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Mr Debose Quotes

Decent Essays

Bravery is demonstrated by the desire for lawfulness. Atticus Finch tries to teach his children that throughout the book To Kill a Mockingbird. He leads by the example of himself, and others in the sleepy country town of Maycomb. One of the most obvious examples Mr. Finch uses is Mrs. Henry Lafayette Debose. After a month of forcing Jem into reading to the cranky, rude, and cruel Mrs. Debose; the old woman died. “I wanted you to see what real courage is… It’s when you know your licked before you begin but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what”(Lee 149). Mrs. Debose successfully stopped abusing drugs before she died. She wasn’t trying to prove a point to anyone or win over death. She tried to treat herself with the last bit of dignity that she could. Mrs. Debose believed that she deserved freedom from what was controlling her before she died. Just like Mr. Finch believed Tom Robinson deserved freedom from accusations of a crime that he did not commit. “Atticus sighed. ’I’m simply defending a negro…’” (Lee 100). “If you shouldn’t be defending him, then why are you doing it?”(Lee 100). “The mail [reason] is, if I didn’t I couldn’t hold my head up in town” (Lee 100). …show more content…

Tom Robinson had been accused of raping a white woman, and Mr. Finch is his lawyer. Because of racism in this time period; Atticus had no hope of winning the case, but winning wasn’t his ultimate goal. He fought for Tom Robinson because he felt that everyone deserved justice in the court no matter what race. “Our courts have their faults, as does any human institution, but in this country our courts are the great levelers, and in our courts all men are created equal” (Lee 274). The lawyer wasn’t fighting an impossible case for the challenge of winning. He was arguing for this man so that he could walk with courage, knowing he had done the right

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