What Are Atticus's Actions

“Do you want to know who you are? Don’t ask. Act! Actions will delineate and define you.” In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, there is a strong connection from this quote by Thomas Jefferson to what is Atticus’ most important lesson that he indoctrinates upon his children. That lesson, which is the most important lesson that Atticus instills in his children, is to look at people’s actions and intentions because what is heard about people and what meets the eye is not always the truth and because the characteristics that define people are their behaviors and their actions. Things that people might see you as is not necessarily always the truth. Atticus teaches his kids when he says “I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead

We can clearly see that Tom Robinson is not the type of person to commit a crime in the first place because he “was probably the only person who was ever decent to her.” (Lee 257) Her, referring to Mayella Ewell. Mayella was mistreated and personally I think that Tom Robinson is one of the few people in this book that I would classify as someone who does good things for the sake of doing a good deed, in this instance it would be helping Mayella without being payed, and this is something that Atticus wanted his children to see and learn to do. This quote in a nutshell says that Tom Robinson was likely to be the only person who didn’t look down upon or mistreat Mayella Ewell. Atticus then wants to mirror this personality onto his children when he gave them the advice “You just hold your head high and keep those fists down. No matter what anybody says to you, don’t you let ‘em get your goat. Try fighting with your head for a change.” (Lee 101) Personally, I think that Tom Robinson was a perfect example of what Atticus wanted his children to act like, and used his actions and lifestyle to engrain that mindset into Jem and Scout. To put it bluntly, this says that no matter what happens, to never let someone make you go over the edge and get angry with them. Atticus had the perfect example to show his children that who you are come from your actions