Virgil And Atticus Comparison Essay

Just because two people are a different race, that does not mean that there can not be similarities between them. A good example of this is in the story To Kill a Mockingbird, written by Harper Lee, and In the Heat of the Night, by Norman Jewison with the characters Virgil Tibbs and Atticus Finch. Even though Virgil and Atticus appear to be different on the surface, there are many things that link these characters.

One thing that links Virgil and Atticus together is that they are very intelligent. In the story To Kill a Mockingbird, Atticus shows he is intelligent when he says, “If you'll concede the necessity of going to school, we'll go on reading every night just as we always have” (Lee 3). So when Scout wants to quit school, he is clever

In the story To Kill a Mockingbird, Atticus shows he is a good role model when Walter Cunningham comes to their home for lunch, and Scout makes a critical remark about Walter pouring syrup on his food, so Atticus says, “Consider things from his point of view--...until you climb into his skin and walk around in it” (Lee 3). Atticus talks to Scout and makes her realize that she can not judge other people because she does not fully understand him because she is not in his shoes. In the story In the Heat of the Night, Virgil shows he is a good role model when he says, “A case is never solved until the judge says it is” (Jewison). Virgil saying this shows that he never gives up. Virgil kept trying and trying to find out who the killer was, but a lot of times, people kept trying to go the easy way out and say that they found the killer, when it really was not them. Virgil did not listen to them though, and he kept trying, which eventually led to him finding the killer. Him never giving up and finding the killer really changed people’s perspective on him because nobody liked him or believed in him at the beginning because he is African American, especially Chief Gillespie. Anybody can be a good role model, no matter what race they