In 1997, the Alabama State Bar erected a monument dedicated to Atticus in Monroeville marking his existence as the "first commemorative milestone in the state's judicial history". Atticus has a vision of lawyer not only as prophet, but as parish priest." Freedman's article sparked furious controversy, with one legal scholar opining, "What Monroe really wants is for Atticus to be working on the front lines for the NAACP in the 1930s, and, if he's not, he's disqualified from being any kind of hero Monroe has this vision of lawyer as prophet. Freedman argued that Atticus Finch is dishonest, unethical, sexist, and inherently racist, and that he did nothing to challenge the racist status quo in Maycomb.
Freedman's article sparked a flurry of responses from attorneys who entered the profession holding Atticus Finch as a hero and the reason for which they became lawyers.
Freedman argued that Atticus still worked within a system of institutionalized racism and sexism and should not be revered. Freedman, a professor of law and noted legal ethicist, published two articles in the national legal newspaper Legal Times calling for the legal profession to set aside Atticus Finch as a role model. One law professor at the University of Notre Dame stated that the most influential textbook from which he taught was To Kill a Mockingbird, and an article in the Michigan Law Review asserts, "No real-life lawyer has done more for the self-image or public perception of the legal profession", before questioning whether "Atticus Finch is a paragon of honor or an especially slick hired gun." Richard Paul Matsch, the federal judge who presided over the Timothy McVeigh trial, counts Atticus as a major judicial influence. Examples of Atticus Finch's impact on the legal profession are plentiful. Alice Petry remarked, "Atticus has become something of a folk hero in legal circles and is treated almost as if he were an actual person". In the 2018 Broadway stage play adapted by Aaron Sorkin, Finch has been portrayed by various actors including Jeff Daniels, Ed Harris, Greg Kinnear, Rhys Ifans, and Richard Thomas.Ĭlaudia Durst Johnson has commented about critiques of the novel, saying, "A greater volume of critical readings has been amassed by two legal scholars in law journals than by all the literary scholars in literary journals".
In 2003, the American Film Institute voted Atticus Finch, as portrayed in an Academy Award-winning performance by Gregory Peck in the 1962 film adaptation, as the greatest hero of all American cinema. Book magazine's list of The 100 Best Characters in Fiction Since 1900 names Finch as the seventh best fictional character of 20th-century literature. 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.
To kill a mockingbird characters protagonist trial#
He represents the African-American man Tom Robinson in his trial where he is charged with rape of Mayella Ewell. Atticus is a lawyer and resident of the fictional Maycomb County, Alabama, and the father of Jeremy "Jem" Finch and Jean Louise "Scout" Finch. A preliminary version of the character also appears in the novel Go Set a Watchman, written in the mid-1950s but not published until 2015. Lawyer, Member of the Alabama LegislatureĪtticus Finch is a fictional character in Harper Lee's Pulitzer-Prize-winning novel of 1960, To Kill a Mockingbird. Atticus, however, insists that Calpurnia is like family and that he’ll never fire her.Gregory Peck as Finch in the 1962 film adaptation
This increases Scout’s respect for Calpurnia, and she becomes even more supportive of Calpurnia when Aunt Alexandra arrives and makes numerous bids for Atticus to fire Calpurnia. When Scout and Jem attend the local black church with Calpurnia and hear her speaking differently to the black parishioners there, they realize that Calpurnia leads something of a double life-she speaks one way at home and speaks very differently when she’s at the Finches’ house. She’s fanatical about policing Scout’s manners, which irks Scout to no end since she believes that Calpurnia doesn’t correct Jem nearly as much. Calpurnia is unique in Maycomb, as she’s one of the few black residents who’s literate-she taught Scout to write in cursive and taught her son, Zeebo, to read. Scout initially sees Calpurnia as tyrannical and horrible, but as she begins to grow, she comes to understand that Calpurnia truly does love and care for her. Atticus has employed her for years, and following the death of his wife, Calpurnia essentially raises Scout and Jem.
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