Literary Elements In To Kill A Mockingbird By Harper Lee

To Kill a Mockingbird, written by Harper Lee became the bestselling book when it was first published in 1960. In To Kill a Mockingbird, chapter 11, Harper Lee uses literary elements to develop a theme in the novel. One of the themes in this book is that true courage is when you fight for what is right, whether you win or lose. Both Atticus and Mrs. Dubose showed courage in To Kill a Mockingbird. One of the literary elements that conveys the theme of courage is conflict. The conflict between Atticus and the town shows that when you fight for what is right, you are showing courage. Atticus says, “It’s when you’re licked before you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what. You rarely win, but sometimes you do” (page 149). In this quote, Atticus is explaining to Jem what real courage is. This quote is important because Atticus goes to

In To Kill a Mockingbird, Mrs. Dubose represents courage. She shows courage by battling her morphine addiction before she died. Atticus says, “I wanted you to see something about her--I wanted you to see what real courage is… Mrs. Dubose won, all ninety-eight pounds of her. According to her views, she died beholden to nothing and nobody. She was the bravest person I ever knew” (page 149). In this quote, Atticus is telling Jem that Mrs. Dubose showed courage by not taking her pain medicine. This quote is important because Atticus uses Mrs. Dubose as an example of what true courage is. Mrs. Dubose is a symbol that represents courage because she knew that she was dying and she chose to stop her morphine addiction. Instead of choosing to die free of pain, she chose to die free of the control of her addiction. The symbol causes the reader to feel that Mrs. Dubose is what true courage is because she overcome her morphine addiction. She still fought no matter what, even though she knew that she was dying. Mrs. Dubose could’ve died comfortably, but she died