My Favourite Character in the novel: "To Kill A Mockingbird"

Harper Lee’s novel is full of interesting and richly painted characters. Which character was your favourite and why?


My favourite character in this novel is Atticus Finch. He is not only intelligent, but also shows calm and respectful wisdom. Atticus is respected by everyone, including the very poor. He functions as the moral backbone of Maycomb, a person to whom others turn in times of doubt and trouble. Let me take you through his traits one at a time.

Firstly, he has a strong conscience. He does what is write no matter what, even if he is unable to abide by the town’s comfortable ingrained racial prejudice; this is shown when he agrees to defend Tom Robinson, a black man. He did not mind taking all the teasing by people because he broke this tradition, which shows just how courageous he is. However, during the child, he simply impressed everyone, and he seems destined to be held in the same high regard as before. Besides that, he also trusts his conscience that it is not right for him to have a gun. This is shown during the mad dog incident. He could use a gun really well, but he did not bring it anywhere he went. He believed that things would spark of because of his possession of a gun, and therefore he did not even bring it to places where his life was in danger, for example the county jail. This just shows how much he trusted his conscience, no matter the circumstance.

In addition, Atticus is devoted to his children. Atticus is the children's only parent, and as a father, he respects his children, but at the same time maintains strict discipline with them to make sure that he could past on his moral values to them. At many times, he uses his intelligence to rationalise with the children, making them believe in him more. For example, when Scout said she did not want to go to school after the first day in class, Atticus calmly explained the importance of going to school. Not only does he rationalise with his children, he tries his utmost to refrain from using force on his children. "I had been getting past with threats" shows that he had never beaten his children before. This just shows how wise he is to make the children believe and trust him, and not be rebellious.

Lastly, Atticus practices the ethic of empathy and understanding and never holds a grudge against the people of Maycomb. For example, when old Mrs. Dubous was making fun of Atticus, Atticus did not even get angry, instead empathised with her pain and sufferings she was going through. He recognizes that people have both good and bad qualities, and he is determined to admire the good while understanding and forgiving the bad.