Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird is a highly influential American novel for many reasons, not the least of which is the compelling, well-drawn and uniquely American character of Atticus Finch. A strong, paternal presence to his family and his community, Atticus is highly principled, hard-working and dedicated to a sincere sense of justice. Both in his parenting of Scout and his defense of Tom Robinson, Atticus’ virtue is shown throughout. While America may not always live up to the standards Atticus Finch himself sets, he represents a set of ideals that America hopes to strive towards, including equality, fairness and standing up for the disenfranchised. By upholding the values of justice, honesty, integrity and tolerance, Atticus Finch is a uniquely American character in that he manages to maintain the essential ideals of American life and character in a town that repeatedly and comprehensively fails him.
Atticus’ role as a father to Scout allows him to be the mouthpiece for a certain kind of American idealism: the idea that we are all free to live on this world, and that we should understand and tolerate the differences of others. One of Atticus’ most important sayings in the novel is, “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). Atticus, in his actions and behavior, does his best to live up to this axiom, offering a good example to his children so that he might be a positive influence on them. He can certainly disapprove of the actions of others – when he talks to Scout about how Bob Ewell drinks, he notes that “when a man spends his relief checks on green whiskey his children have a way of crying from hunger pains.” (Chapter 3). Still, he also argues that there is nothing he can really do about that, except perhaps be a good example to his children so they do not suffer the same fate.
Atticus’ parenting style is very democratic and considering of his children as the recipient of the example he sets. He has a lot of faith in his children to be strong, independent-minded individuals, and so works to be as honest with them as possible: "Children are children, but they can spot an evasion quicker than adults, and evasion simply muddles 'em. I just hope that Jem and Scout come to me for their answers instead of listening to the town” (Chapter 9). This honesty is reflected in his own parenting, as Atticus tries to be as forthright with them as possible. When pressed, he says of his parenting, “Before Jem looks at anyone else he looks at me, and I’ve tried to live so I can look squarely back at him” (Chapter 30). He knows that, in order to make sure he teaches Jem and Scout the American values that he feels they should have, he must illustrate them himself.
These values espoused by Atticus showcase a certain American willingness to live and let live, while also acknowledging his own responsibilities toward his children and home. Though he would not judge another man for doing what he does, he holds himself to incredibly high standards: “before I can live with other folks I've got to live with myself. The one thing that doesn’t abide by majority rule is a person’s conscience” (Chapter 11). Atticus’ empathy is a huge component of this, since he wants to make sure he makes the right decision at all times – not just for his own conscious, but to make sure his children never get the wrong idea about how to live. For this dedication to a strict moral code and sense of accountability, Atticus becomes uniquely American in a way few others in the novel can actually achieve.
Atticus is supremely dedicated to the ideal of making everyone individually responsible for his or her actions, which is why he finds it so important to make sure people find their best selves. Even when Jem reacts in anger at the mob that came for Tom Robinson and was willing to go through Atticus to get him, Atticus says, “A mob’s always made up of people, no matter what. Mr. Cunningham was part of a mob last night, but he was still a man. Every mob in every little Southern town is always made up of people you know” (Chapter 16). Atticus is dedicated not to judge people by what groups they are associated with, but to take a walk in their shoes and get to know them as individuals. Only then, as is implicit in his behavior, can we fully understand and treat them as they are meant to be treated – which speaks back to a fundamentally American sense of liberty.
Another of Atticus’ uniquely American virtues is, interestingly enough, a sense of pacifism and faith in the justice system when it works. When talking about the death of Mrs. Dubose, Atticus tells Jem of her resilience and sees it as an incredible virtue: “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. It's when you know you're licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what. You rarely win, but sometimes you do.” (Chapter 11). In this way, Atticus seeks out others who help to further his example of freedom, independence and violence, and cites them as other role models to follow.
When Tom Robinson is accused of the assault of a young woman, Atticus fights for him within the system, something which he wholeheartedly believes in: “I’m no idealist to believe firmly in the integrity of our courts and in the jury system — that is no ideal to me, it is a living, working reality.” (Chapter 20). Atticus sees the court system as an extension of the kind of objective, tolerant fairness that should be shown in all aspects of American life, as people solve their problems by peacefully going over the evidence without prejudice and getting to the truth. That Atticus is the justice system’s most ardent defender (at least in concept) also serves the purpose of likening the court system to these same ideals of justice and fairness.
