Literary Analysis On To Kill A Mockingbird

By Harper Lee’s very definition, “Real courage is when you know you 're licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what.” Courage comes up so many times in this story throughout almost every single character. The characters that I will be proving the acts of courage in in this essay are Mr. Heck Tate, Mr. Dolphus Raymond, Aunt Alexandra, and Miss Maudie. Theses characters may not show quite as much courage as some of the others but they do help prove what real courage is.

One way that Atticus illustrates courage is in his defence of Tom Robinson during the sexuall asult trial. He chooses to defend Tom an african american man he believes is innocent. In the novel Atticus is courageous in the sense that he doesn’t care what others think of him. He is repeatedly called a “negro lover” and looked down on by the white community. Although he is being harassed he doesn’t care,and continues to defend Tom Robinson. He does this because he truly believes that Tom is innocent and feels that if he doesn’t fight for Tom he will lose his honor and respect as can be seen from the quote, Atticus to Scout “If I didn’t I couldn’t hold up my head in town, I couldn’t represent his legislature,I couldn't even tell you or Jem not do something again.” (100, Lee) He believes in his heart that it is

In Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird there are some very courageous characters. The most courageous would be Atticus Finch. Atticus is one of the main characters in the book. He is the father of the narrator. He is also one of the best lawyers is the county.

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 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 is not the absence of fear but the acquired ability to move beyond fear” (-Unknown). Courage is a person who steps up to do something they don’t want to regardless of what other people think of them. In Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird the novel highlights themes such as, racial injustice, improper judgement, thinking in other perspectives and lots of courageous acts through the use of her many characters. Atticus is a character of courage in a way he steps up to defend an black man,Tom Robinson, in a tough case. But there is another character who goes by the name of Mr. Dolphus Raymond who showed more courage because he, a white man, married a black woman at the time of racial injustice when not all whites respected blacks. Atticus tells Jem, “...to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand.” (Lee 112) In this novel Harper Lee chose to define courage as a person who has the strength to do something that they are either afraid of or know others may not accept it courage is mistaken for a heroic figure. Mr. Dolphus Raymond is courageous because of his beliefs, actions, and words.

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee is a novel set during the 1930s in a small town in Southern Alabama called Maycomb. The story is told through the narrator, Scout, a young girl who lives with her father, a lawyer, and her older brother Jem. As a child, Scout is portrayed as a stubborn and obnoxious little girl who loves to read, play with her brother Jem, and fantasize about her mysterious neighbor, Boo Radley. However, her life gets turned upside down when Scout’s father agrees to do something that is deemed unacceptable in the south; he agrees to defend Tom Robinson, a black man who is accused of raping a white girl. Instantly, Atticus and his family go from being respected and beloved by their town, to being

“To kill a Mockingbird” is a novel in which Harper Lee, the author, presents forth various themes among them the unheard theme of social molarity. Harper dramatically uses a distinctive language through Scout, who is the narrator of the story to bring out the difficulties faced by children living in the southern Alabama town of Maycomb. Harper has dramatically displayed use of bildungsroman throughout the story; this helped to give the story a unique touch of a child’s view to bring out a different type of humor and wit. It has also used to develop and thrive the theme of morality in the society. Scout, being a child, she thinks the society is free of evil and it’s pure basically because she hasn’t been in contact with evil. Just like any other child she engages in several activities oblivious of the ramifications that follows. As a child she doesn’t understand the injustice that is enshrined the society and the glimmering racism.

In the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee vividly illustrates the real meaning of courage, both physical and emotional, through various situations and characters. Jem and Scout mix up courage and strength. They think courage is the ability to use strength to get your way. But c courage in the novel is not about winning or losing. It’s about doing what’s right even when it may be hard and people may not be on your side.

Atticus shows the most examples of courage in this story. He teaches his people many lessons, especially his children. For example, he teaches his children to believe what they want, and to not let other people influence their decisions or thoughts. Atticus says, “Don’t you worry about anything. It’s not time to worry” (Lee pg. 134).This stands out because Atticus has faith in his mind and his

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.

"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.

On a rainy day, a man at the bus stop asks for change. The two choices are walking past him avoiding eye contact, or giving him the change with a smile. Before even talking to this man, one may have already made the assumption that he is homeless or a drug addict wanting to buy his next high. But assumptions cannot accurately explain who he is or why he needs money. The novel To Kill a Mockingbird, written by Harper Lee explores this idea of judging others before looking at the world from their perspective. Scout and Jem, although raised in a prejudice town, learn from their father Atticus that who a person is racially, does not define them as a person. Although the children make up stories about Arthur “Boo” Radley to pass the time in part one of the novel, in part two the Tom Robinson situation widens their eyes to the biased ways of their town. In the end, Jem and Scout are rescued by Boo Radley, the very person they feared during their childhood. Mockingbirds are used as a symbol in the novel to portray the fact that innocent and caring people are sometimes the most abused. The theme of presumptions and the dangers of judging others are explored through the childhood fable of Boo, the story of Atticus, and the trial of Tom Robinson; the mockingbirds.

know a man until you stand in his shoes and walk around in them” is true due to the evidence

“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.