Another form of courage that the children learn is physical courage. They have two ‘lessons’ in this brand or courage. The first is in Chapter X, the mad dog incident.
Preceding to this incident the children both think that physical courage is only found in the young and those with obvious ‘manliness’: the exact opposite of what they believe Atticus to be. ‘Our father did nothing’ clearly sums up Scout and Jem’s view on their father. They wouldn’t even begin to think of him as courageous. Miss Maudie’s attempts to educate Scout and Jem in their fathers’ ‘talents’ does little to improve the situation. After Scout and Jem, both witness Atticus disposing of a mad dog with one shot they realise that physical courage isn’t just an act of bravado but a situation where a person, be it male or female, young or old, black or white, acts in selfless manor to help others that are in danger even if the situation puts them under stress.
Another example where they see Atticus being physically courageous is the lynch mob incident in chapter XV. In this chapter a lynch mob, 4 full cars of men strong, approach the jail determined to kill Tom Robinson and only Atticus stands in their way. Even though Scout has a significant role in the mobs dispersal, Atticus’ act of courage also insured that neither him nor Tom was injured. Atticus’ courage is shown by the fact that he alone stands in the light. This represents Atticus’ strong integrity to uphold his believes and that he is quite capable to stand alone to save another life (in this case it is Tom Robinson and the people that he previously saved from the mad dog, in this incident, are the mad dog).
The final facet of courage that the children learn of is spiritual courage. They again learn this in two different places but this time by two different ‘teachers’. The first example is in chapter VIII where Miss Maudie’s house burns down one night when ‘all of Maycomb was out tonight, in one way or another’. Scout is very surprised at Miss Maudie’s reaction, ‘Don’t you worry about me’, to her house being burned down in fact Maudie is quite up beat about the situation and even cracks a few jokes – ‘always wanted a smaller house’ and ‘thought of setting fire to it me self’. Scout has no explanation for Miss Maudie’s reaction saying simply ‘that was just Miss Maudie’. What the children learn is that courage also extends to peoples personality and reactions, not just their actions. Miss Maudie has the courage to get on with her life and look at the good points even though all her possessions, bar her sun hat, have been destroyed. This teaches the children that a strong personality is worth a lot more than a strong bicep and they will need this lesson in the latter part of the book.
The second example of spiritual or emotional courage is Mrs Dubose’s struggle against her morphine addiction and she wanted to die as ‘free as the mountain air’. Mrs Dubose knew she was going to die but refused to die addicted to morphine, even if it meant being ‘conscious to the last’.
To a person who didn’t have her courage it would been ‘all right to take anything to make it easier, but it wasn’t all right for her’. This shows that she was willing to put up with frequent pain to uphold her believes. This is what Atticus describes as ‘real courage’. He tells the children that courage isn’t ‘ a man with a gun in his hand’ but in fact, it is when you are in a no win situation but you ‘see it through no matter what’. This also makes a cross reference to Atticus’ and how he defends Tom Robinson in the 2nd part of the book, even though he is ‘licked before he begins’.
The second lesson that the children learn is that of empathy or ‘considering things from his point of view’. The first example of this is when Scout objects to Walter Cunningham pouring syrup all over his food. Scout fails to understand that Walter’s situation (the Cunninghams are an agricultural family and were hit hard by the depression. The excess sugar in the syrup would have been a cheep form of energy for Walter) warrants this act and Atticus tells Scout that if she had stepped into his skin, she would have realised why he did what he did. He also uses Miss Caroline as another example. He says that ‘ we could not expect her to learn all of Maycomb’s ways in one day’. This refers to the incident between Scout and Miss Caroline regarding the Cunninghams. Scout has obviously taken this lesson on board because she replies stating that she didn’t know not to read to Miss Caroline and if Miss Caroline therefore shouldn’t have shouted.
The second lesson of empathy is that of Mrs Dubose. In the few encounters with Mrs Dubose, she is described as ‘viscous’ and she always is making un-provoked attacks at the children and Atticus. Atticus teaches the children that even though what she says is not nice, if they step into her skin, maybe they would see why, ‘she is an old lady and she is ill’. It is hard to know whether the children learn this lesson because the chapter featuring Mrs Dubose has a very open ending (it links to part 2) so there is nothing to show if the children have changed their views by stepping into Mrs Dubose’s skin.
The final lesson that the children learn is of prejudice. This is a major theme within the book and is, unsurprisingly, rife within the small community of Maycomb where a prejudice is usually town wide. The children have a prejudice against Boo and three things fuel this: Their fear of him that is fuelled by his ‘phantom’ nature; rumour that other people spread about him and superstition that any weird crime that is committed is by Boo.
Only by following Atticus’s maxim of standing in Boo’s shoes will they get rid of their prejudice towards him. Scout only manages to do this in the final chapters of the book. Although she gave up on trying to get hip to come out there was never anything to suggest that she had ‘walked in his shoes’. At the end of the book, Scout finally looses her prejudice against Boo and actually feels quite sad that they had given him nothing in return for the many thinks he left in the tree. She sees Boo’s view of the world, quite literally, from his porch and this is ‘enough’ for Scout to have ‘stood in his shoes and walk around in them.
The second form of prejudice that the children encounter is racial prejudice and in particular to Tom Robinson. This prejudice is on a larger scale and it is obvious that, even though Atticus gets the Jury in Tom’s trial to ‘step into Tom’s skin’, it is still around at the end of the Novel. The prejudice against the blacks is centuries old and Atticus knew he was ‘licked’ as soon as he took on the Tom Robinson case. At first, it is obvious that Scout didn’t understand what racial prejudice because she doesn’t understand the meaning behind the word ‘nigger-lover’ and likens it to a childish insult. By the end of the book, she has grown up and learned that people can be prejudice and has managed to get rid of many of her prejudices.
The Mockingbird is the motif that represents prejudice against innocent people. The children are told that all a mockingbird does is sing, something that causes no harm to other people explaining why it is a sin to kill it; it is innocent. Both Boo and Tom are mockingbirds. They both try to help others and are persecuted and outcasted for doing so. Both Tom and Boo are innocent and although only Tom dies as a result of the prejudice, in terms of him being a mockingbird, he has been ‘killed’. The motif also links justice and childhood together: Both justice and the children’s childhood innocence are killed when the jury bring back the guilty verdict on Tom, a mockingbird.
All the lessons that the children learn can be interlinked in some way. The Finch family need courage to stand up to the prejudice of the mob/Maycomb. Maycomb as a society doesn’t have enough courage to stand up to the prejudice so the guilty verdict is returned. Also, if you ‘climb into some one’s skin and walk around in it’ you can then empathise with that person. That will then in turn cause you to loose any prejudice you had against that person.
