Maycomb’s Courageous Dead Shot Maycomb’s Courageous Dead Shot Maycomb's Courageous Dead Shot

Maycomb’s Courageous Dead Shot In Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird, Jem and Scout Finch learn the true meaning of courage through their father, Atticus, and his fight against racism in their hometown. In the beginning of the novel, Jem and Scout view Atticus as a boring older man that works in an office and does not deserve their admiration. At the turning point of the novel Miss Maudie tells them their father was once the “deadest shot” in Maycomb, and the children finally see Atticus as a role model. Jem and Scout learn from Atticus the true meaning of courage and their views of Atticus differentiate from not understanding him and therefore not admiring him, to an exciting man with marksman skills, and ultimately to a courageous man who takes the initiative to stand up against racism in his segregated town. Chapter 10 of To Kill A Mockingbird begins with Jem and Scout not admiring their father and instead comparing him to their schoolmates’ fathers. Jem and Scout view their father as a dull man which is exemplified in the statement, “Our father didn’t do anything. He worked in an office, not in a drugstore. Atticus did not drive a dump-truck for the county, he was not a sheriff, he did not farm, work in a garage, or do anything that could possibly arouse the admiration of anyone” (Lee 89). This quote is significant because it describes how Jem and Scout view the townspeople’s occupations as more interesting than their father’s. Because they do not understand him and his job as a defense attorney, Jem and Scout believe their father is a dull, older man who does not deserve their admiration. Still using the comparison between their friends’ fathers and Atticus, Scout states, “He did not do the things our schoolmate’s fathers did: he never went hunting, he did not play poker or fish or drink or smoke. He sat in the livingroom and read” (Lee 89). In comparison to the other townsmen, Atticus is viewed by Jem and Scout as an oddity. In a sense,