Near the end of the book Atticus says to Heck Tate, Sometimes I think

Near the end of the book Atticus says to Heck Tate, Sometimes I think

I'm a total failure as a parent, but I'm all they've got. How do you

judge Atticus as a parent? Does he make any mistakes? What do other

characters say about him?

Near the end of the book Atticus says to Heck Tate, "Sometimes I think

I'm a total failure as a parent, but I'm all they've got."

How do you judge Atticus as a parent? Does he make any mistakes? What

do other characters say about him?

Atticus is a single parent who is nearly fifty years old when we first

meet him. He lives with his two children, Jem who is 10 at the

beginning of the book, and Scout who is six. His wife died when Scout

was two, so Atticus has had to bring the children up for four years,

on his own, with help from Calpurnia-a coloured servant.

Atticus is a lawyer, who practises in his hometown, which is a small

town called Maycomb in Alabama. Hard times fall upon the Finch family

when Atticus is appointed to defend a black man, Tom Robinson, who has

been accused of raping Mayella Ewell, a white girl. Atticus does not

have to agree to take the case, but his self-respect and pride demand

that he makes sure Tom gets a fair trial. He knows that he does not

have a good chance of winning the trial, because it is a case of a

white mans word against a black man, he admits this, "we were licked

before we started". This act displays his belief in humanity and his

sense of justice. It also verifies that Atticus is not a racist man

and views the black community as equals. This attitude was not

prevalent at the time, despite the fact that it was over seventy years

since the Civil War.

We learn of Atticus' approach to bringing up his children when Scout

says, "he played with us, read to us, and treated us with courteous

detachment". This, however, is not the only view Scout and Jem have of

their father. To begin with they seem disappointed that their father

does not do the same sort of things that other fathers do. He does not

play football or poker, and he does not drink or smoke. Even though

Atticus may have been remote in some of his dealings with his

children, he did speak frankly to them, even about embarrassing

things. He bought them a shotgun for Christmas, telling them not to

kill a mocking bird. He may have been reserved, but I think he was