Atticus In To Kill A Mockingbird

To Defend a Black Man

Would you defend a black man in the 1930’s in the south? Atticus Finch’s decision to defend Tom Robinson is questionable as Atticus had endangered the lives of family and friends, but on the other had Atticus was best fit for the job and the only lawyer who had a chance to help Tom. Atticus from to To Kill a Mockingbird, written by Harper Lee in 1960, was the father of Jem and Scout; the main protagonists. They had lived in an imaginary town called Maycomb set in Southern Alabama in 1930 in the years of the great depression when poverty was great in much of the country. Atticus had a court case for Tom Robinson, who had been filed for rape by Bob Ewell. Atticus was best fit for the job for the following reasons: first

Atticus endangered the life of himself and all the people around him. “ It was Miss Stephanie’s pleasure to tell us: this morning Mr. Bob Ewell stopped Atticus on the post office corner, spat in his face, and told him he’d get him if it took the rest of his life”(Lee 290). Atticus knew that he would have started something in the beginning when he took the court case because he knew he would shame and ruin Mr. Ewell’s reputation and it would entice Mr. Ewell to attack. As Atticus knew Mr. Ewells threats he did not think that Mr. Ewell would Attack Scout and Jem after the pageant. “He’s dead, Mr. Finch”(Lee 357). Although Mr. Ewell had died, Scout and Jem would have been dead if Arthur Radley had not been there to save them so Atticus had endangered Scout and Jem in that sense. Another way Atticus had endangered himself and others is because he had tried to defend Tom all night outside the prison from a lynch mob. “Get aside from the door, Mr. Finch” (Lee 202). This was a threat given to Atticus by a lynch mob that is after Tom in the county jail and if Scout had not come to save Atticus, he may as well have been