Courageous Characters

Sofia Hernandez

Period 1

April 22, 2013

Courageous Characters

Harper Lee’s classic novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, offers analytical themes or generalizations of life and society. One significant theme in the book touches on courage. Courage is doing what is morally correct even when the odds of succeeding are poor. Harper Lee illustrates this theme with Mrs.Dubose, Jem and Scout’s elderly neighbor battling through a morphine addiction. Mrs. Dubose serves as a symbol of the “Old South”, or the segregated and racist society of Maycomb, Alabama. Lawyer Atticus Finch, also reflects the theme by choosing to defend a black man charged with rape. Atticus symbolizes justice in a blinded, discriminative society. Whether combating a drug addiction or standing in front of a packed court room, Harper Lee enforces the thematic idea, courage involves conducting a morally correct life even if one does not succeed.

In part one of the novel, Harper Lee introduces Mrs. Dubose as an intimidating ‘neighborhood boundary’, where Jem and Scout face her wrathful gaze and vicious remarks. “We had long ago given up the idea of walking past her house on the opposite side of the street…” (pg.132). Mrs. Dubose punishes Jem to read aloud to her every afternoon and Saturdays for a month. During one reading hour Scout and Jem notice their neighbor enter a trance, where she would move her head back and forth and drool. Jem and Scout later realize Mrs. Dubose walked on the path to sobriety from a morphine addiction. When Dubose passed away in weeks’ notice, she died free “as the mountain air”. (pg.148)

Harper Lee instills the theme in the brave Mrs.Dubose. The old woman persevered to become sober disregarding the pain, difficulty, or chance of failure. When condoling Jem on Mrs. Dubose’s death Atticus says, “I wanted you to see what real courage is…it’s when you know you’re licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what. …She was the bravest person I...