To Kill a Mockingbird
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Is Atticus Finch a hero?
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Here's the Gladwell article about Finch:http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/20...
That's one answer to the question "Is Atticus Finch a hero". And it's a pretty good one. It's not the definitive answer, I don't think there is one. But it's a hell of a lot closer to an answer than "yes, of course he is".
I think he is the most honorable character in American fiction.
Atticus could have had many faults. We are just not informed of them by his adoring daughter. He is a true hero and one of my favorites in all literature
Jay wrote: "I think he saw his actions as the just thing to do. most heroes have no intentions of being a hero they just do the right thing."
I agree. No real heroes do things because they think it is heroic. The do heroic things because in a choice they make a decision which follows their moral code ,an act of bravery to others but an only way for them.The decision to go one way might be influenced by many factors, sometimes coincidental. There is a scene in my favourite film http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0234288/ where the main reason for helping a young Jewis man is the weather- it is pouring with rain, and the main character, a hero in my eyes who originally planned to just drive the young man out of town and leave him there, cannot bear the sight of that figure walking away in the rain so he hides him at great risks to his family.
I liked that scene.
I also think sometimes people use " hero" for cancer survivors, and people survibing terrible ordeals.
There comes another quotation from Mendel's Dwarf
To be a hero, you have to have a choice.
I think Atticus WAS a hero- he had a choice, and made the right, brave one.
Lucie
I agree. No real heroes do things because they think it is heroic. The do heroic things because in a choice they make a decision which follows their moral code ,an act of bravery to others but an only way for them.The decision to go one way might be influenced by many factors, sometimes coincidental. There is a scene in my favourite film http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0234288/ where the main reason for helping a young Jewis man is the weather- it is pouring with rain, and the main character, a hero in my eyes who originally planned to just drive the young man out of town and leave him there, cannot bear the sight of that figure walking away in the rain so he hides him at great risks to his family.
I liked that scene.
I also think sometimes people use " hero" for cancer survivors, and people survibing terrible ordeals.
There comes another quotation from Mendel's Dwarf
To be a hero, you have to have a choice.
I think Atticus WAS a hero- he had a choice, and made the right, brave one.
Lucie
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The point of the question was to get the group talking about the nature of heroism and to test their understanding of Atticus Finch's character. There are no right or wrong answers - it's an open question to get a debate going.