Literary Analysis of “To Kill a Mockingbird”

In the book To Kill A Mockingbird there are many characters with important roles. The character I am going to choose is Atticus, because he is very important to the story. Atticus is a character who appears throughout the entire book and has many good traits that society should have. I will discuss 3 direct quotes and how they are significant to the story and plot, and conclude with a symbol for Atticus.

The first specific quote from Atticus and the text that will show the significance of Atticus is when he talking to Scout. The quote is “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”. I chose this quote because I believe this quote represents how everyone in society should live. This quote explains the character by showing that Atticus considers everything that someone is going through, along with out judging. This is important because in the book he was chosen to represent and defend a Negro. This is important because Atticus could easily judge and conclude he is guilty, but he does not. With this Atticus gives him the best trial possible with the best defense he could have paid for. So with this Atticus is trying to say that don’t judge a book by its cover and don’t believe everything you hear.

Through the book Atticus shows he has experienced life and has learned a lot over his years. One quote to help support this is “The one thing that doesn’t abide by majority is a person’s conscience.” This quote is powerful but simple. This quote signifies the whole story. Atticus is teaching this because he knows that even in a mob it may seem like everyone knows what they are doing is right, but Atticus is saying they know in their mind if it’s right or not and that no one can persuade you. In two instances you can see this. One example is in front of the jail a mob of men come up and are about to kill Boo, but Scout and Jem convince the men to go home. I believe when she is talking to the man, these men realize in their conscience that what they are doing is wrong. Going back to Atticus, I believe if he didn’t defend the Negro that his conscience would have told him what he did was wrong.

If it wasn’t for this conscience of Atticus the whole entire plot development and the story wouldn’t exist. The best part about the plot was when the Jury deliberated for six hours. This shows that Atticus did his job, because he made a twelve man all-white jury think about a black man’s case in a racist town. A third quote that I believe helps and describes Atticus’s qualities is “Best way to clear the air is to have it all out in the open.” Throughout the story Atticus tells everything as he sees it, without lying. This and this quote demonstrate that honesty will take you far in people’s eyes, because you can be trusted. Atticus in a way is a hero, because he defends what he believes in, unlike most of society, and succeeds in proving his point and the truth.
With all of these quotes and qualities and a little help from his name I found a perfect symbol for Atticus. That symbol is the Finch bird. The reason is a finch bird in the bird world is very well respected. Atticus is the same way in the town of Maycomb. Along with being well respected Atticus solves conflict just like the soft spoken bird. In the end I believe Harper lee made the last name of Atticus and the kids for these reasons.