The idealism of Atticus, of course, is not a reality in the context of Maycomb, as the town around Atticus seems to fail his test of moral fortitude by their discriminatory bloodlust for Tom Robinson: “The one place where a man ought to get a square deal is in a courtroom, be he any color of the rainbow, but people have a way of carrying their resentments right into a jury box.” (Chapter 20). Atticus expresses his disappointment in the town of Maycomb for letting their own racism affect the conviction of an innocent man, regardless of the mountains of evidence tha exonerate him. This case is a clear instance of Atticus’ dedication to the American ideals of equality and justice, and the difficulty in actualizing these values in reality due to prejudice, hatred and ignorance. Here, Lee shows the reality of America failing the ideal of what it should be, which is in the form of Atticus.
This conflict is at the center of To Kill a Mockingbird, and Atticus’ choice to defend Tom Robinson places him in the position of highlighting the injustices to be found in the Deep South of 1930s America. This racism, however, is completely alien to Atticus, who simply cannot see the difference between Tom and anyone else in the town: “Why reasonable people go stark raving mad when anything involving a Negro comes up, is something I don't pretend to understand” (Chapter 9). Because of the dire consequences of Tom’s possible conviction – he might get the death penalty – Atticus takes the case, hoping to save him from death. As Atticus teaches Scout, “shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit ‘em, but remember it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird,” which is a potent metaphor for demonstrating the American ideal of peace and tolerance which the Americans around Atticus are failing to uphold (Chapter 10).
Just as Scout is parented by Atticus, so too is the town of Maycomb the recipient of Atticus’ sage advice. Atticus commands the respect of many of the town’s inhabitants because of his own good examples of behavior and incredible intelligence; however, it is because of this conviction that he is able to stand in opposition to Maycomb’s discrimination against Tom Robinson. This tests the town’s respect for him, as Atticus and his children are disrespected and chided by the town as “nigger-lovers,” cementing their racist viewpoints and intolerance of black people (Lee, Chapter 9). This, of course, violates Atticus’ supreme philosophy of living life in others’ shoes, thus making it Atticus’ responsibility for showing the people of Maycomb the wrongness of their behavior.
While Atticus Finch is incredibly virtuous, he also does not change as a character; instead, he provides an objective sense of American morality and idealism upon which to allow others to reflect on their own failings. In all things, Atticus is shown to be right, as he never wavers from his conviction that Tom is innocent, which places him on the correct side of history and the law (even though the law finds Tom guilty and convicts him). Even though this course of events led the town to turn on him somewhat, this is simply a furtherance of their deviating from the American values that Atticus espouses, thus making them bad Americans. Despite this failure to live up to Atticus’ standards, he holds them no ill will; when Scout mentions how the now-dead Tom was ‘nice’; “Most people are, Scout, when you finally see them” (Chapter 31). The events of the book place the town of Maycomb on trial for not living up to the righteous American values of Atticus Finch, Atticus himself loses his faith somewhat in the town.
Atticus Finch’s uniquely American nature comes from his dedication to the American ideals of justice, equality and freedom. By upholding these virtues in equal measure, Atticus’ role in To Kill a Mockingbird is to showcase just how often most normal people fall short of this. Atticus, throughout the novel, shows himself to be an extremely patient, tolerant, peaceful and righteous in his behavior, hoping to show Jem and Scout how life in America should be lived. Even despite the evils of the racism, alcoholism and violence of Maycomb, Atticus maintains his ground and manages to achieve a positive end for most of the main characters.
Atticus, in his character and beliefs, showcases a value system that is unfailingly and uniquely American, made all the more pure by the fact that many other Americans try and fail to be as ‘good’ as he is. Atticus’ virtues are never-ending and absolute, always proving himself in the right at all times and offering a way to compare Maycomb’s moral behavior against his. In essence, Atticus is the kind of American we should all aspire to be; the hatred, intolerance and prejudice displayed by the people of Maycomb, in comparison to Atticus, shows them to be small-minded and not in keeping with the ideals Americans should be living by. In offering such a comprehensively successful example of a ‘great American,’ Harper Lee shows that we must also follow in his footsteps, and that the values of the Deep South in the 1930s did not accomplish that goal sufficiently.
Works Cited
Lee, Harper. To Kill a Mockingbird. New York: HarperCollins, 2006.
