In Harper Lee’s novel “To Kill a Mockingbird”, Atticus is one of the characters who are shunned from the mainstream of the society. Atticus Finch is an unforgettable lawyer and an admirable widowed father of two impressionable children; Jem and Scout. He is a courageous, and a wise gentleman who exemplifies whatever he teaches.
Atticus is a very courageous man. He demonstrates courage several times throughout the novel. A great example is the mad dog incident. Atticus was able to save the neighbourhood from a mad dog down the street. This made his children proud of him. “d you see him, Scout? He just relaxed all over, an’ it looked like that gun was a part of him . . . an’ he did it so quick, like . . . I hafta aim fore ten minutes fore I can hit somethin’ . . .’” (Lee, 108). Nevertheless, Atticus didn’t view this as real courage. He believed that “courage is when you’re licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what.” (Lee,124). This quote shows that Atticus didn’t view courage as marksmanship skills. He viewed courage on a more intellectual level, from a moral perspective. Atticus wanted Jem and Scout to know that real courage is not ‘a man with a gun in his hand’ (Lee, 124), it is when you fight for what is right regardless of whether you win or lose. From Miss Maudie Atkinson’s perspective, Atticus was a hero. She said that his nickname was “Ol’ One Shot” when he was a boy and that “Atticus Finch was the deadest shot in Maycomb