was absent that Sunday. Left to their own devices, with Jem as the instigator, the children locked a girl in the furnace room. So, in order to prevent any more acts of mischief, Calpurnia asks the children if they would like to accompany her to church.

When one of the more formidable female members of the First Purchase Methodist Episcopalian Church sees Calpurnia with Jem and Scout, she accosts Calpurnia, "I wants to know why you bringin' white chillun to nigger church."
"They's my comp'ny" Calpurnia bravely replies. When Lula makes a sarcastic retort to this reply, the crowd reverberates with murmuring sounds. "Don't you fret," Calpurnia whispers to the children, although she is shaking because Lula is a big woman.
Then, Lula charges up the pathway to Calpurnia and the Finch children:

"Stop right there, nigger."
Lula stopped, but she said, "You ain't got no business bringin' white chillun here--they got their church, we got our'n. It is our church, ain't it, Miss Cal?"
Calpurnia said, "It's the same God, ain't it?" (p.121 of Warner paperback)

Impressed with Calpurnia's courage to stand up to Lula, the other members move forward and welcome Jem and Scout. Zeebo, the garbage collector, who is also Calpurnia's eldest son, says, "Mister Jem...we're mighty proud to have you all here." (p.122)

--In Chapter 14, Atticus has the courage to stand up to his sister Alexandra. When Scout asks her father if she may go to church the next Sunday with Calpurnia, Aunt Alexandra responds instead: "You may not."
Scout spins around and looks at Atticus in time to see his "swift glance," but she says, anyway, "I didn't ask you!"
Immediately, Atticus demands that Scout apologize to her aunt. Instead, Scout boldly repeats, "I didn't ask her, I asked you--"
Atticus clarifies for Scout that she will obey Aunt Alexandra as long as she is in their home, and she must apologize. Scout does this.
However, when Scout leaves the room, she hears her father talking to his domineering sister, who demands that he dismiss Calpurnia. However, Atticus courageously defends Calpurnia:

"Alexandra, Calpurnia's not leaving this house until she wants to....She's a faithful member of this family and you'll simply have to accept things the way they are." (Ch. 14, p. 139)

During Atticus's summation to the jury, he speaks about Tom's courage in dealing with the charges against him.

"And so a quiet, respectable, humble Negro who had the unmitigated temerity to 'feel sorry' for a white woman has had to put his word against two white people's."  (Chapter 20)

Scout recognizes her father's bravery in taking on the Tom Robinson case, and when the jury returns to deliver its verdict, she sees that it

... was like watching Atticus walk into the street, raise a rifle to his shoulder and pull the trigger, but watching all the time knowing that the gun was empty.  (Chapter 21)

Tom's friends in the balcony also see the courage that Atticus has displayed, and they stand in unison to honor him as he passes below.

"Miss Jean Louise, stand up. Your father's passin'."  (Chapter 21)

Atticus shows a courageous form of restraint when he refuses to fight Bob Ewell on the city streets. After Bob asks if Atticus is "too proud to fight," Atticus responds that he is only "too old." Miss Maudie bravely defends Atticus at the Missionary Circle tea after Mrs. Merriweather criticizes him, telling her icily that

"His food doesn't stick going down, does it?"  (Chapter 24)

And there are several examples of bravery shown on Halloween night after Bob Ewell makes his attack on the children. First Jem defends his sister, and then Boo Radley finally makes his first appearance in the novel, coming to their rescue and killing Bob. Boo

... gave us... our lives... Autumn again, and Boo's children needed him.  (Chapter 31)

In Harper Lee's novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, there are several instances when Scout and Jem (Atticus Finch's children) show courage, shown in the following quotes.

Chapter One - Jem answers Dill's dare to touch the Radley house.

[Dill said...], "I won't sa you ran out on a dare an' I'll swap you The Gray Ghost if you just go up and touch the house."

...Then I sneered at him.

Jem threw open the gate and sped to the side of the house, slapped it with his palm and ran back past us...

Chapter Four - Jem wickedly propels Scout, tucked inside the tire, into the Radley's yard.

I got to my feet, trembling as I thawed.

'Get the tire!' Jem hollered. 'Bring it with you! Ain't you got any sense at all?'

When I was able to navigate, I ran back to them as fast as my shaking knees would carry me.

'Why didn't you bring it?' Jem yelled

'Why don't you get it' I screamed.

Jem was silent.

'Go on, it ain't far inside the gate. Why, you even touched the house once, remember?'

Jem looked at me furiously, could not decline, ran down the sidewark, treaded water at the gate, then dashed in and retrieved the tire.

'See there?' Jem was scowling triumphantly. 'Nothing to it.'

