Atticus Finch Parenthood

Read chapters 27-31(39 pages) Write a final response to the book-500-600 words. Include at least four direct quotations with page numbers to support your conclusions. PRINTED for class.

The novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, focused on two major themes: childhood and parenthood and racism. The story began with the main character, Scout Finch, at the age of five and followed her through her childhood until she was about eight. Throughout her life she encountered many of the same things any child would encounter, but she also witnessed some tragically different situations in her youth. Her father, Atticus Finch, was a lawyer and single father of two. He held his children’s respect through his kind and unforceful manner. As a lawyer, Atticus uses

Jem, Scout, and the friend Dill attended the trial. Growing up in an non racist home did not let them see the way every other white person saw it. The white folk did not see Tom, Atticus’s defendant, deserving a fair trial because he was black. Atticus knew this that, “Tom was a dead man the minute Mayella Ewell opened her mouth and screamed”(Pg. 276). Even so, he defended him to the best of his ability for more than just a life, but for respect and understanding. The children at their age did not understand this difference. The jury of white men decided that Tom was guilty and at this result Jem did not know how to respond. It was obviously an unfair trial. The evidence seemed undebatable in Tom’s favor yet the vote did not reflect it. At this Jem’s, “face was streaked with angry tears as we made our way through the cheerful crowd. ‘It ain’t right,’ he muttered, all the way to the corner of the square where we found Atticus waiting(Pg.

Only when he believes he lost his children does he lose his cloak of self-assurance. And the end of the story, Jem and Scout have been attacked by Mr. Ewell, the one who convicted Atticus’s defendant. When the fight is over and the sheriff checks the scene Mr. Ewell has a knife in his stomach. When Atticus is lead to believe that Jem, his son, put it there does Atticus begin to lose his usual confidence and wit. “‘If this thing’s hushed up it’ll be a simple denial to Jem of the way I’ve tried to raise him. Sometimes I think I’m a total failure as a parent, but I’m all they’ve got. Before Jem looks at anyone else he looks at me, and I’ve tried to live so I can look squarely back at him… if I connived at something like this, frankly I couldn’t meet his eye, and the day I can’t do that I’ll know I’ve lost him. I don’t want to lose him and Scout, because they’re all I’ve got(Pg. 314).”’ Atticus always had a sureness to himself and lets that go in this moment. He reflects on himself as a parent and how he has held up his ethics. This moment may mean that he did not do his job as a