Courage
In
Maycomb
By: Jack Skelton
Period 3
Mrs. Sandberg
To Kill a Mockingbird
Jack Skelton
Period 3
Sandberg
10/26/12
Courage in Maycomb
Has there ever been a point in your life, where you faced death and protected someone precious to you? Well that’s exactly what Boo Radley did when he stopped Bob Ewell from stabbing Jeremy “Jem” Finch. What Boo did to me is the embodiment of what true courage is. Unfortunately in the book To Kill a Mockingbird, courage is something for the most part that is lacked in the small town of Maycomb, Alabama. The few people in the small town of Maycomb, that display true courage are Atticus Finch, his son Jeremy Atticus “Jem” Finch, and there “insane neighbor” Arthur “Boo” Radley. These three individuals find and show many courageous acts throughout the story and define what true courage really is.
Atticus Finch is Jean Louise “Scout”, and Jem’s widowed father. He displays true courage in the book by taking the Tom Robinson case, Not fighting a person who has just spit in his face, and shooting a crazy dog that has rabies. Tom Robinson is a black male in Maycomb, and is being accused of raping a young girl named Mayella. Atticus knows he will not win this case. He said this quote in the beginning of chapter 11, “Scout, said Atticus, when summer comes you’ll have to keep your head about far worse things. It’s not fair for you and Jem, I know that, but sometimes we have to make the best of things, and the way we conduct ourselves when the chips are down, well, all I can say is, when you and Jem are grown, maybe you’ll look back on this with some compassion and some feeling that I didn’t let you down. This case, Tom Robinson’s case, 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.” Atticus was positive that he wouldn’t win that trial, but he wanted to do it. Atticus was walking down the street after Tom’s trial, when...