Chapter Nine - Scout isn't afraid to take on her cousin Francis when he insults Atticus.

Francis said he reckoned I got told, for me to just sit there and leave him alone.

'I ain't bother' you,' I said.

Francis looked at me carefully, concluded that I had been sufficiently subdued, and crooned softly...This time, I split my knuckle to the bone on his front teeth. My left impaired, I sailed in with my right...'

Chapter Fifteen - Scout takes on the lynch mob when one of the men gets rough with Jem.

'Son, I said go home.'

Jem shook his head.

'I'll send him home,' a burly man said, and grabbed Jem roughly by the collar. He yanked Jem nearly off his feet.

'Don't you touch him!' I kicked the man swiftly. Barefooted, I was surprised to see him fall back in real pain. I intended to kick his shin, but aimed too high.

In each of the examples above, Jem and Scout prove their courage, sometimes in the face of real fear, and other times when they act before they have the chance to be afraid.

Please note that page numbers can vary depending on printing; therefore, I will include chapter numbers as well in case your edition varies.

Atticus:

I wish Bob Ewell wouldn't chew tobacco (chapter 23, page 217).

Because the trial shows that Tom is innocent (although the verdict didn't) and because Atticus did his absolute best to give Tom his freedom back, Bob Ewell is livid. He threatens to kill Atticus and to "get him if it took the rest of his life." And he spits in Atticus's face when he tells him this. Atticus's reply above shows both his physical and moral courage. First, he keeps living his life just as he always has and doesn't bend in fear to Bob Ewell's threats, who is likely a man he should fear. Bob has pretty much nothing to lose in life. Atticus conveys this sense of peace to his children, who are concerned for his safety, putting them at ease. The quote also conveys the moral courage of Atticus, telling his children that "if spitting in [his] face and threatening me saved Mayella Ewell one extra beating, that's something [he'll] gladly take."

Scout:

You're shamin' him, Miss Caroline. Walter hasn't got a quarter at home to bring you, and you can't use any firewood (chapter 2, page 21).

Atticus has taught Scout that although they don't have much, the Cunninghams use other means to barter for what they need, and they are honest and hardworking. When Scout tries to help her young new teacher understand why Walter Cunningham doesn't have lunch, Miss Caroline is lost. Scout bravely tries to explain the situation as delicately as possible, showing courage in standing up for her classmate who can't possibly afford to pay Miss Caroline back for the money she's forcing on him. Scout is stunned when Miss Caroline whips her in front of the class for her efforts.

Jem:

If there's just one kind of folks, why can't they get along with each other? If they're all alike, why do they go out of their way to despise each other? (chapter 23, page 227)

At the conclusion of the trial, Jem has the courage to look around his town with wide-open eyes. He comments that he once thought that the people of Maycomb were the best in the world, but now he sees the flaws in the foundation. It is not the best for everyone, and even the talents of his father could not change the outcome for Tom Robinson. As the older sibling, Jem is beginning to reevaluate his perception of the world and figure out how he can make a difference, even in small ways like saving a roly-poly a chapter later because it never hurts anyone.

the silence, I heard them crack. Atticus rubbed his eyes and chin; we saw him blink hard. (chapter 10)

 Atticus calmly folding his newspaper and pushing back his hat became Atticus standing in the middle of an empty waiting street, pushing up his glasses. The full meaning of the night’s events hit me and I began crying. (chapter 15)

ABOUT MISS MAUDIE

She gave Miss Maudie a look of pure gratitude, and I wondered at the world of women. Miss Maudie and Aunt Alexandra had never been especially close, and here was Aunty silently thanking her for something. For what, I knew not. (chapter 24)

Miss Maudie is brave when her house is on fire, but also when she is standing up for Aunt Alexandra.  Miss Maudie is not afraid to speak her mind.

 ABOUT MRS. DUBOSE

Atticus describes Mrs. Dubose’s mental and physical courage.

From Atticus:

“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.” (chapter 11)

And another: 

“According to her views, she died beholden to nothing and nobody. She was the bravest person I ever knew.” (chapter 11)

 Atticus about  Mayella:

 “She knew full well the enormity of her offense, but because her desires were stronger than the code she was breaking, she persisted in breaking it. She persisted, and her subsequent reaction is something that all of us have known at one time or another. (chapter 20)

Jem shows courage because he protects his sister during the attack from Bob Ewell.  After the attack, he also shows courage because he does not seem very affected by it.  He is just glad he can still play football.

When Jem and Scout were walking home after the pageant, they think they hear someone following them.  Jem tells Scout he is not scared.  When he realizes that the person behind them is an adult and not Cecil Jacob, he tries to protect his sister.

