“To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee

‘Have you ever considered the Jem doesn’t worry her half as much?’ Atticus’s voice was flinty. ‘I’ve no intention of getting rid of her, now or ever. We couldn’t operate a single day without Cal, have you ever thought of that? You think about how much Cal does for you, and you mind her, you hear?’

In this paragraph, we can see that Atticus didn’t allow his children to be rude to anyone, not even black people and we also see that he has respect for everyone.

‘First of all,’ he said, ‘if you can learn a simple trick, Scout, you’ll get along a lot better with all kinds of folks. 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,’

In this paragraph, you can tell that Atticus is a very fair man and wants to give everyone a chance. He also wants to teach his children the right way of acting towards others. This also shows that Atticus has empathy.

‘You can’t do that Scout,’ Aticus said. ‘Sometimes it’s better to bend the law a little in special cases. In your case, the law remains ridged. So to school you must go.’

When Atticus says this to Scout, you can see that he is concerned about her education.

‘They can go to school any time they want to, when they show the faintest symptom of wanting an education.’

This shows that Atticus leaves room for change and allows people to do so when they are ready to change.

‘There are ways of keeping them in school by force, but it’s silly to force people like the Ewelles into a new environment.’

Atticus allows people to do what they want and doesn’t force them into any thing strange.

‘Let us leave it at this…You, Miss Scout Finch, are of the common folk. You must obey the law.’

Atticus teaches his children to do right and to follow the law.

‘Its against the law all right…and it’s certainly bad, but when a man spends his relief cheques on green whisky his children have a way of crying from hunger pains. I don’t know of any landowner around here who begrudges those children any game their father can hit.’

Even though some things may be against the law, Atticus will allow them if it’s going to keep people alive and help the survive.

‘Of course he shouldn’t, but he’ll never change his ways. Are you going to take out your disapprovals on his children?’

Atticus teaches Scout not to take things out on the wrong people.

‘Does this by any chance have anything to do with the Radleys?’

‘I’m going to tell something and tell you one time: stop tormenting that man. That goes for the other two of you.’

Atticus doesn’t like his children mocking other people and wont allow it.

‘Now listen, both of you. Go down and stand in front of the Radley Place. Keep out of the way, do you hear? See which way the wind is blowing.’

This shows that Atticus cares about Jem and Scout and told them to go to a safe place so that the fore doesn’t hurt them.

‘For a number of reasons…the main one is, if I didn’t I couldn’t hold up my head in town, I couldn’t represent this country in the legislature, I couldn’t even tell you or Jem not to do something again.’

This shows that Atticus cares about what others think of him and that he will do something even if it means that people will look at him in a different way for a while.

‘Because I could never ask you to mind me again. Scout, simply by the nature of the work, every lawyer gets at least one case in his lifetime that affects him personally. This one’s mine, I guess. You might hear some ugly talk about it at school, but do one thing for me if you will: you just hold your head high and keep those fights down. No matter what anybody says to you, don’t you let ’em get your goat. Try fighting with your head for a change…it’s a good one, even if it does resist learning.’

Atticus tells Scout that she shouldn’t care about what other people think about her Father defending a negro and that fighting won’t solve anything.

‘Simply because we were licked a hundred years before we started is no reason for us not to try to win.’

This shows that Atticus has a very good attitude to winning. Even if he knows he will loose, he will still try his hardest to do his best.

‘I’d rather you shoot at tins in the back yard, but I know you’ll go after birds. Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit ’em, but remember it’s a sin to kill a mocking bird.’

Atticus doesn’t like his children harming living things and wants them to respect everything.