Kill A Mockingbird By Harper Lee

Courage is defined as "the quality of mind or spirit enabling one to meet danger or opposition with fearlessness." According to Atticus Finch, one of the main characters in To Kill a Mockingbird, "Courage is when you know you're licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what." (pg.121). Harper Lee clearly portrays the theme of courage in her novel, To Kill a Mockingbird. One likes to think of a hero, as strong, brave, and meeting all challenges head on. All the characters in this book have a different view as to what courage

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee has been banned and/or challenged over thirty times since its publication in 1960. Effectively preventing many students from enjoying the novel and benefitting from its message. To ignore racism is no different than denying it ever existed. To Kill a Mockingbird is appropriate for mature adolescence/students and should not be banned from schools. Despite its sexual related content, or profanity, a valuable lesson remains that should be taught to students.

Courage, as defined by Collins Dictionary, is “the quality shown by someone who decides to do something difficult or dangerous, even though they may be afraid”. In the novel To Kill A Mockingbird, Harper Lee has created many characters who exhibit such courage, even in the face of adversity, and develops this into a major theme. Atticus Finch, Arthur Radley, and other members of the Finch household and Maycomb community, display amazing courage in the things they say, but more importantly in the way they act. These characters all contribute to the novel’s theme of showing courage through adversity.

“Human beings are poor examiners, subject to superstition, bias, prejudice, and a profound tendency to see what they want to see rather than what is really there” ~ Scott Peck. Harper Lee’s novel To Kill A Mockingbird abounds with the injustice produced by social, gender, and racial prejudice. The setting of the book takes place in the 1930s, where racism is a big deal in society. In the novel Harper Lee uses a mockingbird as an analogy to the characters. The Mockingbird is a symbol for Three Characters in the book, Atticus Finch, Tom Robinson, and Boo Radley. The people of Maycomb only know Boo Radley and Tom Robinson by what others say about them. These Characters are then characterized by other people 's viewpoints. In the novel there are many themes that are adjacent to our lives, the one that is found in To Kill A Mockingbird is Human Conflict comes from the inability for one to understand another. “ You never understand a person until you consider things from his point of view- until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.” (39)

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee has many ongoing themes such as Walking in Someone Else 's Shoes, Social Classes, Scout 's Maturity, and Boo Radley. These themes contribute to the story in many ways.

Courage is the commitment to begin without any guarantee of success. One will dare to take risks, have the strength to be compassionate, and the wisdom to be humble; courage is simply the foundation of integrity. What someone does in these moments of being very brave will reveal how strong someone really is, regardless of how much weight someone can deadlift. The courage of each character in "To Kill A Mockingbird" manifests itself in their battles against the corrupt forces of their world.

Harper Lee’s novel, “To Kill a Mockingbird,” is set in a small, southern town, Maycomb, Alabama during the Great Depression of the 1930s. The story is told through the eyes of a girl named Scout about her father, Atticus, an attorney who strives to prove the innocence of a black man named Tom Robinson, who was accused of rape and Boo Radley, an enigmatic neighbor who saves Scout and her brother Jem from being killed. Atticus does his job in proving there was no way that Tom Robinson was guilty during his trial, but despite Tom Robinson’s obvious innocence, he is convicted of rape as it is his word against a white woman’s. Believing a “black man’s word” seemed absurd as segregation was a very integrated part of life in the south. The social hierarchy must be maintained at all costs and if something in the system should testify the innocence of a black man against a white woman’s word and win then what might happen next? Along with the prejudice amongst blacks and whites, the story also showed how people could be misunderstood for who they truly are such as Boo Radley. Without ever seeing Boo, Jem and the townsfolk made wild assumptions on what Boo does or looks like. Even so, while “To Kill a Mockingbird” shows the ugliness that can come from judging others, its ultimate message is that great good can result when one defers judgement until considering things from another person’s view. Walter Cunningham, Mrs. Dubose, and Boo Radley are all examples of how looking at things

Based on the first six chapter of the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, we can see that it moves at a rapid pace. It starts off as the beginning of summer and by the end of the sixth chapter an entire year has passed by. Throughout this year, we see Scout 's, Dill 's, and Jem 's adventures during the summers and Scout going to school for the first time. We also receive some additional background information on the mysterious Arthur "Boo" Radley.

