Atticus: The Ideal Father Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird is a world renowned piece of American literature. It is about two siblings, named Scout and Jem, who witness the unfair trial of a black man, and almost get killed because their father, Atticus, was the defending attorney. Atticus is a modest man about fifty years of age. He is intelligent and has a very strong sense of duty, which is the reason he chose to defend the black man despite already knowing the outcome. He is a single father who raises his kids the best he can. The way in which Harper Lee makes him act toward his children makes him a truly ideal father. Atticus embodies the ideal father in how he raises, cares for, and protects Scout and Jem throughout the novel. One way in which Atticus embodies the ideal father is the way he teaches his children lessons. You can spot two distinct …show more content…
A way he protects his children is the basic protecting them from dangerous situations, such as when a rabid dog is on the street. Calpurnia sees the dog after being told about is and she rushes to the phone and calls Atticus at work. She then notifies everyone on the street either over the phone or, in the Radley’s case, running to their porch, which would only take a few minutes because of the fact everyone’s phone line was connected. As she finishes “a black Ford [swings] into the driveway” (Lee 124). He went all the way from the attorney's office in town to his street in minutes to protect his kids. He also proceeded to shoot the dog to make sure that he would not harm his kids. Protecting your kids from danger is one of the traits of an ideal father and Atticus clearly has it. He also protects his kids by protecting their reputation for later in life. He does this at the end of the story when he thinks that Jem has killed a man in defense of Scout and himself. The sheriff says, “Jem never stabbed Ewell” ,to which Atticu