“Run, Scout! Run! Run!” Jem screamed.

I took one giant step and found myself reeling: my arms useless, in the dark, I could not keep my balance.

“Jem, Jem, help me, Jem!” (Ch. 28)

Jem tried to save Scout, and he ended up getting the brunt of the attack.  Of course, Scout was also protected by her costume.  However, Jem would not necessarily know that.  He could see better than she could, since she was hindered by the ham costume.  However, it was still very dark.

Atticus and Heck Tate discuss how dangerous Ewell was.

He pointed with a long forefinger. A shiny clean line stood out on the dull wire.
“Bob Ewell meant business,” Mr. Tate muttered.
“He was out of his mind,” said Atticus. (Ch. 29)

Tate says he was not crazy, he was just very angry because of the verdict of the Tom Robinson trial.  It hurt his pride, and he decided to take it out on Atticus's children.  He could have killed them.

At the beginning of the book, we learn that Jem does not think his injury is a big deal.

When he was nearly thirteen, my brother Jem got his arm badly broken at the elbow. When it healed, and Jem’s fears of never being able to play football were assuaged, he was seldom self-conscious about his injury. (Ch. 1)

One arm is longer than the other.  Jem doesn’t care, because at least he can still play football. This shows that Jem didn’t let the incident get to him.  He wasn’t traumatized by the attack.

I'm happy to include the page numbers from my edition, but please note that those can change in various printings.

One of the ways Atticus shows courage is by agreeing to represent Tom Robinson to the best of his abilities. He tells his brother that he'd have preferred to have made it through his career without a trial like this one, but the judge has specifically appointed him to defend Tom. Although his preference would have been to avoid the conflict, Atticus has courage to do the right thing in a town that certainly will not support his efforts:

But do you think I could face my children otherwise? You know what’s going to happen as well as I do, Jack, and I hope and pray I can get Jem and Scout through it without bitterness, and most of all, without catching Maycomb’s usual disease. (Chapter 9, page 48)

The children also find an unlikely source of courage in Mrs. Dubose, a cranky elderly lady who insults Atticus before the trial begins. Because of her insults, Jem destroys her camellia bushes. As penance, Jem (and Scout by proxy) are forced to visit and read to Mrs. Dubose for a length of time. Not long after, she dies, and Atticus explains that in her final days, Mrs. Dubose was battling withdrawal from a morphine addiction. Atticus said that she died free of the drugs which had controlled her life for years, and this took great courage on her part:

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. (Chapter 11, page 61)

A wonderful example of courage follows a cowardly attack by Bob Ewell. Following Tom's death, he starts stalking Tom's widow, intimidating her and making it hard for Helen to get to the job which Tom's former employer has created for her. When Mr. Link Deas hears about Bob's antics, he shows true courage in defending her and in confronting Bob directly:

“First thing you can do, Ewell, is get your stinkin‘ carcass off my property. You’re leanin’ on it an‘ I can’t afford fresh paint for it. Second thing you can do is stay away from my cook or I’ll have you up for assault—”

“I ain’t touched her, Link Deas, and ain’t about to go with no nigger!”

“You don’t have to touch her, all you have to do is make her afraid, an‘ if assault ain’t enough to keep you locked up awhile, I’ll get you in on the Ladies’ Law, so get outa my sight! If you don’t think I mean it, just bother that girl again!”

Mr. Ewell evidently thought he meant it, for Helen reported no further trouble. (Chapter 27, page 132)

Link Deas shows courage in both action and in word, showing compassion for Tom's family and protecting his widow from the fear tactics of an evil man.

In a bildungsroman such as To Kill a Mockingbird, moral lessons are learned by the maturing protagonist. One of the virtues that Scout and Jem both acquire from their experiences and the example of their father is that of courage.

Without question, Atticus displays courage in Chapter 10 when, unexpectedly, Sheriff Tate tosses him his rifle, and Atticus must take quick aim at the rabid dog coming his way.

