In To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Atticus is a lawyer in Maycomb Alabama. He Has two kids, Scout and Jem. His wife died when Scout was only two years old. Atticus is not only respected by his children but his community. Atticus teaches his kids valuable lessons throughout the story. He knows they can not just go through life not knowing what 's going on throughout the town. Atticus is not just a normal white male in Maycomb Alabama. He see people for what 's in the inside and not just the outside. The color of your skin does not matter to Atticus. Atticus is a kind hearted man and has strong morals. What 's more important? What 's on the inside or the outside of a person? Atticus doesn 't care what others think, he does what is …show more content…
With the Tom Robinson case, most people in Maycomb Alabama believe he reaped Mayella because Mayella and her dad said he did. During those times in History, A girl could say and African American raped her and the case would automatically be taken to court. The whole town thinks African Americans are less equal to White people. Atticus feels that all. “Thomas Jefferson once said that all men are created equal ....This institution, gentlemen, is a court .... in our courts all men are created equal" (209). One thing about Atticus is he doesn 't care what you look like, how much money you have, or even what color skin you have, he will till treat you the same. “As you grow older, you 'll see white men cheat black men every day of your life, but let me tell you something and don 't you forget it-whenever a white man does that to a black man, no matter who he is, how rich he is, or how fine a family he comes from, that white man is trash”(252). Atticus has no problem with colored people. Atticus lets and African American raise his kids and lets them attend an African American church. Atticus doesn 't treat colored people differently. Atticus strongly believes to love
Although the court deemed Tom Robinson guilty Atticus uses rhetoric very well to try and convince the all-white jury that Tom Robinson, a black man is innocent. Atticus Finch is a lawyer in a small town in Alabama. He believes that every man should be treated equal and fair in a court of law. But the all-white jury does not agree with Atticus. In this time, the 1930’s many people believed that whites were superior to black.
To show, Atticus explains to his son Jem that the justice system is broken and favor white people no matter how strong of a case he could make, “There's something in our world that makes men lose their heads—they couldn't be fair if they tried. In our courts, when it's a white man's word against a black man's, the white man always wins. They're ugly, but those are the facts of life.” (Lee, Chapter 23). Atticus has experience with these cases before because of his job and he knows how it all works, no matter what he does, nothing he could do would help him win if he was defending a black person.
Atticus decides to take the case in defending a black person, something nobody in the town would have done. Most of the residents of Maycomb do not believe in equality and have hatred towards black people. If an African-American is charged for committing a crime, he is automatically believed to be guilty because of their skin color. Atticus says, “You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view” (39). To clarify, Atticus took the case because he believes there is a chance of Tom being innocent.
Atticus has faith in this case because of his morals he believes that in the judicial system everyone should be equal, that's the one place on earth any man, no matter what colour of the rainbow they are, they should be treated fairly and equally, but more than all that he believes in the human ability to be good, to do the right thing even when it's the harder thing to do. Even through this he manages to teach his children, he teaches them to be empathetic and to walk around in someone's skin before making any conclusions. Atticus believes that if he can raise his children to realize that the town, the County, the State, and the entire South is sick, sick with racism. If he can teach them that then they may be able to grow and gradually move society from its ways and bring more
Atticus is fed up with the racism and decides to take a step up, “‘Cry about the simple hell people give other people — without even thinking. Cry about the hell white people give colored folks, without even stopping to think that they’re people too’” (Lee 269) Atticus is trying everything to make people realize that what they are doing is
Atticus accepted the fact that whites think they are superior to the niggers, but doesn’t approve. He thinks that just like the whites, blacks have rights of worthy education and have equivalent rights as a white person. As he said, he’ll do his best to love anyone and
He knows the rest of the town will disapprove, but he believes in the innocence of this man and does not care of his complexion. In this moment, Scout and Jem only see how everyone will downgrade them and see them differently. Atticus shows, it does not matter what others think, all that matters is that you support what you believe in. This shows how Atticus is a strong character who contributes a lot to the overall lesson
Atticus Finch was a model father created by Harper Lee in the best-selling novel “To Kill a Mockingbird.” He was an important figure in the Maycomb, Alabama Community. He raised his children, Jean Louise Finch (Scout) and Jeremy Atticus Finch (Jem) alone as his wife passed away when Scout was little. He taught them a wide set of morals, disciplined them, and became a mentor for his children. Atticus allowed his children to be individuals and did not try to change who they were.
He shows Jem and Scout not to judge people until they've walked in their shoes. Chapter 3 on page 85-87 Atticus says "First of all, if you can learn a simple trick, Scout, you'll get along a lot better with all kinds of folks. You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view.” Out of all the people in this book Atticus is the one who is most likely to not judge someone. He stands up for a black man knowing he will get judged and made fun of.
Harper Lee’s purpose in describing Atticus the way he does in To Kill A Mockingbird is directly used to convey the theme in the story. As Atticus is described as being one who does not judge or think differently about people based on their race, gender, or religious beliefs it is used by the author to establish the theme of innocence. This comes as Atticus is just so kind to everyone around him, no matter their background, it even has Miss Maudie even talking about him as being just so consistent and holding no grudges and due to the author making Atticus be seen this way it shows off the theme of innocence as when Atticus will defend a black man in court and Scout gets picked on at school she does not understand why due to her innocence. She
I'm hard put, sometimes—baby, it's never an insult to be called what somebody thinks is a bad name. It just shows you how poor that person is, it doesn't hurt you." That shows that he believes good wins over evil. Looking at Atticus we can see that he is not held back by the conventions of racism and prejudice, he is trying to live and guide his children to be fair and loving towards
He says, As you grow older, you 'll see white men cheat black men every day of your life, but let me tell you something and don 't you forget itwhenever a white man does that to a black man, no matter who he is, how rich he is, or how fine a family he comes from, that white man is trash." (Lee 250) Atticus explains the harshness of the way white men treat and act around black people. He tells them that there is not excuse for behavior like that, and so the children choose not to act that way. This method of combating prejudice can be very effective on the children being taught,
Atticus fears that "There's something in our world that makes men lose their heads—they couldn't be fair if they tried. In our courts, when it's a white man's word against a black man's, the white man always wins” (Page 224) Atticus confirmed that Maycomb won’t have a just system due to white men’s words to black men. This would only make Maycomb welcoming to white people and unwelcoming for black people. Maycomb is unwelcoming and unjust for the prejudice view for black
He is showing that no matter the race you do what is right. No matter the opinion of others, if you know something is wrong, stand tall and take charge. This is a positive role model where his kids can follow in his footsteps, look up to him and understand the rights and wrongs of things. Lastly, Atticus says, ‘’’I wanted you to see what real courage is... it’s when you know you 're licked before you begin
Though most of the town Maycomb feels negatively and discriminates the African-Americans, characters like Atticus show us how one person can impact his surroundings if he has high morals. Although he couldn’t change the mindset of the other town residents , he made sure that his own children didn’t discriminate people, purely on the basis of their skin colour. Racism can be seen even in the first few chapters of the book. These racist comments by nonracist children typify the culture in which they were growing up.