Themes of "Of Mice and Men" Essay

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How does Lee explore the theme of bravery in section one of the novel?
Lee explores the theme of bravery in section 1 between several people, Scout, Jem, Atticus, Mrs Dubose and other people in Maycomb. There is different kinds of bravery throughout the novel it goes from being an immature bravery and slowly becomes a mature bravery.

When Scout, Jem and Dill are younger their bravery is very different to what an adult’s view of bravery would be. But Jem slowly matures from the start of the novel, at the start of the novel Scout said that Jem had "never declined a dare" this was a very childish perceptive of bravery such as running up to the Radley's Place, touching the wall and then running back because he "wanted Dill to know once and for all that he wasn't scared of anything". But to an adult this would not be considered as bravery but more as immaturity. But as Jem begins to mature he shows a more sense of real bravery, like when Dill was found hiding under Scout's bed when he ran away from home, Jem told Atticus even though he knew Dill wouldn’t want him to do this, but he was still brave enough to tell Atticus as he knew he should stand of for what’s right. From this we can see similarities with Atticus, who went against the views of the white community in Maycomb and defended a black man named, Tom Robinson, just how like Jem went against Dill and Scout to do what is right. This shows us that bravery is about doing what is right and not what will make you popular, even though people may dislike you due to it.

Another character that shows a large amount of bravery is Mrs. Dubose. She was a morphine addict for most of her life. Even though she’s old, and as Atticus said even though she could "make things easier" by just continuing to take morphine, she chose to quit taking it and try to live longer even though it would be hard. Atticus got Jem to read to Mrs. Dubose as he misbehaved but he also wanted him to learn what true bravery was. He wanted to show Jem that a brave person is not "a man with a gun in his
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