In To Kill A Mockingbird, Harper Lee creates the town of Maycomb, Alabama, where many people fight endless battles. This novel is known for the amount of bravery many of the characters posses. In Harper Lee's novel, To Kill A Mockingbird, Mrs. Dubose's fight to die her own person, Atticus" recognition of a man's civil rights in the 1930s, and Arthur Radley's willingness to sacrifice himself for Jem and Scout prove the main theme of courage.
Although Mrs. Dubose is an irritable character in To Kill A Mockingbird, Atticus views her as brave as she fights her drug addiction. In the beginning of the novel, Mrs. Dubose is addicted to morphine, and with Jem reading to her every day, a little longer each day, she overcomes her addiction. She is courageous to overcome her addiction, even though she knows she will die anyway. Atticus, a character in the story who views Mrs. Dubose as brave, tells his son Jem, "She [Mrs. Dubose] said she was going to leave this world beholden to nothing and nobody. Jem, when you"re sick as she was, it's all right to take anything to make it easier, but it wasn't all right for her. She said she meant to break herself of it before she died, and that's what she did" (Lee 111). Mrs. Dubose chose this battle because she did not want to die addicted to morphine. Atticus views Mrs. Dubose's actions as courageous, and tells Jem, "I wanted you to see something about her- I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It's when you know you"re licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what. You rarely win, but sometimes you do. Mrs. Dubose won, all ninety-eight pounds of her. According to her views, she died beholden to nothing and nobody. She was the bravest person I ever knew" (Lee 112). Since Atticus made Jem read to Mrs. Dubose, Jem is exposed to courage based on a person's character and value system.
