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Why Is Atticus Finch Important In To Kill A Mockingbird

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In the novel, To Kill a Mocking Bird, Maycomb is a small town and a home for numerous people. A noteworthy citizen of this small town goes by the name Atticus Finch. He resides as a widower with his two children, Scout and Jem, as well as with Calpurnia, the maid. Atticus lives in a time when racial issues stir conflict amongst the people. While enduring these difficult periods, many great character qualities help Atticus remain strong. Through times of great racial tension, Atticus Finch sets a great example for others because of his thoughtfulness, humble heart, and courageous spirit. The people of Maycomb admire Atticus’ thoughtful attitude towards others. The Oxford Dictionary defines thoughtful as “Showing consideration for the needs of other people”. Atticus’ thoughtful attitude makes others feel important …show more content…

During a time of hardship, one must not cower, but display courage. Atticus displays this all throughout the novel, but mostly when he deals with Tom Robinson. When Scout gets separated from Jem and Dill in the Trial scene, she finds herself listening to men talk about her father. “… thinks he knows what he’s doing,’ one said. ‘Oh’h now, I wouldn’t say that,’ said another. ‘Atticus Finch’s a deep reader, a mighty deep reader.’ ‘He reads all right, that’s all he does.’ The club snickered. ‘Lemme tell you somethin’ now, Billy,’ a third said, ‘you know the court appointed him to defend this nigger.’ ‘Yeah, but Atticus aims to defend him. That’s what I don’t like about it’”(185-186). In a time when Whites did not like Blacks, a White person defending a Black person probably would have people hating them. A white person must possess a great amount of courage to defend a black person during these racial times. Atticus knew he would acquire many haters for defending Tom Robinson, but because of his courageous spirit, he ignored people’s thoughts about him and continued to fight for

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998 Words | 4 Pages

He loves everyone, even if they do not like him and helps others for the good of them. After Tom’s trial and Atticus revealing all of Bob Ewell’s mistakes, he comes up to Atticus’ face spits at it, and threatens him. Atticus says to his children, “He had to take it out on somebody and I’d rather it be me than that houseful of children out there. You understand?”(293). Atticus Finch is caring because he puts others before himself.

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800 Words | 4 Pages

To illustrate the black community’s admiration of Atticus, Reverend Sykes and the others in the balcony of the courthouse stand when Atticus passes. They show respect and gratitude towards him then and in the next days in the following ways. The fact that Atticus is defending Tom Robinson is a sizable reason why they respect him greatly. In past reading, Atticus shows that he took this case straight to the heart. Though it does not seem true, it deeply impacts Atticus to his core.

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614 Words | 3 Pages

Throughout the book To Kill a Mockingbird, Atticus Finch’s portrayal as a perseverant, kind, and respectful man intensifies his daughter Scout’s and the reader’s reverence for him. At the beginning of the story he seems absent from Scout’s life, but this soon changes. When the lawyer decides to defend a black man in a case, she starts to get bullied in school. His calm and wise nature helps Scout go through times of hardship.

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438 Words | 2 Pages

Scout is showing courage when she does not care what others think. For example when she was at school and Cecil Jacobs says Atticus “defends niggers” Scout is quick to defend. She yells, “You take can just take that back, boy”(Lee 99). Though she is wrong, Scout must think to herself she is to be the one to stand up for her father.

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325 Words | 2 Pages

“I’m simply defending a Negro- his name id Tom Robinson…there’s been some high talk around town to the effect that I shouldn’t do much about defending this man.”(100). Also Atticus shows courage by teaching Scout to read after Miss Caroline told him to stop. “ If you’ll concede the necessity of going to school, we’ll go on reading

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838 Words | 4 Pages

Father, lawyer, and friend, the gentlemanly Atticus Finch hopes to shape the character of his children. The novel, To Kill A Mockingbird, written by Harper Lee, is the story of the childhood of the young girl named Jean Louise “Scout” Finch. Throughout the book, Scout’s father, Atticus, tries his best to raise her and her brother, Jem, the right way as a single parent. To Kill a Mockingbird exemplifies the way the character of Atticus Finch either uses ritual or abandons it in order to develop certain character qualities within his children. He is specifically focuses on the development of honesty, courage, and humility.

