Perception is like a filter to the camera that is our brain. The reality of things is that there is never no bias or prejudice in life and that everything is based on how people perceive it. Harper Lee’s novel To Kill a Mockingbird clearly demonstrates how quickly people are to judge a situation or a person while knowing little to nothing about it. Prime examples of this are Atticus Finch and Tom Robinson. Atticus was a well respected member of the community and Tom was a black man living in a white man’s world, and both of them are victims of prejudice even though they are on opposite ends of the social hierarchy.
A father of two, a widower and a lawyer; Atticus Finch is a model citizen even eighty years after when To Kill a Mockingbird is set. He seems to be the only decent human being in the book but however is judge none the less. In reality Atticus is a hardworking man who loves his family and does his best to teach his children and other about equality and the difference between right and wrong. After he finds out that scout has been getting into fights about him he tells her not to because people will always believe what they want to believe and that fighting is no way to …show more content…
He later proved her wrong when he ‘put down’ Tim Johnson because the sheriff wasn’t able to make the shot, however this did not change other people’s point of view on Mr. Finch. Most citizens look towards Atticus with respect, however that later changes when they learn that he will be defending a black man. Though most people looked at him with slight differences they had the same root, ‘he is a white man defending a black man against his own’. It seemed that everyone in town knew and that Scout was even getting picked in for it. Atticus later says in the