Many people have courage and can express courage in plenty of ways. courage can be developed in many different ways. Whether it's through your good actions or bad, if you're brave enough to do it, you have courage. Moral courage is a pretty important trait. You are able to face emotional pain. Without it, you have no guidance , fears take over. If things like coming off of drugs or killing wild stray animals is the case, you built the courage up to do these things. Whether it is moral or not is arguable. To Kill a Mockingbird is set in the 1930's during the great depression. Many characters such as Atticus, Boo Radley, Bob Ewell, Scout, Jem, and Mrs. Dubose face real world problems. In the novel, Harper Lee made the characters
express moral courage in many ways through their struggles.
One conflict that was brought up in the book was when Bob Ewell was killed. Bob had followed the kids and attacked them. Boo Radley ,the neighbor, came to the rescue when he came up and stabbed Bob. This shows moral courage. "He's good and he's dead. He won't hurt these children again" (Lee 358.) This example shows the conflicts result. this showing moral courage because Boo Radley saved the kids from Bob Ewell.
Another example of moral courage is shown through characterization. Atticus taking the Tom Robinson case knowing how segregation is at this time in the town. Tom got accused of raping Mayella Ewell, which is the daughter of Bob. Atticus took the case while being aware that during this time everyone believed Atticus was bad for defending a black person. "I'm simply defending a negro, his name's Tom Robinson..." (Lee 100). This shows Atticus doing the right courageous thing. He defends Tom Robinson against the Ewells in the 1930's and his family has to hear about it all of the time. This however, was a brave thing to do. Also, his action showed that he is a courageous person who does not really care for others opinions.
Lastly, moral courage is also expressed through conflict in a different way. For example , when Atticus shot the stray dog. He was aware of his talent and him being a "one shot" caused him to shoot the wild dog and get a danger off the streets. This showed courage by Atticus not using his talents in years except for this reason. He was a little iffy but he managed to work up the courage to do the right thing.
Moral courage is a good trait to have. It shows bravery and confidence and without it we would have no control. Like mentioned before, all of these senarios are examples of moral courage and are expressed through the characters and conflicts they struggle with. Atticus took the case, Boo saved the kids, and Atticus also shot the dog. These are all courageous in different ways. It relates to real life situations, if someone is around anywhere and they do something despite the adverse consequence, they have moral courage. In conclusion, moral courage is shown through so many things and expressed through so many examples.