Atticus Finch is a principled small-town lawyer and widowed father in Harper Lee's 1960 novel To Kill a Mockingbird, seen through the eyes of his young daughter and the book's narrator, Scout. He agrees to defend Tom Robinson, a Black man falsely accused of raping a white woman in Depression-era Alabama, and mounts the defense with scrupulous fairness despite the near-certainty of conviction and the hostility it draws from his white neighbors. Atticus's calm insistence on empathy, his famous advice to Scout that one never truly understands a person until one climbs into their skin and walks around in it, and his quiet moral courage in a town gripped by racial prejudice made him one of American fiction's most enduring symbols of integrity, though later scholarship and Harper Lee's own posthumously published Go Set a Watchman have complicated his legacy. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
Facts
Narrative RoleSourced to the subject's own accountMoral center of the novel, a small-town lawyer and father narrated through his daughter Scout's eyes 1 Defining TraitSourced to the subject's own accountUnwavering commitment to justice and empathy even when it costs him standing in his own community 1 Narrative role (class)Sourced to the subject's own account Connections
Character In
Source Atticus Finch (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributors
Sources
1. Atticus Finch (Wikipedia)
Wikipedia contributors, Wikimedia FoundationLead section
He represents the African-American man Tom Robinson in his trial where he is charged with rape of Mayella Ewell.
Background section, real-life model sentence
Lee based the character on her own father, Amasa Coleman Lee, an Alabama lawyer, who, like Atticus, represented black defendants in a highly publicized criminal trial.
- Character In: To Kill a Mockingbird
View the Source Frequently Asked Questions
Was Atticus Finch based on a real person?
Yes, on Harper Lee's own father Amasa Coleman Lee, an Alabama lawyer.
Yes. Harper Lee based Atticus on her own father, Amasa Coleman Lee, an Alabama lawyer who, like Atticus, represented black defendants in a highly publicized criminal trial.
Reader Challenges (0)
No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.
Sign in to dispute this or suggest a correction.