To Kill a Mocking Bird

Background

Atticus is the descendant of Simon Finch, an apothecary from England who settled near Maycomb. Rather than stay in the family homestead (named "Finch's Landing"), Atticus went to Montgomery to study law. He was later elected to the Alabama State Legislature, was then reelected without opposition many times, and was known as a respected and hard-working lawmaker (although it's never stated whether he was a member of the Alabama House of Representatives or the Alabama Senate). While a legislator, he met and married the future mother of Jem and Scout Finch (her first name is never revealed, but her surname is Graham, and it is mentioned that she was 15 years his junior). His wife died of a heart attack two years after Scout, their younger child, was born. Throughout the novel, Atticus lives in Maycomb with his two children and his maid, Calpurnia. He has one sister, who has very different ways of bringing up children and wants to make Scout a more feminine and respectable lady, and a brother who seems quite inexperienced with children as a medical doctor.

[edit]Influences

Lee based Atticus Finch on her father, Amasa Lee. The name Atticus came from the Roman orator Titus Pomponius Atticus, noteworthy for his neutrality in political struggles. Presumably the surname "Finch" was derived from Lee's mother, Frances Cunningham Finch Lee (there are, in fact, other characters in the book with the surnames "Cunningham" and "Frances").

[edit]Plot of the novel

The book's noblest character, Atticus represents the ideal of a lawyer, father and human being. He goes to great pains to instruct his children on the importance of being open-minded, judicious, generous neighbors and citizens. He is eventually revealed to be an expert marksman (the best shot in Maycomb County), but he had chosen to keep this fact hidden from his children so that they would not in any way think of him as a man of violence. Physically, he is described throughout the novel as a tall,...