With movements so swift they seemed simultaneous, Atticus's hand yanked a ball-tipped lever as he brought the gun to his shoulder. The rifle cracked....Tim Johnson didn't know what hit him. (Ch. 10)

In another instance of Atticus's calm courage, he and the children walk down the street together one day. When they reach the house of Mrs. Dubose, Atticus removes his hat and waves "gallantly to her" as he says, "Good evening, Mrs. Dubose! You look like a picture this evening." After talking to her for a while, Atticus returns his hat to his head, and he and Scout and Jem return home. Scout feels that her father has demonstrated tremendous courage in his calm and polite demeanor before Mrs. Dubose despite his knowledge of her having made insulting comments about him and the children:

It was times like these when I thought my father, who hated guns and had never been to any wars, was the bravest man who ever lived. (Ch.11)

Arguably the most courageous of Atticus's acts is his standing up to the mob that comes to the jailhouse in the night, demanding that he turn over Tom Robinson to them. As he sits in one of his office chairs propped on the front door of the jailhouse, Atticus appears to be reading his newspaper. When the dusty cars stop in front of the jail, Atticus calmly looks up from the newspaper, closes it, folds it deliberately, and drops it into his lap. He pushes his hat back and appears to have expected the "Old Sarum tribe." Seemingly undaunted by the mob, Atticus responds to one man's demand, "You know what we want....Get aside from the door, Mr. Finch," by telling Walter Cunningham that he and the others can turn around because Sheriff Tate is nearby. Then, when he is told that the men have sent Tate on a proverbial "wild goose chase," Atticus yet remains calm.

"Well, then...that changes things, doesn't it?" 
"It do," another deep voice said.
"Do you really think so?" Atticus countered.

Atticus asks this question in the same tone as that which he uses with an opponent at checkers. Although his hands tremble as he puts down his newspaper, Atticus's voice continues to remain controlled, evincing his courage. Further, after Scout intervenes by greeting and talking with Mr. Cunningham, the tension of the mob is dispelled. It is only after the Sarum mob departs that Atticus wipes his face with his handkerchief and "blew his nose violently," revealing how nervous he was. He courageously refrained from displaying his fear to the Sarum men.

One of the first descriptions of someone as brave comes from Scout herself as she talks about Atticus and the way that he treated some people. She is particularly impressed by the way he treats Mrs. Dubose who is so mean as to be frightening to her and Jem. After seeing Atticus treat her so kindly and speak to her in a way that softens all the meanness that Jem and Scout saw, Scout describes Atticus as "the bravest man that ever lived."

Another example comes when Jem and Scout are forced to read to Mrs. Dubose and they start to understand that something is wrong with her. After her death, Atticus explains that she was addicted and that watching her fight against that addiction proved to him that "she was the bravest person [he] ever knew."

Later in the story, Bob Ewell is described as brave but in a very different way. After his attack on the children, he is described by Mr. Tate as a "low-down skunk with enough liquor in him to make him brave enough to kill children. He’d never have met you face to face." Even though he was a coward, he could drink enough to make him forget all that and be brave in a rather terrible way.

There are several scenes throughout the novel that depict Jem showing courage. In Chapter 6, Jem narrowly escapes the Radley yard, but is forced to leave his pants behind after they get caught in the Radley's fence. Later that evening, Jem gets out of bed and says, "I'm goin' after 'em" (Lee 74). Despite the danger of entering the Radley yard, knowing that Nathan is waiting with a shotgun, Jem bravely sneaks out of the house to retrieve his pants.

Atticus displays courage in Chapter 15 when the Old Sarum bunch arrives to lynch Tom Robinson, who is locked inside the Maycomb jailhouse. When Walter Cunningham tells Atticus to move aside, Atticus says, "You can turn around and go home again, Walter" (Lee 202). Although Atticus is outnumbered and in a dangerous situation, he courageously defends Tom by refusing to step aside.

At the end of the novel, Boo Radley prevents Bob Ewell from murdering Jem and Scout by leaving the safety of his home and wrestling Bob away from the children. When Scout describes to Sheriff Tate what happened, she says,

"Anyway, Jem hollered and I didn't hear him any more an' the next thing—Mr. Ewell was tryin' to squeeze me to death, I reckon...then somebody yanked Mr. Ewell down. Jem must have got up, I guess. That's all I know..." (Lee 362).

The person who yanked Mr. Ewell down was Boo Radley. Boo Radley courageously entered a dangerous situation to defend two innocent children and successfully prevented Bob from murdering them.

Atticus provides a personal model of courage and points it out in other people. He wants his children to understand what courage is and what it is not.

One place where he shows courage, and where Jem and Scout take up from his example, is when he learns that a bunch of local men are headed to the jail, where Tom Robinson is incarcerated. Atticus does not tell the kids anything about what he knows, much less that he suspects that it could turn into a lynch mob. He takes a lamp and says he's going out and that they should go to bed and not wait up. Of course, they follow him and find him sitting outside the jail with the lamp illuminating the scene. They refuse to go home, and Scout first kicks a man in the mob and then talks the situation down.

Later, as the kids speculate about what made Atticus go unarmed (as he was apparently an excellent marksman), they realize that he wanted neither to harm nor kill anyone, and his goal had been to defuse a volatile situation.