Courage is shown within the characters of To Kill A Mockingbird in several situations.  The characters are challenged to face danger or pain without fear.  The courage they display gives them strength and deepens their self-understanding as the novel progresses.

“Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear” (Mark Twain), this ties in with Atticus’ and his definition because he masters fear and is resistant to it; he takes the case and is not feared by Bob’s presence. One of the many topics in this book is courage; it is used many times in the novel and in life. It is explained many times in this novel; whether it is through Harper Lee’s use of courage, how courage is defined and the character who exemplifies courage the best. In Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird courage is expressed by many characters in many different examples.

Courage is the strength to stand up against fear, pain, or grief. There are different types of courage: spiritual, intellectual, social, physical, emotional, moral, etc.. In To Kill a Mockingbird, Atticus explains to Jem that true courage is like “when you know you’re licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it no matter what” (149). He defines the word as something outside of violence such as “a man holding a gun in his hand” (149). In TKAM, Atticus Finch, Boo Radley, and Miss Maudie show true courage by riskily defending what they believe is the right thing to do.

Courage in To Kill a Mockingbird If you go and survey people on how they define courage, you are bound to receive many varying responses. This is because the idea of courage is subjective, and courage means something different to everyone. In Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, courage is defined by doing what each character believes is right.

Courage is strength. Courage is honesty. Courage is standing one’s ground no matter what. Courage is standing up for others. In Harper Lee’s classic novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, Scout and Jem Finch, along with their father Atticus, live in Maycomb County, a small, mainly racist town in Alabama during the Great Depression. The Finch family’s neighbor, Mrs. Dubose, and Atticus display acts of personal courage in the story. Specifically, Mrs. Dubose displays courage in her honesty and strength, and Atticus displays courage in his responses to racism based threats and keeping others safe.

The text type of To Kill a Mockingbird is a fiction novel which deals with the racism the author observed as a child in her hometown of Monroeville, Alabama. To Kill a Mockingbird was written by Harper Lee, who wrote her novel in a retrospective point of view. There were numerous aspects of historical, personal, cultural and social context in To Kill a Mockingbird. Harper Lee was born on the 28th of April, 1926, in Monroeville Alabama. Monroeville was a close-knit community that has many similarities with Maycomb, which is the setting of To Kill a Mockingbird. Harper Lee’s father was a prominent lawyer, whom she drew inspiration for the protagonists father, Atticus Finch. Among Lee’s childhood friends was Truman Capote, from whom she drew inspiration to the character Dill. These personal details help portray Harper Lee’s own childhood home, where racism and segregation was highly evident. Another example of context which helped shape To Kill a Mockingbird were the events that occurred during Harper Lee’s childhood. In 1931, when Harper Lee was five years old, nine African-American men were accused of raping two white women near Scottsboro, Alabama. After a series of lengthy, highly publicised, and often bitter trials, five of the nine men were sentenced to long term imprisonment. Many prominent lawyers and various members of the general public saw the sentences as spurious and believed that it was motivated by racial prejudice.

Harper Lee published To Kill a Mockingbird during a rough period in American history, also known as the Civil Rights Movement. This plot dives into the social issues faced by African-Americans in the south, like Tom Robinson. Lee felt that the unfair treatment towards blacks were persistent, not coming to an end any time in the foreseeable future. This dark movement drove her to publish this novel hopeful that it would encourage the society to realize that the harsh racism must stop. Lee effectively fashions her characters to help further drive this point to the reader. Atticus Finch, and his children, Jem and Scout, play a pivotal role in this story. Atticus makes a very honorable name for himself, while Jem and Scout 's innocence is exposed to the real world and unacceptable behavior there is throughout society. Harper Lee eloquently portrays a theme of good overcoming evil during the Civil Rights Movement in her novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, through the beliefs of Atticus ' honorable actions, Jem and Scout 's innocence, and Tom Robinson 's trial.