Examining Atticus Finch: Leadership and Morality

Personality Review Essay: Atticus Finch from Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird Emilie Kimmons What do you think when you picture a virtuous leader? Do you picture someone who possesses integrity, loyalty, and knowledge or someone who is strong, loud and powerful? Leaders can have many different qualities and still be successful, respected, and admired. There are some leaders who are in total control, they tell a group of people what to do and people follow orders. Others may be focused more on morals, they teach people, listen to other people’s ideas, as well as wanting to help people; Atticus Finch from Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird is a really worthy comparison to this type of leader. Atticus falls under the INFJ personality type,

INFJ’s are known for their morality and idealism. They are extremely caring and helpful, and when they have a goal they will do anything they can to get there even if the idea may be unrealistic. INFJ’s fight for what they believe in, they are very strong-willed and have impressive communication skills. Atticus is the spitting image of an INFJ personality type with his eagerness to help, his drive to contribute to permanently fix a problem, his communication skills, his passion for defending what is right, and his awareness of the people around him and their feelings, just to name a few. The first letter of the INFJ personality type is Introversion. This signifies the source/direction of a person’s personal energy preference. This means you are energized by things within yourself, such as your ideas and thoughts. You don’t need to interact

Atticus is very mindful of his feelings along with other peoples’ feelings. Throughout the novel Atticus teaches his children that you really don’t know someone until you’ve walked in their shoes. He puts himself in other people’s shoes all throughout the book and thinks how he would feel if it were actually him wearing the shoes. He shares this mindset with his kids saying "you never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view - until you climb into his skin and walk around in it." He can see another person’s viewpoint very easily, he can relate to them, and is always mannerly to everyone even if he is despised. Rather than be accepted by others, Atticus does exactly what he believes to be right in his own heart. During this time period there was extreme racism going on and Atticus wanted no part in it, he wasn't prejudiced at all since he knew that treating someone differently because of their skin color is completely wrong. In the book, Calpurnia, a black female, helped raise Atticus’s children, he had no problem at all with his kids going to an all-black church, and he taught his children to refrain from using racial slurs. He does not agree with how people of color are treated in his society and he doesn’t go along with the norms of his society even passing on his values to his children. In another instance, Bob Ewell, spits in Atticus’s face and Atticus does not react, he