Courage can be defined in many ways. It can be especially defined as a quality that enables one to face danger with confidence and without showing fear. For example, it takes courage to run into a burning building and save someone's life. In Harper Lee's novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, courage is an important theme. But courage in the novel is viewed on an intellectual level, as a moral thing, not just someone using, for example, a weapon. In the course of the novel, a definition for this idea develops and changes as the children learn what true courage means.

In the beginning of the novel, courage was portrayed as a physical thing, not morally or intellectually. One had to be brave and heroic. The children, Scout and Jem, viewed courage as a man holding a gun. Jem running up to the...