In Modern day society racism isn’t as common as it was in the 1900’s. In To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, the Mockingbird is a symbol for an a character who brings nothing but peace to the world. Atticus Finch is an harmless and innocent mockingbird, whose image is ruined by trying to step aside the racial barrier in and defend Tom Robinson. Atticus is a mockingbird in this book because of his exceptional behavior he provides to the community around him. Atticus shows this in the book when he is talking to his son Jem. “There’s a lot of ugly things in this world son, I wish I could keep em away from you but that's not possible,”(39). Atticus in this quoteis acting as the mockingbird because his instinct is to protect his children from …show more content…
Atticus is a fully developed character in this book, who is willing to give up up his life and job to protect a falsely accused- Tom Robinson. As Atticus pusts his life on the line he uses this quote in court “But there is one way in this country and that is all men are created equal” This phrase was used in the Decleration of Independance, as a lawyer Atticus uses this sequence of words to portray that all men should have the same opportunities. Atticus refers to men in this quote as all men even if they're black, white, asian, or any other ethnic background. He is saying that it isn’t fair for people of a certain race to be discriminated against when it's not a person's fault for the color of someone's skin. Another way that shows that his image was ruined was when he shot the mad dog “You shoot him Atticus, you know I can’t shoot that well” In chapter 10 there is a mad dog that starts walking around their neighborhood. Then Atticus and Heck Tate show up to kill the dog. When Heck is holding the gun this is when he says he can't shoots and he blames it on the reason that he can’t shoot that well. But the real reason Heck doesn’t shoot that dog because the dog is an example of racism. As the Sheriff in town Heck doesn’t stop racism so why stop by shooting the dog. Once Atticus shoots the dog this shows that only Atticus can fix the racism in