Atticus's Growth In To Kill A Mockingbird By Harper Lee

In To Kill a Mockingbird, the town’s growth is very evident. A key factor to this is Atticus. He helps his children mature, helps the town grow from its racist ways and gives ground for the African-Americans to prosper. Throughout the novel, Atticus is shown as a good parent, respectable role model in the community and a just lawyer.

As a single parent, Atticus is challenged to raise 2 children. He does an excellent job at doing this. A key reason to his success is that he treats his children just as he would adults. He honestly answers every question asked by them and his leadership skills as a lawyer shine onto his children. He further teaches his children leadership by asking them to look at all sides of a situation. This is prevalent when

His leadership qualities shine through as a single parent raising two children. He continually teaches his children modesty and educates them on how to look at all sides of a situation. For this, he is not only respected by his children but also respected by his community. This is evident because the town of Maycomb consistently elects Atticus as the town’s representative for the State’s legislature. He is considered a role model in the community, in spite of them calling him a “Nigger-lover” and criticizing him for defending a black man in court. An exception to these insults is Mrs. Maudie, who respects that he kept the jury out for so long. She says that Atticus lead the town in baby steps towards non racist ways. This displays an example of the town respecting him and seeing him as a leader and role model in the

We can see this when he takes the Tom Robinson case, knowing beforehand that because of Tom’s ethnic origin, Atticus would be ridiculed and would lose the case. Knowing this, he still took the case because he wanted to defend an innocent man. "If you shouldn't be defendin' him, then why are you doin' it?" "For a number of reasons," said Atticus. "The main one is, if I didn't I couldn't hold up my head in town, I couldn't represent this county in the legislature, I couldn't even tell you or Jem not to do something again." (Lee, ). Judging by this quote, Atticus’ self-respect is considerably related to his morals. He believes that if he did something wrong, he had no right to instill his own morals on others. Another example of Atticus’ equal beliefs is during the aforementioned case, where Atticus comments that every man is equal in court. In addition, during the case, Atticus treats Tom as he does any other man, while Mr. Gilmer treats him as a man lower in standing than him. Furthermore, as previously mentioned, Atticus treats everyone equally and with respect; even Mrs. Dubose, who ridicules him for taking the Tom Robinson