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Atticus Finch is a character in Harper Lee's Pulitzer Prize-winning fictional novel To Kill a Mockingbird. Atticus is a lawyer, resident of Maycomb County, Alabama, and the father of Jeremy "Jem" Finch and Jean Louise "Scout" Finch. Atticus is one of the central characters in the novel, arguably the single central character, although he is not the protagonist. Atticus is one of the most memorable and unique characters in American literature; in 2003 the AFI named Atticus, as portrayed in the film version of To Kill a Mockingbird by Gregory Peck, as the #1 Greatest Hero of American film, and in 2002, a "panel of 55 authors, literary agents, editor and actors" named him the 7th Greatest Character in Fiction since 1900.^{http://www.infoplease.com/ipea/A0932846.html}

Contents 1 Background 2 Plot 3 Notes on the Character 4 References in popular culture

Atticus is the descendant of Simon Finch, a doctor from England who settled near Maycomb. Atticus, rather than stay in the family homestead (named "Finch's Landing") went to Montgomery to study law. There he met and married the future mother of Jem and Scout Finch (who is never named, although it is mentioned that she was fifteen years younger than he), who dies of a heart attack two years after Scout, the youngest child, is born. At the start of the novel, Atticus lives in Maycomb with his two children and his maid, Calpurnia.

Atticus was is the book's most upright character, representing the moral ideal of both a lawyer and a human being: he is brutally honest, highly moral, a tireless crusader for good causes (even hopeless ones), a pacifist and, for the most part, devoid of any of the racial or class prejudices afflicting the other citizens of Maycomb. He goes to great pains to instruct his children on the importance of being open-minded, judicious, generous neighbors and citizens. He is eventually revealed to be an expert marksman, but he had chosen to keep this fact hidden from his children so that they would not in any way think of him as a man of violence. He was once the best shot in Maycomb County, but quit shooting because he felt he had an unfair advantage. Physically, he is described throughout the novel as a tall, middle-aged man with glasses to correct his failing eyesight, and hair slightly graying at the temples. He is also metioned never to take off his vest and tie, except right before changing for bed (he did loosen up his collar during his closing argument at Tom Robinson's trial).

The novel centers around (from the perspective of his daughter, Scout Finch) Atticus' struggle to defend a black man, Tom Robinson, convicted for the rape of a white woman, Mayella Ewell. Despite the fact that there is strong evidence suggesting that Tom is innocent, most of the town takes the side against Atticus simply because his defendant is a black man and the plaintiff is a white woman. Hence, Atticus, his children and his family continually face slander, insults, and sometimes even threats of physical violence from fellow town citizens, schoolmates of Jem and Scout, and even other members of the Finch family. Despite all this, Atticus refuses to abandon the case, and continues to urge Jem and Scout to remain unresponsive to the town's criticism, fearful that they may learn the wrong ethical lessons. Atticus shrugs off all prejudices and insults, forgiving the townspeople for their failings, and continues to work for Tom's acquittal, taking the release of the innocent man as a personal crusade.

Just as the entire book is semi-autobiographical, Atticus Finch was based on Harper Lee’s father Amasa Coleman Lee, although the name “Finch” presumably came from her mother, Frances Finch Lee. The name of Atticus came from the Roman orator and noble Titus Pomponius Atticus, noteworthy for never taking a side in political struggles but rather staying impartial.

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, which he used in the famous courtroom scene. For his performance, Peck received the Academy Award for Best Actor, and was voted in 2003 by the American Film Institute to be the #1 Greatest Hero of American film, beating out such famous film heroes as Indiana Jones, Superman, Mohandas K. Gandhi, Tarzan, James Bond and Robin Hood. 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.”

Lee, who later became good friends with Peck and his family, loved his portrayal of Finch and said of it: "In that film, the man and the part met." ^{http://www.medaloffreedom.com/GregoryPeckMockingbird.htm}

Fittingly, Atticus is one of only two heroes among the top 10 whose goodness and courage manifest themselves in overwhelmingly nonviolent actions. Since many of the most prominent heroes and stars in American film--John Wayne, Clint Eastwood, Indiana Jones, the heroes of Star Wars--are memorable, to a great extent, for their use of fists, guns, and the like, Atticus is outstanding among iconic movie heroes as an embodiment of quiet, intelligent strength and conscience.

Atticus's line "If you just learn a single 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 it's 100 Years... 100 Movie Quotes, but was not included in the final list. The line was spoken exactly as it appears in the book.

• Jasper Fforde's best-selling second novel in the Thursday Next series, Lost In A Good Book, features the eponymous heroine Thursday Next, entering a universe known as the Bookworld, where book characters are real and the fictional stories they appear in are lived out. There, Thursday is informed by the Cheshire Cat (who holds the title of librarian) that lobsters will inherit the Earth, and hence that To Kill a Mockingbird is the most-read book of all time, "not just because it is a cracking good read for us, but because of all the Vertebrate Uberclassics it was the only one that really translated well into Arthropod. And if you can crack the Lobster market--if you'll pardon the pun--a billion years from now, you're really going to flog some copies." Its Lobster title is "tlkiltlilkixlkilkixlkli" or "The Past Non-Existent State of the Angelfish" and Atticus Finch is re-imagined as a lobster named Tkliki who defends a horseshoe crab named Klikiflik (as opposed to a black man named Tom Robinson); apparently the novel compares well, but "the scene with the prawns is a little harrowing".

• American actor Jake Gyllenhaal named his German Shepherd Atticus after the novel.

• The clothing company Atticus took its name from the character; the logo depicts a dead bird, and the girls' line is called "Scout."

• To "Atticus Finch" has come to mean "reading a book while standing guard." It specifically refers to a scene in the book/film where Atticus Finch, reading by lamplight, sits outside Tom Robinson's cell, guarding against an impending lynch mob.

• When the video game/anime magazine Play reviewed the Utawarerumono anime, they compared the actions of the character Hakuoro to Atticus Finch.

• In the season 1 episode of Smallville entitled "Hug", Lex refers to Clark as "Atticus" Because of Clark trying to help a seemingly guilty man who is in fact innocent.

• In "The Daily Show" aired Tuesday March 27 2007, comedian Dennis Miller compares Durham District Attorney Mike Nifong to Atticus Finch.

• In Superman comic books, it´s many times said by the main character that he is inspired by Atticus Finch´s values.