Real courage in Atticus’s definition is not physical but mental. It is facing and trying to overcome your fears. Just like Mrs. Dubose overcome her morphine addiction before she died. This was very difficult for her, but her determination and strong will made it possible. She knew what she wanted and worked hard for it. Atticus wants to teach Jem and Scout her type of courage “ I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand.” (Lee p. 149). Atticus teaches his children that anyone can be courageous. The more courageous man is not the man who fires his gun to protect people, but is the one that knows something is very hard or even impossible to accomplish but still trys and doesn't give up. Atticus is teaching Scout this because she will have to be courageous in the summer, when Atticus defends Tom Robinson.
I think that this definition of courage is going to have significant much later in the book because Scout and Jem are constantly being harassed about there father defending Tom Robinson. This incident will test scout and Jem because it is going to show their true moral strength and how they will defend it.
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