A true American classic, “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee, is set during the time of the Great Depression in the segregated south. Atticus, Jem, and Scout Finch are residents of Maycomb, the county seat of Maycomb County, Alabama, representing the top of the social hierarchy, as white townsfolk. Throughout the story, these major characters are used to portray the author’s lessons about courage and what it means while being put through dilemmas, testing them to do what’s right and to walk in other people’s shoes to combat threats, societal issues, and moral predicaments. One of these many dilemmas includes a case about a black man raping a white woman. In the novel, the characters of Atticus, Jem, and Scout convey the theme that courage means doing the right thing, which sometimes requires walking in someone else’s shoes.
Atticus is an extremely courageous person, and in the story, he often represents morals and ethics and is put through tests throughout the story. Atticus is tasked with defending the case about a black man who is accused of raping a white woman. Scout asks why he is defending a black man after Scout became the victim of assault for her father’s choice at school. Scout asks her father “Atticus, are we going to win it?” and he replies “No, honey.” Scout continues to question more but Atticus puts it as “Simply because we were licked a hundred years before we started is no reason for us to not try to win,” (Lee 87). This shows Atticus determined to represent this black man, who he believes is innocent, even though he knows that he will not win, and his family will face scrutiny and possibly violence. He knows this is the right thing to do, and being a character representing morals and ethics, he believes justice should be blind to the color of skin. This could also be seen as an attempt to get the prejudice people of Maycomb, Alabama to walk in someone else’s shoes, connecting to the motif of the story. Again, one night after receiving word that the Old Sarum gang, a gang who gets drunk and causes trouble, may pay Tom Robinson the black man who allegedly raped a white woman a visit. Atticus leaves for the jail to confront the gang of men and to defend Tom Robinson. The Sarum gang rolls up and a member tells Atticus to “Get aside from the door, Mr. Finch” and he replies, “you can turn around and go home, Walter.” (Lee 173) Atticus here, knowing that he could be hurt or worse, still stays and protects Tom Robinson for his day in court. He simply is not going to let Tom be killed before he could have his right to a public trial fulfilled. This is very courageous of Atticus, he put Tom’s wellbeing before his to uphold the law and to ensure the case continued. Finally, one afternoon downtown Bob Ewell spits in Atticus’s face and “threatened to kill him,” and Atticus only “[takes] out his handkerchief and wiped his face […] and let Mr. Ewell call him names,” (Lee 249). Atticus could have engaged violently to defend himself, but he didn’t. Not giving Bob Ewell his time of day, and denying him the pleasure of making Atticus scared. By doing this, defending Tom Robinson in the case, and standing up to the Old Sarum gang are all examples of Atticus being courageous.
Also, Jem conveys courage many times throughout the story. In the book, Atticus went to the jail late at night to watch over Tom Robinson in response to possible dangers. Jem decides to, late at night, follow his father to find where he is going. Scout stops him on the way out and asked where he is going, he replied “I’m goin’ downtown for a while” (Lee 170) and said, “I’ve just got this feeling,” (Lee 170) and continues, with Scout and Dill, after Atticus to see what is going on. This is very courageous, to go out of his way to sneak out of the house to investigate and make sure his father is okay. He put Atticus’s wellbeing before his, doing the right thing in this dilemma where Atticus is possibly at risk. Later, Jem reveals himself after him and Scout sees the Old Sarum group confronting Atticus at the Maycomb jail, housing Tom Robinson. Atticus asks him to go home, “Son, I said go home,” and Jem disobeys, “Jem shook his head,” ending with “As Atticus’s fists went to his hips so did Jem’s, and they faced each other,” and that’s where “Mutual defiance made them alike,” (Lee 174). Jem disobeyed orders directly from his father. Knowing that his father would probably be hurt if he left, and as one could infer the Sarum gang would not beat one’s father up with them in presence, he stayed. In this case, he did the right thing to protect his father.
Scout by far is one of the most courageous characters in the book, portrayed so by Harper Lee through the many issues Scout faces. In the novel, when Cecil Jacobs calls Atticus a “Ni**er lover” and started taunting scout at school, Scout was ready to right with, “my fists were clenched and I was ready to let fly,” (Lee 85). However, she quickly remembered what Atticus promised, “he would wear me out if he heard of me fighting anymore,” and that she was “far too old and big for such childish things, and the sooner I learned to hold in, the better off everybody would be.” (Lee 85). Even though Scout was very angry at how Cecil Jacobs disrespected her Father, Atticus, she restrained herself. Citing fighting was too childish for a big girl like her, she decided not to fight Cecil, in the end doing the right thing. Again, while at the jail, Scout shows extreme courage. She begins small talk with Mr. Cunningham who she identifies soon after running up to Atticus. In order to get him to talk to her, she asks a series of questions like “Don’t you remember me, Mr. Cunningham?” (Lee 175) And she uses other statements in an attempt to bond with him like, “I go to school with Walter […] He’s a good boy,” (Lee 175). In the end, she effectively, without really meaning/knowing it, breaks the anonymity of the group, singling out Mr. Cunningham. Mr. Cunningham decides to leave and take the Sarum Gang with him. Scout really did save her father if anything, and she did the right thing by being personal with Mr. Cunningham. Lastly, after meeting the man who saved them from Bob Ewell, who their savior turned out to be Boo Radley, she takes Boo home after he asks her to. As she walks across the street and through the Radley’s gate Scout “wondered how many times Jem and I have made this Journey,” and “I entered the Radley gate for the second time in my life […] he gently released his hand, opened the door and went inside […] I never saw him again” (Lee 320). And as Scout stood on the porch, she concluded her thoughts with, “Atticus was right. One time he said you never really know a man until you stand in his shoes and walk around in them. Just standing on the Radley porch was enough,” (Lee 22). Scout was scared of Mr. Radley at one point and would have never gotten close to him. In this moment, she did the right thing by taking him home, and walking in his shoes, despite her often wild childish fantasies/fears of him. Restraining childish fighting, reasoning/bonding with Mr. Cunningham to save her father, and taking Boo Radley home and walking in his shoes are all examples of Scout’s courage.
The characters Atticus, Jem and Scout throughout the novel really did convey the theme of courage and that it means doing the right thing, which sometimes requires walking in someone else’s shoes. Atticus’s acts of taking the