Slient Hero Surge In the book, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, there was a silent hero who never took pride in his accomplishments and disliked things he was gifted at. He is an example of the moral character that should be in a person. His name is Atticus Finch.
He is an excellent lawyer and sits on the State Legislature of Alabama. I will explain reasons why he was such a hero because of how he is an superb father figure, courageous, and how he is the same at all times and doesn't change to please or to make people mad. "Jem and I found our father satisfactory: he played with us, read to us, and treated us with courteous detachment (Harper 6)." Atticus Finch is a satisfactory father that raises his children by himself, along with the help of their cook, Calpurnia.He takes care of them as best he can. He reads to them, played with them when he was younger and when he wasn't their, Calpurnia took them in.
Their mother died when Scout was two. She didn't know her mother but Jem and Atticus did. Atticus still deeply misses her as also the rest of the family does, but he still goes on teaching and taking care of his little ones because he has a strong heart. He raises them up the way he believes is right, which is having a strong sense of righteousness, and how to stand up for themselves. A great role model he is.
"I don't know [how they could convict Tom Robinson], but they did it. They've done it before and they did it tonight and they'll do it again and when they do it - seems that only children weep" (Atticus, 213) In this citing, it shows of how much common knowledge Atticus knows about the racism in this country and he tries to tell Jem in his own words why a black man can't get a fair trial no matter what. The courage Atticus had to represent Tom, a black man accused of rape in a segregated city, was the most anyone could ask from him. He risked his family, status, and his own life, to represent an innocent person the best way he could. Not a Negro, but a person.He also tired to teach the community and his children that you shouldn't judge by race but who a person is inside, as this following citing shows: The witnesses for the state .
. have presented themselves to you gentlemen, to this court, in the cynical confidence that their testimony would not be doubted, confident that you gentlemen would go along with them on the assumption - the evil assumption - that all Negroes lie, that all Negroes are basically immoral beings, that all Negro men are not to be trusted around our women, an assumption one associates with minds of their caliber. Which, gentlemen, we know is in itself a lie as black as Tom Robinson's skin, a lie I do not have to point out to you. You know the truth, the truth is this: some Negroes lie, some Negroes are immoral, some Negro men cannot be trusted around women, black or white. But this is a truth that applies to the human race and to no particular race of men.
(Atticus, 204) Another quote from the book the shows Atticus as a true man that doesn't change to please no one: "Gracious child, I was raveling a thread, wasn't even thinking about your father, but now that I am I'll say this: Atticus Finch is the same in the house as he is on the public streets." (Miss Maudie, 46) Atticus doesn't change for anyone, and this shows strong moral character. He doesn't believe in changing to make people emotional, which would fit the time and the place. If you cant be who you are then your are just another one of the many and you don't have the strength to be yourself, just trying to impress others. He tries teaching this to his children and they are trying to learn from him. Atticus Finch must have been brought up well to have such strong morals and to really know the meaning of right and wrong.
His father figure has proving to be one of the greatest in all of literature ever created. He is what all role models should take after and for young people to look for help. He is a courageous man who stands up for what he believes in and doesn't change for anyone. Atticus Finch is a great man of his time and if more people were like him, there wouldn't have been so much racism in the country. This man was hero to his family, the community, and to the freedom that came with this country.
