Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird is a novel that outlines the early years of Scout Finch’s life, growing up in the 1930s, in Maycomb, Alabama. A character named Atticus defines courage as going forward even when the odds are not in one’s favor. There are many opportunities to have courage in everyday life. There are also many examples of people taking the opportunity to have courage in Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, like when Atticus says yes to representing Tom Robinson in the case. Two modern examples of courage, a theme in Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, are Joel Dobis Jr. and facing peer pressure in high school.

The first modern example of courage is not giving into peer pressure. Many high school kids are affected by peer pressure because their friends try and pressure them to do things they do not want to do. It takes a lot of courage and perseverance to be able to stand up to some of your best friends and to simply tell them no. This can be hard for teenagers to say no because they are afraid of being judged by their friends. Like many high school students, I have been in a situation like this where I was invited to go to a wild party. Instead of going and risking getting in to lots of trouble, I decided not to go. I did not want to risk having to face peer pressure, and getting into lots of trouble. It take a lot of courage to be able to stand up to other people, tell them no, and risk being judged.

The second example of someone who demonstrates courage is Joel Dobis Jr.. This man was a 30 year old policemen who was on a mission with another policemen, Hill, to find a suspicious woman. Once they reached her house, Dobis had noticed that she had a razor in between her fingers but Hill had not. She started to approach the Hill but Dobis saw that she was going to harm him so he jumped in at the last second to prevent Hill from being hurt. The woman started to cut Dobis with a razor. Dobis knew what was at risk as he jumped in for his friend and he knew that he would probably end up getting harmed badly, but he did it anyway. It took a lot of courage for Dobis to step in and risk himself being harmed for someone else.

Facing peer pressure in high school and Joel Dobis Jr. are two examples of courage, a theme from Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird. Peer pressure is letting your peers influence your actions in bad ways and takes a lot of courage to be able to say no. Joel Dobis Jr. knew what could happen to him by jumping in the way of harm but did it anyway to save someone else. He had to have had a lot of courage to step in and put others before himself. Joel Dobis Jr. and facing peer pressure in high school, are two great examples in our world of demonstrating courage.