He was incapable of doing anything that would broach the inviolable sanctity of his conscience. He did not have one set of morals for business and one for family, one for weekdays and one for weekends. In Maycomb County, Atticus was known as a man who was “the same in his house as he is on the public streets.” That was the standard he lived by. Doing so earns the respect even of one’s most ardent critics after facing a myriad of taunts and threats from his neighbors for his defense of Tom Robinson, Atticus is once more re-elected to the state legislature … unanimously. “Don’t you oh well me, sir,” Miss Maudie replied, recognizing Jem’s fatalistic noises, “you are not old enough to appreciate what I said.”Ī man stands in the gap and does what must be done. “I simply want to tell you that there are some men in this world who were born to do our unpleasant jobs for us. Indoors, when Miss Maudie wanted to say something lengthy she spread her fingers on her knees and settled her bridgework. He does the job that must be done, but that other people are unwilling and afraid to do. While Atticus is assigned to be Robinson’s public defender by a judge, he earns the townspeople’s ire in his determination to actually defend him, honorably and fairly, to the best of his abilities. Robinson, a black man, has been accused by Mayella Ewell, a white woman, of rape.

To Kill a Mockingbird unfolds against the backdrop of Atticus’s representation of Tom Robinson. Lessons in Manliness from Atticus Finch A man does the job no one else wants to do.

The examples of honorable manhood that can be wrung from To Kill a Mockingbird are plentiful and powerful, and today we’d like to explore just a few. The manliness of Atticus Finch does not leap off the page instead, it burrows its way inside of you, sticks with you, causes your soul to say, “Now that is the kind of man I wish to be.” His manhood was not displayed in great showy acts but in quiet, consistent strength, in supreme self-possession. Yes, Atticus may not seem very “manly,” at least when measured by the modern rubric for manliness.īut it is the subtlety of his manliness, the way he carried himself, taught his children, made his choices, that makes his manliness all the more real, all the more potent. A man who liked nothing better than to bury himself in a book. Who didn’t gamble or smoke, who liked to walk instead drive. A lawyer who used his mind instead of his fists, who walked away from insults. Perhaps this character from To Kill a Mockingbird seems like an unusual choice. When it comes to manly characters in literature, my thoughts always return to one man:

Atticus finch