Character Analysis of Atticus Finch in To Kill A Mockingbird

Atticus is a highly-respected character in the novel as he had spent time teaching his children important lessons in life and also to help Negroes. Atticus was one of the characters in the novel who had many good qualities described in the novel. This however makes Atticus a non-realistic character as his qualities are beyond the usual level that are present in us.

Atticus has real courage. Someone who has real courage knows that the consequences of his actions may not be ideal but they do it because they think that it is right. The most important reason that shows Atticus has real courage is that he dared to go against the opinions of the majority to help Tom Robinson. He knew that he would be mock at for defending a Negro in court as the Whites are mostly racist. Atticus knew that the Blacks are mostly kind and innocent(as described in the novel). Atticus also stayed by Tom Robinson's side one night to protect him from any gang or people who intended to kill Tom Robinson. He was almost killed but fortunately, Scout Finch, his daughter went up to talk to the gang of people and thus save Atticus' life. This portrayed Atticus brave qualities in defending Tom Robinson at all cost.

Atticus courage is also displayed when he keep his head high after Mrs Dubose often called him ugly names and foul language such as "nigger-lover". However, Atticus did not mind as he knew that Mrs Dubose have her own reasons to mock him and call him names. He even made Jem, who had previously offended Mrs Dubose (for calling Atticus ugly names) to apologise to her. Atticus knew clearly how Jem felt and the consequences he might have but he wanted Jem to learn to be a gentleman.

Tolerance And Acceptance

It is undisputed that there are many people or things in the world that irritates you or do not suit your choice. Very often, people would just argue or fight back against those who disagree with their own point of views. This is so common in our daily lives but why is it that some people can cope with these disagreements while some people simply flare up on become unhappy due to these reasons? I believe such cases would usually happen when somebody is too self-centred, or thought that he must be right and that others must be wrong. Such people do not think carefully before they react and argue with the other party and I believe they must be rather impulsive in their actions and words.

This is why we discuss about tolerance and acceptance. When one is unhappy with others who disagree with him without any valid reasons, it means that he has poor tolerance. This is because he only thinks about himself and not from others' perspectives. He simply refuses to accept others because he is unable to see the reason behind the others' perspectives and choice and what consequences they may lead to. Therefore, his poor tolerance can cause misunderstandings or prevent him from learning something new. In other cases, some people can be very petty. They refuse to accept some other people around them because they are different from the majority in which they are in. These people are selfish and they could harm those different from them psychologically as they will become more lonely.

In the book To Kill A Mockingbird, I think that Atticus showed greatest tolerance towards the people around him who may be different or are against him. One example would be that he accepted Calpurnia, who is Black, as a normal person and treated her normally like he treated other Whites. Atticus also showed acceptance towards the Cunninghams who are poor but honest and works very hard to earn a living. Unlike Atticus, Aunt Alexandra(Atticus' sister) dislike Calpurnia and the Cunninghams because they are not of the same status as her. Atticus also showed tolerance after Mrs Dubose badmouthed him. He even continued to respect her and treat her as a friend. This is because Atticus can understand others well and know that many people have different perspectives towards certain things. Therefore, he is able to accept or tolerate most of the people around him.

Compromise

A compromise is a agreement reached by mutual concessions. It requires one to bend the law to achieve the greatest good. A compromise can be on anything that people wished to have an agreement on and it can be made by anybody only if both parties feel that the conditions are acceptable. In a compromise, it usually requires one to sacrifice something (e.g. their principle or the law) to achieve an agreement which both parties can benefit from. Compromises are usually very interesting as you can sometimes see people going against their beliefs, teachers breaking school rules or even lawyers bending the law to benefit himself or his client.

Our world is filled with compromises. Without compromises, people will be simply following their morals and behaving according to rules. If this happens, the world would be boring and there will never be surprising discoveries or achievements happening all around us. In our daily lives, compromise is very essential to allow us to complete tasks. This is because in modern world, tasks and obstacles cannot be easily completed or solved by simply following the rules. Sometimes, obstacles in lives are designed in a way such that people must learn bend the rule in order to solve them. It is like when one is being held hostage. He can actually find a way to escape by having a compromise with his kidnapper that if he let the hostage go, the hostage would reward him with something useful for the kidnapper. Of course this is just an example because no one would kidnappers would simply accept compromises with someone they do not trust at all.

When would I use First-person or Third-person Narrative?

First-person and third-person are the most popular narrative viewpoints a writer would use. This is because it aids the writer in describing in details of several specific characters in a story while hiding the thoughts of other characters. In such cases, the writer only wishes to elaborate some characters to emphasize on certain morals or events that are going through in a character's mind. The character can be a bad character (one with bad motives) a kind and compassionate character. However, the writer's choice of perspective depends on the theme he chooses for his story.

I would use first-person narrative when I want the reader to look through the eyes of this single character. The character's thoughts and ideas and choice of words would be made clear to the readers and this helps in creating a closer relationship between the reader and the character. This would be very important if I intend to make the reader support the character's view or to have some stereotypes of the character. A first-person narrative also evokes the reader's feelings and thoughts (e.g. pity, detest, disappointment, relieve) by elaborating on some mental challenges the character faced. All in all, I feel that a first-person narrative's is to allow the readers to stand in the character's shoes and feel for them.

As for third-person narrative, I would only use it if I want a reader to look from a perspective where the narrator is like an invisible character which is non-existent in the story but able to look through the thoughts and feelings of chosen characters. This will allow the readers to understand the story from multiple perspectives. These different perspectives may have conflicts or relationship, but they are essential in the elaboration of the theme. From different perspective, you can have a wider description of the settings and manipulate the characters' actions and thoughts such that they can be connected together to elaborate on the main focus(e.g. character, plot, setting). Unlike first-person narrative, the readers will be able to choose to support or detest any particular character instead of just focusing on one. However, the relationship between the readers and the individual characters will not be as close as that of a first-person narrative. Therefore, the main aim of a third-person narrative is to enlarge the image of a story by having different characters or perspectives to describe the story.