The main time Atticus talks about courage, he ties it to someone else's actions, not his own. This is in regard to Mrs. Dubose's illness and death. After she passes, Atticus tells them that she had real courage because she fought terminal illness and morphine addiction. In this instance, he deliberately contrasts her genuine courage to the empty bravado of someone with a gun.

Likely the most important way that Atticus shows them how to be courageous is through his example in being willing to defend Tom Robinson despite the fact that the entire town appears to be hell-bent on a conviction regardless of guilt or innocence.  Atticus repeatedly demonstrates an unwillingness to bow under pressure and on the opposite side a willingness to work tirelessly for his client even when he knows the outcome is likely already determined.

One of the other ways that he shows them may not in fact be through an act of "showing" but happens because he is willing to allow them the freedom to make decisions for themselves and to learn about consequences and the feelings that follow an act of courage.  Though he is of course worried about them and makes sure to do what he can to protect them and insulate them from the worst dangers of their community, he does not follow them around or prevent them from making both courageous and cowardly decisions.  This allows them to learn the distinction in a meaningful and powerful way.

BOO RADLEY.  Boo's heroism becomes evident at the end of the novel when the neighborhood's "malevolent phantom" comes to the rescue of the children. Boo has apparently been keeping an eye on "his children," and he fights off Bob Ewell, eventually killing him. Sheriff Tate refuses to name Boo as Bob's killer, instead believing that

"... taking the one man who's done you and this town a great service and draggin' him with his shy ways into the limelight--to me, that's a sin."  (Chapter 30)

TOM ROBINSON.  Tom shows courage when he innocently agrees to enter the Ewell house--it was a dangerous thing for thing for any black man in the 1930s to enter a white man's home without permission--to help Mayella. It takes moral courage to take his chances in a white man's court and to speak the truth after other testimony has condemned him. It also took personal bravery to try and escape from the prison yard, though foolhardiness would be a better description.

     "And so a quiet, respectable, humble Negro who had the unmitigated temerity to 'feel sorry' for a white woman has had to put his word against two white people's." (Atticus, Chapter 20)

ATTICUS FINCH.  Atticus does not consider killing the mad dog an act of bravery, but his children do. He also shows courage by agreeing to defend Tom Robinson, knowing that he and his children may face danger for doing so. Atticus displays a quiet courage by refusing to lower himself to Bob Ewell's standards and fighting him in public. But Atticus's heroic nature is best displayed when he stands up to the lynch mob at the jail.

"It's all over town this morning... all about how we held off a hundred foks with our bare hands..."  (Dill, Chapter 16)

There are several examples to choose from. One example comes from chapter 11 when Atticus makes Jem read to Mrs. Dubose as punishment for destroying her camelia bushes after she insulted Atticus. This example of courage is important because it sets up what courage really is for the rest of the novel.

In a fit of anger, Jem destroys Mrs. Dubose's camelia bushes after she insults Atticus. As his punishment, he is to read every afternoon to her six days a week for a month. Jem is horrified that he has to sit and read while Mrs. Dubose drools and says terrible things to him about his father. At first Jem is relieved when Mrs. Dubose falls asleep before his two hours are up and he is allowed to leave. However, as time progresses, Mrs. Dubose stays conscious longer and longer and eventually extends Jem punishment for another week. Finally, Mrs. Dubose dismisses Jem.

One evening as Atticus is reading to Jem and Scout, he is called to go to Mrs. Dubose. He returns with news that Mrs. Dubose has died. She sends a box for Jem with a camelia in it. He responds by calling her a "hell-devil" and wonders why she can't leave him alone even after her death. Atticus then explains to Jem that

I told you that if you hadn't lost your head I'd have made you go read to her...I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of gettng 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.

This lesson of courage is important because it serves a double purpose. Atticus is preparing Jem and Scout for the battle that he and they will face when he defends Tom Robinson. Atticus knows it is a battle he can't win, and he wants the kids to know that it is a battle worth fighting for. Also, the hurtful things Mrs. Dubose says to Jem prepares him for the comments the rest of the town will say. This teaches Jem to hold his temper and not take the comments personally.

My favorite example of courage and strength shown by Atticus Finch is that he sat in front of the jail-house under a bare light bulb reading the newspaper as if that were the most common event of every-day life.

When the lynch-mob arrived to "do their business" to Tom Robinson, Atticus stood his ground.

I believe this scene is a turning point in the lives of the children in the way that they view their father. (Up until this point in the story, I think the children thought their father was "old and out of touch") Scout gained courage to confront Mr. Cunningham that evening and caused the crowd to disperse. She drew courage and strength from her father's example of staying "in the light" of truth.