Atticus Role Model

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Tiger Woods once said, “If you are given a chance to be a role model, I think you should always take it because you can influence a person's life in a positive light, and that's what I want to do. That's what it's all about.” In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird one character has the chance to be a role model and excels in doing so. To Kill a Mockingbird is the childhood of a young girl and her family. Her brother Jem and Father Atticus grow up in the racist, segregated south in a small and dominantly white town. The girl's father is a lawyer with high moral standards and takes a case involving a black man raping a white woman. The family faces persecution, but due to Atticus’ noble principles, he continues the case. Atticus is a good parent …show more content…
At one point in the story, Atticus is asked the question why he would take a case defending someone who is black. Atticus knows he needs to take the case and states, “The main one is, if I did[not] I could[not] hold up my head in town, I could[not] represent this county in the legislature; I could[not] even tell you or Jem not to do something again”(Lee 75). First and foremost, the quote defines Atticus’s character. He wants to show his children you should always make the right and morally correct choice. Atticus wants to exemplify to his children that he is a just and ethical, straightforward person. Granted that the odds are against him if he takes the case, Atticus needs to so his children will know it is valuable to be a principled human being. The example that Atticus set by taking the case is superb but it is not the only way he set a great example. During the time of Jem reading to Mrs.Dubose, she is fighting a morphine addiction. She ends up passing on, but not before she has the strength to end the addiction herself. When Atticus is explaining Mrs. Dubose story to Jem he says, "I want[ed] you to see what real courage is, instead of having the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand”(Lee 112). By having Jem experience this, Atticus wants him to know that courage exists in many forms. Jem thinks that courage was when Atticus killed the mad dog, but the kind of courage …show more content…
“They [are] nothing to play with”(Lee 40). Atticus gives his children margin and lets them roam about freely in the community. Atticus will lecture his children when needed. He tells Jem to give him the scissors because they are dangerous to his health. Atticus takes precaution and feels the need to keep his children safe. He teaches them basic lessons and keeps their actions in check when needed. The games that Atticus’ children play often lead to them getting criticized. An obsession that the children have during the story is with a character named Boo Radley. Boo never steps foot outside his house. The children imagine him doing unheard of things. They create a game and Atticus decides it's wrong to judge people without knowing them.To make them stop, he yells at them and says, “You stop this nonsense right now, everyone of you”(Lee 49). Atticus yells at the children because he wants to impress upon them that it's wrong to pester someone without cause. Yelling at them was needed or else Boo may have done something in return to the children for meddling in his life. By scolding the children, Atticus is also protecting them. If the game had gone further, Boo or the children would be in danger. Atticus’s great qualities are not outnumbered but there is a reason that he is a poor or lacking
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