The Real Struggle of Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

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“Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle,” says the great Martin Luther King Jr. In the book To Kill a MockingBird by Harper Lee we see similar struggle that Dr. King battled. Atticus Finch is the only one in the small town of Maycomb willing to admit an african american might not actually be to blame. It was Atticus and Tom Roberson against Maycomb. Throughout Atticus’ interaction with the people of Maycomb he shows people the truth about equality and helped with racism. In the end we learn that it takes courage and a hard shell to beat racism, and breaking down a barrier of society can put a lot of struggle and challenge on one person. Atticus shows us many things as he battles the trail of Tom Roberson. He had many new characteristics and emotions we saw throughout the story. When he was under the pressure of maycomb and the community we saw things out of his personality. The passage says “Atticus would flee to his office directly after dinner, where if we sometimes looked in on him, we could find him sitting back on his swivel chair reading” (pg. 78) This shows that the trial changed the way he interacted with the kids, and he was stressed. You can tell he was stressed by his distance between the family at the time. Another example of new emotion is, “Atticus’ eyes filled with tears. He did not speak for a minute ‘ tell them I’m very grateful.’ He said.” (pg. 114) We see how he had such an emotion change because of the trail. He knew more coming out of this, seeing much more of the truth and lies one might tell, I think he was hurt that people would do such thing we never saw this side of him before. This shows that being on to stand up for something that might be the ... ... middle of paper ... ...ldren to listen to me or respect me? His kids might never even know he was lying, but he has a very strong conscience. Atticus didn’t need to pass something like this case off to another person just because he was afraid. He was still able to face a challenge that was against what people thought was right and what they thought was wrong at the time. But looking back we can only hope reality will continue to provide us with people like Atticus, who faced discrimination and cruelty without being recognized by national news, or getting medals of honor. Even standing up for the slightest thing could make you face anything: from dirty looks to danger. We see it everywhere, highschool, TV, internet. But in the end, we should realize there is a major strength needed to go against the flow of being mainstream instead of just turning our heads to what we don’t want to see.

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