Elizabeth Gaspar Tucker Dill September 26, 2012

Courage is blind

Be strong now because things will get better. It might be stormy now but it cant rain forever (Haile). This quote is basically saying that if you are standing up for something that you believe in something else different to everyone else around you you have be strong. Everything in life is not easy and you have to have the courage to stand up for what you think is the right thing to do. In Harper Lees novel To kill a Mockingbird, Atticus, Scout and Mrs. Dubose demonstrate courage in the face of adversity. Atticus displays mental and moral courage when he accepts Tom Robinsons case during a time of racial inequality. Im simply defending a negro-his names Tom Robinson (Lee 75). For Atticus to go against his peoples beliefs, for the people of Maycomb that was a crazy thing for Atticus to do. Although most people in Maycomb were trash talking about him he did not care because his beliefs were more important to him than everyones opinions about what he decided to do. Atticus had a different way of thinking; he did not discriminate against anyone outside and inside his job. Every lawyer gets at least one case in his lifetime that affects him personally (Lee 76). All the lawyers in get put through a case that can affect them personally and thats what happen to Atticus. The people in Maycomb do not know this and they judge Atticus because they think that he is doing this because he decided that he wanted to do this. Atticus is just one of many people that get put in a situation that makes other people see them in a different perspective. Scout displays mental, moral and physical courage when she defends Atticus from any trash talking that anybody does towards him. Nigger-lover... said Francis. This time, I [Scout]

split my knuckle to the bone on his front teeth (Lee 84). Scout demonstrates physical courage in this, Francis insulted Atticus, and that did not thrill Scout so she punched him. Scout had promised Atticus, before, that she would not get bothered by any bad commentary towards him, but this time since Francis was her cousin she was not going to tolerate him. Everyone has a lot of respect towards Atticus, scout just defends him from the people that do not think so. Well Atticus, I was just sayin to Mr. Cunningham that entailments are all bad... I was slowly drying up, wondering what idiocy I had committed...I looked around and, whose face was equally impassive...He squatted down and took me by both shoulders. Ill tell him you said hey little lady, he said..Lets clear out, he called (Lee 154). Even though Scout is just a little girl when it comes to her father, she will go against anything and anyone to protect him. Scouts love towards Atticus is just immense, for her Atticus is an invaluable human being, he is the only person she has that cares about her so much and she tries to do everything that is for the best for Atticus. In this novel Scout proves to us in various ways that she is courageous. Ms. Dubose shows her courage when she speaks everything she believes and when she tried to quit her morphine addiction. Your fathers no better than the nigger and trash he works for. (Lee 102). In Maycomb Ms. Dubose was the mean old lady because she spoke her mind and she did not care if it hurt someones feelings, she would just speak what she thought. Even though Jem and Scout were just little kids, Ms. Dubose did not care and called their father a nigger lover, them as children took it more seriously because they knew it was bad and she was insulting their father. Another way she showed us courage was when she was trying to be free from the morphine addiction. [Atticus] I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. Its when you know youre licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what. Your rarely win,

but sometimes you do. Mrs. Dubose won..According to her views she died beholden to nothing and nobody. She was the bravest person I ever knew (Lee 112). Even though Mrs. Dubose did not say it herself, Atticus who is a main character in this novel explains to his children that she showed courage. Jem did not know what she was going through but now that his father had explained it to him, Jem shows more appreciation towards her. Someone who is addicted to any drug and wants to quit, it takes a lot of courage to be able to accomplish that and she was one of the few people that accomplished freeing themselves from a drug. Throughout the story we see that most characters suffer but at the end we read that not everything sad lasts, that it takes time for everything to clear up and live a happy life. Atticus, Scout and Mrs. Dubose show us that they do have courage, to go against society and do what they think is right and what they believe proves to us that they are admirable human beings.