1. To Kill a Mockingbird is about Atticus Finch and his values.
Discuss whether this is true and how Harper Lee has crafted Atticus as the main character. In the book To Kill a Mockingbird it is true that it has been crafted to be focused around Atticus Finch and his values. Atticus shows many values throughout the book, such as justice, respect, corage, equality between white and black people, and being a good father for Scout and Jem Finch, which comes under responsibility. Atticus is also the moral main character.
One of the values that Atticus Finch possesses is justice. Justice is where you deal with something maturely and fairly. Atticus shows justice a lot throughout the book, but certain events in the book is where you really notice his justice value. These events involve Tom Robinson and the justice value is quite obvious from the mentioning of the trial and continues until the end of the book where the justice gets served. An example of justice before the first day of the trial involves one of the first mentions of Tom Robinson.At the start of chapter 9 on page 82, Lee writes about Cecil Jacobs told Scout that her father defended ‘niggers’.
When Scout mentions it all to Atticus, he explains to use the word ‘Negro’ and talks about how he is defending one. “‘You mean if you didn’t defend that man, Jem and me wouldn’t have to mind you anymore?’ ‘That’s about right’‘Why?’ ‘Because I could never ask you to mind me again. Scout, simply by the nature of the work, every lawyer gets at least one case in his lifetime that affects him personally. This one’s mine I guess.’” -Atticus talking to Scout about why he is defending a Negro (Chapter 9, page 84) With the explanation that Atticus gave Scout, this influences Scout the next day to walk away from a physical fight with Cecil Jacobs.
A second value that Atticus displays is respect.“You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view – until you climb into his skin and walk around in it” -Chapter 3, page 33 The quote from page 33 in chapter 3 is a perfect example of a type of respect, and that’s to not judge another person. When Atticus says that quote to Scout, he is trying to teach her not to judge someone until you have climbed into their skin and walked around to experience how that person, that you are judging, feels. Another value that Atticus shows in the book is equality.
He treats everyone the same, no matter what colour skin a person may have, or what nationality they are.Some characters call Atticus a ‘nigger lover’ and that is because he does not alienate African-Americans and actually treats them how he would treat everyone else. Atticus is not racist, he encourages everyone, especially his children, to treat everyone the same. He does not judge anyone on the colour of their skin and sees the good in people. “As you grow older you’ll see white men cheat black men everyday of your life, but let me tell you something and don’t forget it – whenever a white man does that to a black man, no matter who he is, how rich he is, of how fine a family he comes from, that white man is trash” -Chapter 23, page 243