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682 Words | 3 Pages

Start with Atticus; Atticus Finch is the father of two children, Jeremy Atticus Finch and Jean Louise Finch (Scout). His wife died before the book began back when Scout was just a little toddler. He works as an attorney and is often praise for his honesty and intelligence in Maycomb. Atticus was the defendant of Tom Robinson in his case against Mayella Ewell, who said that Tom raped her and beat her. He was the only man that would agree to do this and was given a lot of slack for defending a black man.

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1594 Words | 7 Pages

In a small town in Alabama, there is one family who can change the way of the town for good, that family is the Finches. Their maturity throughout the book, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, is impeccable, which really gets you emotionally connected to the characters in outstanding ways. But one of the Finches truly holds his place in the town, and that is Atticus Finch. His role in the book isn't helping the children find out who they are, but to help the town create a less racial atmosphere. Fond of symbols, Harper Lee has helped me discover one that truly represents Atticus marvelously.

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188 Words | 1 Pages

Even though he got all that hatred from his own community he didn’t stop defending Tom. He believed that Tom Robinson was innocent, so Atticus fought for what he believed in. At the trial the the jury decided that Tom was guilty, all the things Atticus said was true but not enough for the people in Maycomb. Mr.Finch

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235 Words | 1 Pages

Page 1 Landon Bruce English II 5-17-23 To Kill a Mockingbird To Kill a Mockingbird is a movie and novel that tells the story of how racial discrimination took effect on people in the early 1930’s. Atticus Finch is an important character in the story and plays a major role in the film and novel. Atticus Finch is a very caring, honest, and kind hearted man. Care is serious attention or consideration applied to doing something correctly or to avoid damage or risk and he accepts people for who they are.

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958 Words | 4 Pages

One Character that Harper Lee introduced into her story was Atticus Finch. Atticus Finch was the father of Scout and Jem, in the novel. Atticus was created to depict how one must parent, he represents morality and reasoning. He is truly iconic and is unique to the other characters due to his adult like treatment to his kids and his honest answer to every question, Atticus would make everyone who question something, see things in a different perspective. He maintains his polite, fair and stern attitude throughout all acts of the novel for e.g the courtroom scene and even when he was spit at, as quoted in the book through Mrs Maudie, “Atticus Finch is the same in his house as he is on the public streets”.

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1047 Words | 5 Pages

This is one of the reasons he works so hard for Tom Robinson. Atticus knows that Tom is not guilty and wants to give him the best shot at proving his innocence, because he knows it is the right thing to do. Throughout Atticus’s time working on Tom Robinson’s case, he did not see him as a man of color, but as an innocent man. Even though Atticus knows he will lose the trial, he does everything in his power to prove that Tom is

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1033 Words | 5 Pages

I believe that Atticus Finch shows wisdom in the Novel by participating in Tom robinson’s trial. Not a lot of white men at that time were willing to stick up for a black man, let alone defend him in court. The trial was Tom Robinson (a black man) against Bob and Mayella Ewell, a white family who claims Tom raped Mayella. Everyone knows that the Ewell’s will win, because it’s a white family’s word against a black man’s. When Scout asks Atticus why he’s defending Tom, he responds with; “‘For a number of reasons,’ said Atticus.

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1186 Words | 5 Pages

If Atticus wouldn’t have stood up for Tom Robinson and refused to take the case then the people of Maycomb never would have seen a change in the way they thought they would not have even questioned whether or not Tom was guilty. Atticus’s failure to follow the social norm created a small ripple of change in the sleepy southern town of Maycomb. In a time and

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766 Words | 4 Pages

At school, Scout nearly starts a fight with a classmate named Cecil Jacobs after he declares that her “daddy defends niggers” (Lee, 74). Scout being too young to fully understand this statement automatically denies it. Atticus, who has been asked to defend Tom Robinson, a black man accused of raping a white woman has received many controversial remarks on his take of the case. Although Scout does not initiate the fight with Cecil, her “fists [a]re clenched and [she is] ready to let [them] fly” (Lee, 74). This depicts another one of Scout’s un-ladylike reactions because the ladylike response would be to simply ignore the boy and to remain prim and proper.

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