Literature Essay
To Kill a Mockingbird
Question
Compare the different portrayals of courage in To Kill a Mockingbird.
“It’s not time to worry yet”
So said in, by Atticus and Jem Finch. There are many different portrayals of courage in this novel. Harper Lee has been very successful in putting different types of courage, to show the growth of maturity in both Scout and Jem. At the start of the novel they show their courage in a childish manner, for example when Jem has to run up to the Radley’s house and touch the house to show Dill that people from Maycomb are not cowards. Dill gave Jem the Grey Ghost for attempting this dare, but it is clearly not for this reason that Jem did it. Jem wanted to show that he was not scared of Boo Radley and that he was more “mature” then Dill and Scout. Dill was often the start of these daring each other to do different type of things to show their courage to each other. Jem and Scout where living with the fear of the Radley place without asking any questions about Boo, and why all the different things where as they were told to be. They just accepted that there where a sort of phantom in that house, and they shouldn’t be to curios about getting the “phantom” out of its house. But that summer when Dill came, he started asking questions and wanted to actually see Boo Radley. Scout and Jem knew this was not the right thing to do, but went along to help him, just not to be called a coward. The night when they wanted to peek into the window of the Radley place, their childish play of showing courage had a more dangerous outcome. This was the same night where Mr Radley shot with his shotgun and Jem got stuck with his trousers and had to run home without them. Jem did not want to disappoint his father, so he ran back to fetch them later that night, where he found them neatly folded across the fence, and sewed up.
The opposite type of courage is shown later on in the novel. Instead of proving your courage...