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Atticus Finch is a fictional character and the protagonist of Harper Lee's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel To Kill a Mockingbird. Atticus is a lawyer and resident of the fictional Maycomb County, Alabama, and the father of Jeremy Atticus "Jem" Finch and Jean Louise "Scout" Finch. In an interview once held with Harper Lee, she indicated that she had based Atticus's character after her close friend Nick Velillari, who was also a lawyer. In 2003, Atticus Finch, as portrayed by Gregory Peck in the 1962 film adaptation, was voted by the American Film Institute to be the greatest hero in American film.

Impact on the legal profession

Claudia Durst Johnson noted about available critique of the novel that, "a greater volume of critical readings has been amassed by two legal scholars in law journals than by all the literary scholars in literary journals." Alice Petry remarked that "Atticus has become something of a folk hero in legal circles and is treated almost as if he were an actual person." Examples of Atticus Finch's impact on the legal profession are plentiful. Morris Dees of the Southern Poverty Law Center notes Finch as the reason he became a lawyer, and Richard Matsch, the federal judge who presided over the Timothy McVeigh trial, counts Atticus as a major judicial influence. One law professor at the University of Notre Dame stated that the most influential textbook he taught from was To Kill a Mockingbird, and an article in the Michigan Law Review claimed, "No real-life lawyer has done more for the self-image or public perception of the legal profession," before questioning whether, "Atticus Finch is a paragon of honor or an especially slick hired gun."

In 1992, Monroe Freedman, a legal ethics expert published two articles in the national legal newspaper Legal Times calling for the legal profession to set aside Atticus Finch as a role model. Freedman argued that Atticus still worked within a system of institutionalized racism and sexism and should not be revered. Freedman's article sparked a flurry of responses from attorneys who entered the profession holding Atticus Finch as a hero, and the reason they became lawyers. Critics of Atticus such as Freedman maintain that Atticus Finch is morally ambiguous and does not use his legal skills to challenge the racist status quo in Maycomb. Freedman's article sparked furious controversy. Further, in 1997, the Alabama State Bar erected a monument dedicated to Atticus in Monroeville marking his existence as the "first commemorative milestone in the state's judicial history."

Skill with firearms

In the tenth chapter of the novel, Finch shoots a mad dog, which has frightened several locals, in one shot. Those commenting on his ability with his firearms noted his skill; he was known to have called using 15 bullets to kill 14 doves a waste of ammunition. However, thirty years prior to the incident depicted in the novel, Finch is said to have sworn never to use a firearm again unless in a dire situation.

Film adaptation

Book Magazine's list The 100 Best Characters in Fiction Since 1900 lists Finch as the 7th best fictional character of 20th century literature.

In the 1962 film adaptation of To Kill a Mockingbird, the actor Gregory Peck portrayed Finch. Lee became good friends with Peck as a result of his depiction of Finch, and even gave Peck her father’s watch. For his performance in the film, Peck received the Academy Award for Best Actor. In 2003, Finch as depicted in the film was voted by the American Film Institute to be the greatest hero in American film. Finch was chosen over film protagonists including Indiana Jones, Rocky Balboa, and Mohandas K. Gandhi, as depicted in the film Gandhi. In 2008, Finch was selected by Empire magazine as one of The 100 Greatest Movie Characters. Premiere magazine also ranked Finch number 13 on their list of The 100 Greatest Movie Characters of All Time. On their list of the 100 Greatest Fictional Characters, Fandomania.com ranked Finch at number 32. Entertainment Weekly placed Finch on their list of The 20 All Time Coolest Heroes in Pop Culture. Peck, a civil rights activist and recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom award, who favored the role of Finch over all his other roles, said about his performance:

I put everything I had into it – all my feelings and everything I'd learned in 46 years of living, about family life and fathers and children. And my feelings about racial justice and inequality and opportunity.

Lee continued to praise Peck's portrayal of Finch in the years following the film's release:

In that film, the man and the part met.

