Tuesday, January 10, 2012

In Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, what is a good passage that shows Atticus takes pride in his work?

In Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, one of the best passages depicting Atticus taking great pride in his work is found in Chapter 9.

Towards the end of the chapter, Jack, Atticus's brother, asks Atticus how bad Tom Robinson's case will be. Atticus laments that the case is very bad because neither the prosecution nor the defense has any concrete evidence and states he had "hoped to get through life without a case" influenced by racism. Yet, Atticus follows his laments by posing the following rhetorical question to his brother:



But do you think I could face my children otherwise? (Ch. 9)



In asking this rhetorical question, Atticus is stating he would not be able to, in good conscience, face his children or the rest of society if he did not accept the task of defending Robinson since he knows it is his moral obligation as a defense lawyer to give all charged with a crime the best defense possible, thereby upholding America's legal principle that all are innocent until proven guilty. The fact that he feels he will not be able to face anyone if he does not accept Robinson's case shows exactly how much pride Atticus takes in his work.

Atticus additionally reveals how much pride he takes in his work when he explains to his brother he "intend[s] to jar the jury a bit" (Ch. 9). Based on Atticus's later actions during the trial, we can see that, in saying this, Atticus means he plans to get the jury to think very introspectively about their racist beliefs in order to try and convince them to make their judgement based objective facts, not subjective racist beliefs. He further explains to his brother, "I think we'll have a reasonable chance on appeal" (Ch. 9). Both of these statements show just how dedicated Atticus is to putting his all into defending Robinson, which further shows us exactly how much pride he takes in his work.

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