into this definition of what "real courage" is and demonstrates it several times throughout the novel.

In the book, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Scout, Calpurnia, and Atticus stand out when courage comes to mind. These characters show courage in many unique ways with different situations. In the early 1930s, in the deep south, racial discrimination was a huge conflict, for example, the Jim Crows Laws were in play, and it legalized segregation between blacks and whites. Courage isn’t always shown in situations, but simply throughout growing up.

The Merriam Webster Dictionary defines courage as the ability to do something that frightens one. Many characters in Harper Lee’s mid 20th century novel To Kill a Mockingbird display courage in numerous ways. One character however, jumps out. When first reading the book, most people would say that courage is displayed by those like Jem, Scout, Tom, or Atticus. However, I would disagree. The character` that shows the most courage is Bob Ewell because he accuses an innocent man of rape, he tries to murder children, and he spit on Atticus Finch.

"Jem, 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 see it through no matter what." This insightful statement was told by Atticus Finch to his son, Jem Finch. Many people in Maycomb had to deal with racism, hatred, and discrimination because of their skin color or because of the court case. Most of them, if not all, showed true courage by standing up for what they believe in and keeping their heads up high. Harper Lee uses many scenes and key characters to develop the theme of real courage for instance, Jem, Atticus, and Miss Maudie go through a journey to discover, understand and to show that real courage is mental courage in the face of physical and emotional torment.

Harper Lee wants to tell us that it takes courage NOT to kill a mockingbird

Throughout To Kill A MockingBird, by Harper Lee there are many acts of courage. This is shown in Atticus Finch, Jem Finch, and Boo Radley. Atticus shows the most courage in the book but all three of these characters show true courage in some way, shape, or form. Boo Radley showed a lot of courage, but he was not in the storyline as much as Atticus. Throughout To Kill A Mockingbird, courage is defined as standing up for people and doing what’s right.

Do you see people having courage in their society? Harper Lee puts courage as a central idea of To Kill a Mockingbird just as courage is a central idea in The Giver and if you have read the book then you would know that Jonas uses his courage to change society. It is almost the same thing in To Kill a Mockingbird except Atticus is trying to stop racial segregation in the society. If you haven 't read To Kill a Mockingbird then you have to know it is a fictional story about a girl named Scout who grew up in the 1930’s when segregation was all over America. I believe that Harper Lee adds courage as a key component of the overall To Kill a Mockingbird story because courage can change a whole society as she proves in her book. My main points are going to be that Atticus, his kids, Mrs. Dubose, and Mr. Raymond all show courage but in very different ways as the the book unfolds.

“Courage doesn 't always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying ‘I’ll try again tomorrow’” - Mary Anne Radmacher. Through this quote one can see the advantages of real courage. One can really understand the true meaning of courage by reading the books To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee and The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie. The book by Harper Lee is written by a 9 year old’s perspective named Scout. Throughout the book she discovers many mockingbirds in her society and the trouble they have to live through. This helps the reader identify many subtopics in the book like prejudice vs tolerance, compassion vs ignorance and more importantly courage vs cowardice. She deciphers the true meaning of courage vs cowardice when she meets the mystery character, Boo Radley. The book by Sherman Alexie too has similar themes and settings. It’s based on the struggles Indian’s face in America due to their race. The book uses a teenagers perspective to exhibit these struggles. This helps teenagers connect to the book as even they might have perspectives similar to of Junior’s (main character). Both the authors use similar literary devices like external conflict, internal conflict and characterization to keep the reader interested in the text. In both the texts one can see that the thematic idea conveyed is that courageous people don’t roar about their strength, but they use it to benefit the community as a whole.