Essay about To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

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.

What it Means to Kill a Mocking Bird: an in depth analysis of the morals in Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird

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     In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, through a child's eyes Haper Lee develops a character named Arthur Radley. Arthur is know to the children simply as Boo . The name they have given him, depicts the way the children views him. Throughout the town of Maycomb, people twisted Boo’s personality and character into a terrible person. As the novel unfolds, the children finally discover the true character of Boo. But, because Arthur Radley lived in the shadows of society, the creation of the myth of the monster Boo Radley thrived.

One central theme in To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, is courage. Mrs. Dubose had the courage to fight her addiction, Atticus had the courage to defend Tom Robinson, and Arthur Radley had the courage to save Jem and Scout from Bob Ewell. What is different about the courageous acts of these characters is that their courage doesn’t come from not having fear, but from overcoming fear and expectations.

Courage isn’t always bravery. Sometimes courage goes unseen. To Kill a Mockingbird, written by Harper Lee, displays different types of courage. It is written from a point of view of a child whose name is Scout growing up in a Southern town with her brother Jem. Their father, Atticus Finch, is defending an African American man named Tom Robinson who is accused of raping Mayella Ewell. The Finches mysterious neighbor in Maycomb County, Arthur Radley, whom the children have never seen until Halloween night, adds to the rising tensions in the town. The book teaches many lessons and sheds light on some of the problems we still have today. One of the lessons it teaches is courage. Courage is standing up for what is right, just like Atticus,

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.

In the novel To Kill A Mockingbird a major theme is the loss of innocence. Whether from emotional abuse, racial prejudice or learning, Boo, Tom, and Scout all lose their innocence in one sense or another. The prejudice that each character endures leads to their loss. Through the responses of Boo, Tom, and Scout, Harper Lee shows how each character responded differently to their loss of innocence.

Typically when one thinks of courage, they associate the word with physical strength. Contrary to this common belief, courage can be displayed through inner strength. As the characters of Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird develop throughout the novel, they encounter various both positive and negative opinions pertaining to racism. In these encounters, the characters illustrate their differing types of courage in defending their beliefs and arguments. Despite how the children in the novel value heroism and courage that involves physical strength, it is ultimately demonstrated that greater courage resides in those who summon inner strength to fight moral and spiritual battles as illustrated through the actions of Atticus Finch.

Real courage is not abundant in the city of Maycomb, even though the people ostensibly believe so. They believe that having courage is defined as aspiring to become strong or to become a warrior. The author, however, believes in a different kind of courage that these people do not have. In To Kill a Mockingbird, the author, Harper Lee defines courage not as being a hero or a warrior, but as regular people. What makes these “regular people” courageous is not their physical bravery, but their mental bravery.

“You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view . . . until you climb into his skin and walk around in it”. Discuss this quote from Atticus in relation to 3 characters from the novel.

It’s interesting to see the ways different authors depict how a character matures. In Harper Lee’s novel, To Kill a Mocking Bird we can easily see how she chose to do it. The novel is set in Alabama in the 1930’s, while black vs. white racism was a big issue and problem for many. Atticus is the father of Scout and Jem, young children who witness the discrimination first hand when their father, a white man, defends a black man in court. Lee does a great job developing the characters; especially the narrator, Jean Louise Finch (Scout). Scout’s thoughts, conversations, and actions, illustrate that she’s emotionally maturing from the innocent child that she was.

Critical Review of Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird To Kill a Mockingbird is set during the 1930's in a small, isolated

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 cruel nature and intentions of people can either hurt or harm individuals or it can bring about resilience and determination. In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee revealed that humans often have other motives in life; some are born to be evil in nature, some are naturally innocent and then there are some that are born to protect the innocent. Lee utilized a variety of symbols and themes that correlated with each other and thus had the ability to create questions in the minds of the readers. Are humans calculatedly cruel or is there some moral good in each of us? The impiety of a few can create a movement, imprison the innocent or reveal the sincerity of others.