Character Analysis: To Kill A Mockingbird By Harper Lee

Strength doesn’t come from what you can do. It comes from overcoming the things you once thought you couldn’t.”

In Part 1 of To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee introduces Atticus Finch as a father who rejects ideas or practices of racism. At school, Scout hears Cecil Jacob shout that her father, Atticus, is defending ‘niggers’. Later that day, when Scout asks her father what Cecil meant, Atticus explains that he is defending a Negro named Tom Robinson. Scout was stunned by his unexpected response. When Scout asks why, Atticus responds, “I’m simply defending a Negro… for a number of reasons. The main one is if I didn't I couldn't hold my head up in town, I couldn't represent this county in the legislature, I couldn't even tell you or Jem not to do something again.” (86) By accepting Tom Robinson’s case without a single argument, Atticus really shows his civility towards Negroes, even when they are not respected by anyone else in the state. Atticus seeks to treat Tom as an individual while rejecting racism in all forms, both language, and behavior. Not only does this show his belief in racial equality, but it also shows his courage.

In the novel, Atticus Finch is used to teach a lesson of bravery and perseverance to his children and the reader. His choice to continue to defend Tom Robinson contributes to the credibility of his lesson. When asked about this case by Scout he tells her, “Simply because we were licked a hundred years before we started is no reason for us not to try to win” (Lee 87). Atticus shows courage even when he is first appointed to defend Tom Robinson by trying his best to win. He truly believes in the innocence of Tom, but racial prejudice prevents other whites from confirming

Imagine you are a lawyer tasked with an impossible case, and everybody in your community is against you, but still there is a shred of hope you cling to. What might that be you ask? That to which you cling are your morals. In To Kill a Mockingbird Atticus Finch had been given the Tom Robinson case, where a black man was convicted of raping a white woman. As a single father of two children, he continues to reinforce his values throughout the trial and during his daunting task of raising his children. In To Kill A Mockingbird what Harper Lee suggests about the nature of morals is that you should try to stand up for what you believe in even if people oppose or reject your ideals. Even when faced with an insurmountable opposition you should stand up for your morals because in the end if your don't follow your beliefs you are just contributing to the problem. We should try to create a voice for what we believe in and impress that upon the next generation so they can continue to exercise their beliefs to make the world a better place.

“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.” (Lee, 101) The following quotation establishes the reason why Atticus has chosen to defend Tom Robinson during the trial. Atticus explains to his children that he knows he doesn’t stand a chance, but he will try anyways, encouraging Scout and Jem to stand up for what they believe is right. “‘Lemme tell you somethin' now, Billy,’ a third said, ‘you know the court appointed him to defend this nigger.’ ‘Yeah, but Atticus aims to defend him. That's what I don't like about it.’”(Lee, 218) Despite what people might think, Atticus continues to go along with what he believes is right even when people are judging

When Atticus is appointed to Tom Robinson’s case he gives his best effort even though he knows there is little chance Tom Robinson will be found innocent because he is a black man who is putting his life in a white jury’s hands in a segregated town filled with racism. Atticus makes this choice to show his children true courage and the inequality of Maycomb. Jem and Scout view their father’s nervousness about his case in the statement, “Then he took off his glasses and wiped them, and we saw another ‘first’: we had never seen him sweat—he was one of those men whose faces never perspired, but now it was shining tan” (Lee 204-205). Despite his doubts, nervousness, fears, and struggles, which are encompassed in those few drops of sweat, there is courage that carries Atticus through it all. Atticus exemplifies what courage is when he expresses, “I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand.

In To Kill a Mockingbird, Lee uses Atticus Finch to teach a lesson of bravery and perseverance to his children and the reader. His choice to continue to defend Tom Robinson contributes to the credibility of his lesson. When asked about this case by Scout, he tells her, “Simply because we were licked a hundred years before we started is no reason for us not to try to win” (Lee 87). Atticus shows courage even when he is first appointed to defend Tom Robinson by trying his best to win. He truly believes in the innocence of Tom, but racial prejudice prevents whites from confirming it.

To Kill a Mockingbird, author Harper Lee uses unhypocritical, more experienced characters like Atticus to expose Jem and Scout to adult knowledge. Their adult influence is what brings about the empathetic growth and maturity of Jem and Scout.