The line "If you can learn a simple trick, Scout, you'll get along a lot better with all kinds of folks. You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view, until you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it", spoken by Finch in both the novel and film, was one of 400 film quotes nominated by the AFI for its 100 Years... 100 Movie Quotes list, but was not included in the final list.

Entertainment Weekly wrote that " transforms quiet decency, legal acumen, and great parenting into the most heroic qualities a man can have." It also stated that the character Jake Tyler Brigance from the film A Time to Kill is a "copycat descendant" of Atticus Finch.

Social references

Atticus Finch's willingness to support social outcasts and those discriminated against due to a perceived inferiority is the eponymous inspiration for the name of the Atticus Circle. The Circle is an organization composed of "straight allies", heterosexual persons supportive of the LGBT rights movement.

References

1. ^ "AFI's 100 Years... 100 Heroes and Villains" (PDF). afi.com. Retrieved 2010-05-21.
2. Johnson, Boundaries p.25-27
3. Petry, p. xxiii
4. Petry, p. xxiv
5. Lubet, Steven. "Reconstructing Atticus Finch." Michigan Law Review 97, no. 6 (May 1999): 1339–62.
6. " At the Bar; To Attack A Lawyer In 'To Kill a Mockingbird': An Iconoclast Takes Aim At A Hero" NY Times
7. Monroe H. Freedman, ""Atticus Finch, Esq., R.I.P.,"" 14 LEGAL TIMES 20 (1992); Monroe H. Freedman, ""Finch: The Lawyer Mythologized,"" 14 LEGAL TIMES 25 (1992) and Monroe Freedman, Atticus Finch -- Right and Wrong, 45 Ala. L. Rev. 473 (1994).
8. Metress, Christopher. "The Rise and Fall of Atticus Finch." The Chattahoochee Review; 24 (1): September, 2003
9. "'Mockingbird' Hero Honored in Monroeville." Birmingham News (Alabama): May 3, 1997; Pg. 7A.
10. "Book Magazine's The 100 Best Characters in Fiction Since 1900". InfoPlease.com. Retrieved 2010-05-21.
11. Book Magazine, March/April 2002 (March 2002). "100 Best Characters in Fiction Since 1900". Talk of the Nation. NPR. Retrieved November 17, 2011.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
12. "Empire's The 100 Greatest Movie Characters". Empire Magazine. Retrieved 2010-05-21. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
13. "Premiere's The 100 Greatest Movie Characters". Filmsite.org. Retrieved 2010-05-21.
14. "The 100 Greatest Fictional Characters". Fandomania.com. Retrieved 2010-05-21.
15. ^ "Entertainment Weekly's 20 All Time Coolest Heroes in Pop Culture". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 2010-05-21.
16. "Oscar-winner Gregory Peck dies at age 87" USA Today
17. Daniel Eagan. America's film legacy: the authoritative guide to the landmark movies in the National Film Registry. National Film Preservation Board (U.S.)
18. "AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movie Quotes Official Ballot" (PDF). afi.com. Retrieved May 21, 2010.
19. "About Atticus Circle". 2009. Retrieved 17 November 2011.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: postscript (link)

Bibliography

• Johnson, Claudia. To Kill a Mockingbird: Threatening Boundaries. Twayne Publishers: 1994. ISBN 0805780688
• Johnson, Claudia. Understanding To Kill a Mockingbird: A Student Casebook to Issues, Sources, and Historic Documents. Greenwood Press: 1994. ISBN 0313291934
• Lee, Harper. To Kill a Mockingbird. HarperCollins: 1960 (Perennial Classics edition: 2002). ISBN 0060935464
• Mancini, Candice, ed. (2008). Racism in Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird,  The Gale Group. ISBN 0737739046
• Petry, Alice. "Introduction" in On Harper Lee: Essays and Reflections. University of Tennessee Press: 1994. ISBN 1572335785
• Shields, Charles. Mockingbird: A Portrait of Harper Lee. Henry Holt and Co.: 2006. ISBN 080507919X

• Characters in American novels of the 20th century
• Fictional characters from Alabama
• Fictional lawyers
• To Kill a Mockingbird
• Fictional characters introduced in 1960