Justin Gibson

Mr. McConnell

English 9

November 30,2017

Courage

In the novel To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee courage is shown by three characters.

This novel takes place in Maycomb County, Alabama in the 1930’s. Scout, a young girl, is a

main character and narrorator, who loves to play with her brother and her friend Dill. Jem is a

teenage boy who is Scout’s brother and loves to play football with his dad and play with his

sister. Atticus, a lawyer, is the father of Jem and Scout. All three of these characters show a great

amount of courage throughout the novel. In the novel To Kill A Mockingbird courage is shown

best by three characters, Scout, Jem, and Atticus.

Scout shows a lot of courage throughout the novel. “I guess it ain’t your fault if Uncle

Atticus is a n***** lover […] This time, I split my knuckle to the bone on his front teeth,” (Lee

110-112). Scout is showing courage in this quote because she is standing up for Atticus. She gets

mad because she had been hearing many bad things about her dad defending Tom Robinson’s

court case. “Miss Caroline, he’s a Cunningham […] The Cunninghams never took anything they

can’t pay back,” (Lee 26). Scout shows courage here because she is the only one that is willing to

tell Miss Caroline Walter’s situation.

Jem shows a lot of courage in the novel by not being afraid of people. “Jem threw open

the gate and sped to the side of the house slapped it with his palm and ran back to us,” (Lee 18).
When Jem does this he shows that he is not afraid of Boo Radley because at any second the

rumor has it he can step outside his house and kill all of them. “She wants me to come every

afternoon after school and read to her out loud for two hours”, (Lee 140). This quote

demonstrates Jem’s courage of not being afraid of people. In the past Mrs. Dubose has been

calling Jem, Scout, and Atticus very bad things and still, with Atticus’ help has the courage to

read to her as she asked.

Atticus also shows a great deal of courage throughout the novel. “With movements so

swift they seemed simultaneous, Atticus’s hand yanked a ball-tipped lever as he brought the gun

to his shoulder”, (Lee 127). This quote is about Atticus shooting a mad dog. Atticus steps up and

takes the shot even the county sherrif did not want to take. “I’m simply defending a negro- his

name’s Tom Robinson”, (Lee100) This is Atticus showing courage by defending a negro. He is

the only lawyer that was willing to defend the case and he knows that a lot of hatred will be

brought to his family.

In this novel courage is shown in many ways. Courage is shown by Scout standing up to

people to protects her dad’s name. Courage by Jem is demonstrated by not being afraid of

people, and last courage by Atticus is shown through his actions towards killing “The Maycomb

Disease”. Courage in To Kill A Mockingbird is shown best by Scout, Jem, and Atticus.