Atticus Finch Justice

According to Erik Erikson, a developmental psychologist, most parents of young children to adolescents are in a stage of their life in which they wish to impart their values on the next generation; this holds true for Atticus Finch in raising his two children, Jem and Scout. As a dutiful lawyer, he upholds the importance of justice as the highest value that he can instill into his offspring. Atticus Finch establishes the moral backbone of his family with his words and actions by promoting his ideal of justice that under the law all people deserve to be treated equally. Words have the power to impact lives and change one's perspective. When inquisitive Scout questions Atticus on why he is representing Tom Robinson, he takes it as an opportunity to explain this particular case's importance by saying that in a lawyer's career there is at least one case of significance, that this case is that case for him, and that by not taking it he would never be able to tell her or Jem what to do ever again (Lee 86). The Tom Robinson case tests his moral convictions against public standards; he must set himself as an example for his children in order to have any worth as both a father and a lawyer. Later

At the time To Kill a Mockingbird was published, the Civil Rights era was in full swing. Brown v. Board of Education had legally ended de jure segregation, segregation by law, in schools, but de facto segregation, segregation by fact/circumstance, still ran rampant in the South. Although all were supposed to be created equal in the court, juries were still primarily made up of white men whose racist biases often impeded their impartiality ("Historical Context: To Kill a Mockingbird."). Atticus brings out the truth to his community; whether or not they admit to it, everybody knows that Tom Robinson is innocent. He destroys whatever little is left of Bob Ewell's reputation and pride. He reminds all that they, too, should pursue