Saturday, October 30, 2010
Jessi Wheeler
I found it ironic at first that when Scout asks Atticus on page 108 what a certain bad word means that his face is "grave" and he asks "Has somebody been calling you that?" He keeps fussing at Scout for fighting at school and at Jem for ruining Mrs. Dubose's flowers when they are standing up for him, and yet when he thinks someone is calling Scout a bad name, he seems to get defensive. This shows that Lee is developing Atticus into a slightly different character than the "courteous" and "detached" father from the first few pages. The audience sees that Atticus dearly loves his children and wants to protect them from all the ugly things that are about to happen. He even says to Jem of Mrs. Dubose's ugly comments that he would "rather she'd have said it to me than to either of you" (105). He knows he cannot protect them from everything, though, which is why he is trying to teach them lessons like the one Jem learned from Mrs. Dubose's courageous triumph over morphine addiction and why he secretly allowed Scout to eavesdrop on page 88. He's not outspoken or obvious with his love, but he does love Jem and Scout.
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Something that struck me while I was reading through this section is how closely Atticus resembles a Christ figure. Such as how Atticus is the default moral standard for the family, or how he is metaphorically crucified for representing Tom Robinson, even though it is the right thing to do. As well notice to whom everyone instantly turned to deal with the rabid dog?(pg 93) Why Atticus of course, because he was always the one who did the work other would not simply because it had to be done. Sounds Christ-like to me, and on an extraneous note Christ is nearly principally a mediator, while Atticus is Maycomb's mediator in the senate...so that absolutely has to mean something.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you, Coby. I didn't think of that while reading this section of the book. Atticus, like Christ, uses other people as examples to help explain what he is trying to teach his children. Though he does not literally say, "You shouldn't do this" or "You should do this," he teaches his children lessons by his actions and other's actions, rather than words or punishments.
ReplyDeleteI agree with all 3 of you. I've been tracking Atticus since we started reading the text and I've noticed how much love he has for his children. Such as when Cecil told everyone at school that "Scout Finch's daddy defended niggers." (74) When Scout asked Atticus about it he simply agreed and told Scout that he was defending Tom beacause "If I didn't I couldn't hold up my head in town, I couldn't represent this county in the legislature, I couldn't even tell you or Jem not to do something again." (76) Just as Jessi pointed out, Atticus knows that the town is bitter toward him so he is trying very hard to teach his children lessons to help them deal with the bitterness on their own.
ReplyDeleteCoby and Katie, I never thought about Atticus being a Christ figure before, but now that it's been pointed out it makes perfect sense. I talked about in my connections how Atticus was accepting all the hatred and bitterness from the town because he was a good man and had good morals but it makes sense that he is a Christ figure, and as Coby said, doing the work others wouldn't because it had to be done.