Atticus Finch As A Hero Essay

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The Bigger the Hero, The Bigger the Fall
To Kill A Mockingbird is an iconic book that has dazzled its’ readers throughout the years. The audience quickly falls in love with the quick-tempered, no nonsense girl that is Scout Finch. Readers, also, become fascinated with Atticus Finch, who seems to be a liberalist in a conservative town. Atticus gains a hero status because of his trial defending a wrongly convicted black man. The town and Scout think of Atticus as a revolutionary. Go Set A Watchman, however, contradicts any idea that Atticus is what some call a man before his time. Instead of a hero, he has become apart of the force that he was fighting in To Kill A Mockingbird. The difference in Atticus large, but so is the age difference …show more content…

Before reading Go Set A Watchman, the audience only got their image of Atticus because of the young eyes that portrayed him. Early in To Kill A Mockingbird, the readers understand that Atticus teaches Scout to think for herself and have an open mind, “You never really understand a person until you consider things from is point of view” (Lee, Mockingbird, 144). The audience is shocked alongside Jean Louise to find out that Atticus is not the revolutionary man he is proclaimed to be in To Kill A Mockingbird. The outraged Jean Louise is confused by her father’s actions because she cannot understand the motivation behind them. The way Atticus raised Scout does not reflect himself. Lee illustrates the fury Jean Louise feels:
“ I looked up to you, Atticus, like I never looked up to anybody in my life and never will again. If you had only given me some hint, if you had only broken your word with me a couple times, if you had been a lesser man, maybe I could have taken what I saw you doing. If once or twice you’d let me catch you doing something vile, then I would have understood yesterday. Then I’d have said that’s just His Way, that’s My Old Man, because I’d have been been prepared for it somewhere along the line-” ( Watchman,

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