Atticus Finch A Hero Analysis

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Additionally, Atticus Finch is not a hero because of his knowledge of the problem in Maycomb County, but deliberate avoidance of it. In a conversation with Jem, Atticus recognizes Mr. Cunningham’s previous actions, but instead of admitting that Maycomb has an openly violent lynch mob, he claims that, “Mr. Cunningham’s basically a good man, he just has blind spots like the rest of us.” (210). He goes on to say that, “Every mob in every little Southern town is always made up of people you know––doesn’t say much for them, does it?” (210). With these naive claims, Atticus denies the fact that this lynch mob is a real problem and concludes to his children that those involved, like Mr. Cunningham, are just ordinary people. Another example of Atticus’ evasion of the problem lies in his conversations with Scout. For instance, when …show more content…
Why does he say this? It could be argued here that Atticus’ straightforward answer to this question is a reflection of his character, and, although his definition was much to technical for Scout to understand, Atticus was trying to protect the innocence of his daughter. However, you can’t correct what you aren’t first willing to confront, and throughout the novel To Kill a Mockingbird Atticus struggles with accepting a problem for what it is. Finally, Atticus is proven unheroic with his immediate shutdown of the questions Jem has about the KKK group now terrorizing the South. Such as, when Jem says, “___”, and Atticus instantaneously halts the idea by stating, “___”. This highlights Atticus’ immediate discomfort in facing big problems; similar to ___ stance on Atticus in the article ___. ___ claims, “___”, to explain Atticus’ unsophisticated outlook on the problems in Maycomb itself. All of these issues are details that show Atticus is not a true hero because he avoids and smothers big problems with his susceptible and confiding nature; leading him to cloud the judgement of not just himself but many of the people whom he influences in