Atticus Finch Dynamic

Atticus Finch has become a role model to many throughout the years. He has become revered throughout generations for being so progressive ahead of his time. What most don’t tend to realize, though, is that Atticus is not always steadfast in his character. In fact, he is very dynamic throughout the book and begins to show subtle flaws as the story progresses. This renowned story, Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird. is unique in its narrator: a young girl called Scout. She narrates the whole novel over the course of many years of her young life and we can see her grow throughout, thus becoming a very dynamic character. We can see even more her descriptions and perceptions of her father, the man many have looked up to throughout the years. These

Later though, we see him slip up in terms of gender stereotypes. It is a very short moment, but it says a lot about him that he says it in passing as a joke. He says: “‘Miss Maudie can’t serve on a jury because she’s a woman--’...’I doubt if we’d ever get a complete case tried--the ladies’d be interrupting to ask questions’” (Lee 252). Here he is basically saying that the women would not be able to understand the events of the trial. He is generalizing an entire gender by a destructive stereotype. This is very out of character because we have never seen this sort of behavior in Atticus before. Atticus, this progressive, accepting person who has never seen gender as any sort of barrier or issue before, suddenly shows a different side. Atticus, the man who talks to Miss Maudie like any other man, treats Calpurnia with utmost respect, and allows Scout to wear overalls and play in the mud plunders head first into stereotypes. This event struck me as so odd because Atticus seemed so progressive in a sense of his time. He treats the women of the community as equals and respects them. He and Miss Maudie seem to be close friends and always in contact. He is shown as conversing with her more than he is shown with anyone else; “Atticus strolled over to Miss Maudie’s sidewalk, where they engaged in an arm-waving conversation” (Lee 77). In this simple detail, we can see a

A large part of the novel is exploring the ways these young children must mature as a result of circumstances like the trial, which force them to grow up and deal with adult ideas. Following this suit, we can even see Atticus change; he does not change in his nature, but in his appearance to his young daughter. As Scout grows, she starts to see Atticus from a different angle, an angle that is less glamorous. She starts to see a more human and flawed side which differs from her original view of Atticus as an omniscient sovereign. All people change, although some more than others. Overall, change is in the terms of whoever views it, and it is through Scout that we view Atticus’ change. Meaning that Atticus’ change throughout the novel is only as Scout views it. To Kill A Mockingbird contains many puzzling moments about certain characters, many subtle breaks in an established character that often go