​In Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, Scout Finch, and her brother Jem, learn the importance of seeing things through other people's eyes. At the beginning of the story, the people living in Maycomb County, can be considered "mockingbirds" because they are innocent. Their father, Atticus, leads as a strong example while defending Tom Robinson, a black man convicted for rape. The residents of Maycomb (besides the Finches) fail to see situations through other people's eyes. For example, when the trial takes place, most people do not have empathy toward Tom Robinson, resulting in some of those "mockingbirds" becoming killed. Trying to see situations through other people's eyes can keep someone from hurting somebody who is innocent.

Harper Lee’s renowned book To Kill a Mockingbird is highly praised for the lessons it teaches, it’s persuasive humor and how it tells a story of growth. It tells the story of Scout Finch as she learns and and grows in the small town of Maycomb, Alabama in the 1930’s. Scout has a brother, Jem, who leads scout on adventures and through trials as they are taught about racism, empathy and courage. Scout's perspective allows a look into how growing up in her circumstances has affected her personally. (need another sentence here to lead to thesis) Harper Lee uses the characterization of Jem to show an alternate insight to growing up through the way he strays from being moral, how he tries to be more independent, and by when he reaches his breaking point.

Classic stories have a protagonist who involuntarily steps into struggles, obstacles, and times of self-reflection. The reader envisions the character throughout the plot fighting barriers and instinctively discovers how the character progresses from the beginning, many times having to face personal conflict, to see positive change in the end. In Harper Lee’s, To Kill A Mockingbird, the main focus and perspective are from Scout who comes face to face with challenges along her journey. She must learn to become the person who she wants to be without the negative impacts of the environment and traditional values she succumbs to. Through the significance of the Cunningham’s, Reverend Sykes, and Miss Maudie, the juxtaposition Scout embraces among these characters help her grow to understand the importance of seeing the

Lessons that children are taught at a young age, are crucial to how they will be and treat others later in their adulthood. Harper Lee’s award winning novel takes place in the early 1930s over the course of two summers in Maycomb, Alabama. Two children named Scout and Jem learn multiple lessons. As they mature, they discover what the world is like and see the propaganda and prejudice occuring in their own town. With the racism, the sexism, and the judgements, these children are taught lessons and morals from adults and mentors. The novel, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, demonstrates how by learning respect, courage, and empathy Jem and Scout are forced to grow up through meaningful lessons and conflicts that they experience and learn in their childhood that last a lifetime.

In To Kill a Mockingbird Atticus’s idea of what it means to be a man and his beliefs are a large factor in Scout’s personal development. In a thesis paper by Laura Hakala at Georgia Southern University, she explains how “[Atticus] completely subverts expectations by acting stereotypically feminine, [or] only bend conventions by demonstrating features that differ from the dominant male traits in his community” (14). This refers to Atticus preferring reading over hunting, while he is not demonstrating a stereotypically feminine trait, he is demonstrating features that clash with how the town views he should act. However, despite the backlash that Atticus receives, the ideology of acting in the way that the situation requires, regardless of the

I just wanted to see that Negro get what he should for what he did. I sat in the courtroom waitin’ for that fool Atticus to stop asking Mayella odd questions about her life and got to the reason we're all here. Just as I looked up I seen Mayella glaring at Atticus.

In Harper Lee’s “To Kill A Mockingbird,” Mayella Ewell, a young woman as well as the daughter of Bob Ewell, lives a life of insolence and isolation in the town of Maycomb. As a Ewell, which they are familiarized as being vulgar, uneducated, and indigent, Mayella is disrespected by the people of Maycomb as well as by her father. During the court case, Atticus shows courtesy towards Mayella by addressing her as a miss and a ma’am, which is not surprising for his values of equality. Mistaking his manners with sarcasm, she replies with, “Won’t answer a word you say as long as you keep mockin’ me” (pg.181). Harper Lee is demonstrating the amount of disregard Mayella faces in her life, so much that courtesy can’t be identified as just that. Mayella finds that Atticus is ridiculing her for what she doesn’t have, respect from others. With a reputation such as Mayella’s, people treat her like an outcast. Her lonely life can be a reason to explain why she always asked for Tom Robinson’s company, she wanted to experience friendship and perhaps love for the first time. Her loneliness was so clear to see, even Scout, who still has their childhood-innocent mind, can see through it. Scout compares Mr.Dolphus Raymond’s “mixed children” to Mayella because they both don’t know where to stand in their social class, “white people wouldn’t have anything to do with her because she lived among pigs; Negroes wouldn’t have anything to do with her