A. Crandell
English 9
4 February, 2015
Character Analysis Essay
Atticus Finch: An All too Human Hero
In Harper Lee’s novel To Kill a Mockingbird, the southern town of Maycomb, AL
experiences an incident which devastates some of the characters and hardly touches
others. Lawyer Atticus Finch, who represents the interests of accused rapist Tom Robinson,
is a respected figure in town. The father of two children and a steady, thoughtful, middleaged man, Atticus seems to be a truly upstanding figure. However, close examination
reveals Atticus to be motivated not only by a desire to bring about justice, but also by the
desire to be seen as one who will compassionately smooth social difficulties, even if the
cost of smoothing things over is a man’s life.
Lee shows Atticus’ desire for justice when he requires his son Jem to read to Ms.
Dubose to atone for his destruction of her camellias, but she also displays Atticus’ desire to
forgive and smooth things over when he forgives her for saying that he is “lawing for
n_____s!” (101). Her racist outlook is gently swept under the rug of going along to get
along, and Atticus misses a great opportunity to teach Jem not only about how wrong it is
to spew hate speech, but also about how to deal with the anger that comes from being the
target of hate speech. Jem acts out physically against Ms. Dubose’s flowers because he
doesn’t know how to deal with his powerful feelings of injustice and frustration; Atticus does
little to teach Jem other than to place him in close proximity to Ms. Dubose so that he can
develop sympathy for her condition.
Not only as a parent, but also as a powerful figure in the community, Atticus fails to
truly address racial injustice, choosing to sit alone outside the jail cell that holds Tom
Robinson, with only a “solitary light burning” (150) above him. This light might be considered
to be a symbolic halo of sorts, created by Atticus himself, and signalling to anyone coming
within sight of him that here sits a man on the right side of the law and the right side of this
specific case. It is curious that Atticus never seems to rally the community behind him--it is
only through chance that his children and their friend Dill come to the scene and thereby
save Atticus and Tom from the angry mob. Atticus fails to appeal to what political scientists
call the “friends and neighbors effect”--the idea that people will naturally change their minds
in order follow someone they personally know and esteem, rather than be swayed by
impersonal logic or appeals to emotion. Atticus, motivated by his desire to be a quiet leader
who makes few waves, floats all too serenely on the surface of the dark and roiling racism
of his fellow citizens.
Even in the courtroom, when the jury finds Tom guilty of rape, Atticus does not show
any signs of outrage at this enormous miscarriage of justice. Instead, he shows his desire to
remain one of the townspeople above all, for without making a scene, he quietly takes “his
coat off the back of the chair” and walks “quickly down the middle aisle” (211) in order to
leave the courthouse. This is not the reaction of a man who is a civil rights leader--he is not
engaged in a nonviolent protest; indeed, Atticus is hardly protesting at all.
Long seen as a model citizen and one of the great heroes of American literature,
Atticus is indeed motivated by a sense of justice. However, Lee has created a truly round
character in Atticus Finch--he is a man with flaws and multiple motivations, which a close
examination of the book reveals. Ultimately, Atticus’ desire to be a peacemaker and leader
in his racist Southern community keeps him from being a truly great man.