Summary Of Courage In Harper Lee's 'To Kill A Mockingbird'

Nathan Davis

Mrs. Powers

English

26 October 2015

Blaze through the Frost

Set perfectly in the words of Winston S. Churchill, “success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” Courage does not depend on what an individual has to protect himself in a predicament, but rather on what he does to push through the predicament unprotected. The brave do not flee mockery and disparaging at the expense of their beliefs. Painting a new perspective, Harper Lee, the author of To Kill a Mockingbird, molds examples of real courage through the actions and lives of Mrs. Dubose, Mrs. Maudie, and Atticus.

The author dispels stereotypical definitions of fearlessness through the character Mrs. Dubose. Even in agony, she wants to “break herself of [morphine] before she died, and that’s what she did” (111). Mrs. Dubose demonstrates true

He flashes a bright aurora in the shadows of racism. Atticus explains to Jem that genuine courage “is when you know you’re licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what” (112). Through his definition, he braids humility and resolution into a powerful cord that holds bravery together. Atticus cannot live with himself if he breaks his own morality, and doggedly pursues his burdensome case. Even though people mock and affront him for his support, Atticus says it “is something that goes to the essence of a man’s conscience - Scout, I couldn’t go to church and worship God if I didn’t try to help that man”(104). To have an honorable and valiant character, one must persevere his own noble values rather than the world’s. The brave man follows truth and justice, but the coward submits to the values of the world. Harper Lee explains the beginning of a new hero, one who follows no one but God and his own thoughts, completely disregarding judgement from the slaves of