Similarities Between Atticus Finch And Odysseus

Leaders are very wise people. They can find the solution to difficult situations. People follow these leaders for guidance and enlightenment. To this definition, the characters Atticus Finch, from Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, and Odysseus, from Homer’s The Odyssey, are great examples of leaders. They both share the qualities of wisdom and bravery, and they both have people looking on them for direction. Despite these men’s settings, one being a discriminative town and the other being a land full of savages and monsters, the remained unaffected by outside influences. Not only do their personalities show these traits, but it can also be seen their actions they execute in their story. Maycomb County is a place covered in a thick fog of

Atticus Finch is a man with many commendable attributes, one being the fact he believes in equality for all people. Regardless of their skin color, he does his “best to love everybody” (Harper, 144). Another attribute of Atticus is his wisdom. He has always been there for his children to share his fatherly advice. All the lessons Atticus teaches to Scout and Jem further strengthen the fact that Atticus is guiding his children, as a leader does. The reader can see one of Atticus’s lessons influencing Scout when she says, “Well, it’d be sort of shootin’ a mockingbird, wouldn’t it” (370). Another great leader, Odysseus, is on a journey to make it home to his family. On the way, he has to lead a troop of men passed numerous obstacles, such as the

Atticus reveals his bravery by not being afraid to share his beliefs with a public who strongly opposes them. Atticus demonstrates this when making his final statements in the Tom Robinson trial. He argued that “all men are created equal” (Harper, 273), and that vice “applies to the human race and to no particular race of men” (273). On the other hand, Odysseus shows his leadership skills by opposing a common belief, obeying the gods. After Circe tells Odysseus that he would need to sacrifice some of his men to pass Scylla and Charybdis, he argues by saying, “Deadly Charybdis—can’t I possibly cut and run from her and still fight Scylla off when Scylla strikes my men” (Homer, 275)? Some might see this as stubborn, but Odysseus, as a leader, wants to look after and protect his men, his followers. Although he attempts to do so but ultimately fails to save all of his men, he still wouldn’t allow himself to willingly let his men die. A person’s actions reflect on their character, and Atticus’s and Odysseus’s actions attest to the fact of them being