Atticus Finch is a fictional character in 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. Atticus is a central character in the novel. 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.[1]
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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."[2] 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."[3] Examples of Atticus Finch's impact on the legal profession are plentiful. Morris Dees of the Southern Poverty Law Center cites Atticus 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.[4] 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."[5]
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.[6] 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.[7] 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.[8] 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."[9]
Book Magazine's list The 100 Best Characters in Fiction Since 1900 lists Atticus Finch as the 7th best fictional character of the 20th Century.[10][11]
In the film adaptation of To Kill a Mockingbird, Atticus Finch was played by Gregory Peck. Lee became good friends with Peck and even gave him her father’s watch. For his performance, Peck received the Academy Award for Best Actor. In 2003, Atticus Finch was voted by the American Film Institute to be the greatest hero in American film,[1] beating out such famous film heroes as Indiana Jones, Rocky Balboa, Superman, Mohandas K. Gandhi, Tarzan, James Bond and Robin Hood. In 2008, Atticus Finch was selected by Empire magazine as one of The 100 Greatest Movie Characters.[12] Premiere magazine also ranked Finch number 13 on their list of The 100 Greatest Movie Characters of All Time.[13] On their list of the 100 Greatest Fictional Characters, Fandomania.com ranked Finch at number 32.[14] Entertainment Weekly placed Finch on their list of The 20 All Time Coolest Heroes in Pop Culture.[15] 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, had this to say 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."[16] Lee loved his portrayal of Finch and said of it: "In that film, the man and the part met."[17]
Finch's 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" was one of 400 film quotes nominated by the AFI for its 100 Years... 100 Movie Quotes, but was not included in the final list.[18] The line was spoken exactly as it appears in the book.
Entertainment Weekly wrote that "[Finch] 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.[15]
Atticus Finch's willingness to stand up for the socially outcast is the eponymous inspiration for the Atticus Circle, an organization for straight allies of the LGBT rights movement.[19]