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-'''Atticus Finch''' is a fictional character of [[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 Finch "Jem" Finch and Jean Louise "Scout" Finch. Lee based the character on her own father, [[Amasa Coleman Lee]], an Alabama lawyer who, like Atticus Finch, represented black defendants in a highly-publicized criminal trial.<ref>{{cite journal |title=''Who was Atticus Finch? |work=Texas Bar Journal |volume=73 |issue=6 |first1=Talmage |last1=Boston |date=June 2010 |pages=484–485 |url=http://www.texasbar.com/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Texas_Bar_Journal&Template=/CM/ContentDisplay.cfm&ContentID=9585 |format=PDF |accessdate=2013-02-05 }}</ref>  [[Book Magazine]]'s list ''The 100 Best Characters in Fiction Since 1900'' lists Finch as the 7th best fictional character of 20th century literature.<ref name=infoplease>{{cite web|url=http://www.infoplease.com/ipea/A0932846.html |title=''Book Magazine's'' The 100 Best Characters in Fiction Since 1900 |publisher=InfoPlease.com |accessdate=2010-05-21}}</ref><ref name=NPR>{{cite web |url=http://www.npr.org/programs/totn/features/2002/mar/020319.chohdsfsdhfaracters.html |title=100 Best Characters in Fiction Since 1900 | author = ''Book'' Magazine, March/April 2002 |date=March 2002 |work=Talk of the Nation |publisher=[[NPR]] |accessdate=November 17, 2011}}</ref>   In 2003, Atticus Finch, as portrayed by [[Gregory Peck]] in the [[To Kill a Mockingbird (film)|1962 film adaptation]], was voted by the [[American Film Institute]] to be the [[AFI's 100 Years... 100 Heroes and Villains|greatest hero in American film]].<ref name=AFI_greatest_hero/>
-==Impact on the legal profession==
-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."<ref>Johnson, ''Boundaries'' p.25-27</ref> 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."<ref>Petry, p. xxiii</ref> Examples of Atticus Finch's impact on the legal profession are plentiful. [[Morris Dees]] of the [[Southern Poverty Law Center]] notes 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.<ref name="Petry, p. xxiv">Petry, p. xxiv</ref> 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]]."<ref>Lubet, Steven. "Reconstructing Atticus Finch." ''Michigan Law Review'' 97, no. 6 (May 1999): 1339–62.</ref>
-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.<ref>[http://www.nytimes.com/1992/02/28/movies/bar-attack-lawyer-kill-mockingbird-iconoclast-takes-aim-hero.html ''" At the Bar; To Attack A Lawyer In 'To Kill a Mockingbird': An Iconoclast Takes Aim At A Hero"''] NY Times</ref>  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.<ref>Monroe H. Freedman, ""Atticus Finch, Esq., R.I.P.,"" 14 LEGAL TIMES 20 (1992); Monroe H. Freedman, ""Finch: The Lawyer Mythologized,"" 14 LEGAL TIMES 25 (1992) and Monroe Freedman, Atticus Finch – Right and Wrong, 45 Ala. L. Rev. 473 (1994).</ref> 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.<ref>Metress, Christopher. "The Rise and Fall of Atticus Finch." The Chattahoochee Review; 24 (1): September, 2003</ref> 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."<ref>"'Mockingbird' Hero Honored in Monroeville." ''Birmingham News'' (Alabama): May 3, 1997; Pg. 7A.</ref>
-==Film adaptation==
-{{main|To Kill a Mockingbird (film)}}
-In the 1962 [[film adaptation]] of ''To Kill a Mockingbird'', the actor [[Gregory Peck]] portrayed Finch. Lee became good friends with Peck as a result of his depiction of Finch, and even gave Peck her father’s watch.{{Citation needed|date=November 2007}} For his performance in the film, Peck received the [[Academy Award for Best Actor]]. In 2003, Finch as depicted in the film was voted by the [[American Film Institute]] to be the [[AFI's 100 Years... 100 Heroes and Villains|greatest hero in American film]].<ref name=AFI_greatest_hero>{{cite web|url=http://connect.afi.com/site/DocServer/handv100.pdf?docID=246 |title=AFI's 100 Years... 100 Heroes and Villains |publisher=afi.com |accessdate=2010-05-21}}</ref> Finch was chosen over film protagonists including [[Indiana Jones]], [[Rocky Balboa]], and [[Gandhi (film)|Mohandas K. Gandhi]], as depicted in the film ''Gandhi''. In 2008, Finch was selected by ''[[Empire Magazine|Empire]]'' magazine as one of ''The 100 Greatest Movie Characters''.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.empireonline.com/100-greatest-movie-characters/default.asp?c=70 |title=''Empire's'' The 100 Greatest Movie Characters |work=Empire Magazine |accessdate=2010-05-21}}</ref> ''[[Premiere Magazine|Premiere]]'' magazine also ranked Finch number 13 on their list of ''The 100 Greatest Movie Characters of All Time''.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.filmsite.org/100characters4.html |title=''Premiere's'' The 100 Greatest Movie Characters |publisher=Filmsite.org |accessdate=2010-05-21}}</ref> On their list of the ''100 Greatest Fictional Characters'', Fandomania.com ranked Finch at number 32.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://fandomania.com/100-greatest-fictional-characters-35-31/ |title= The 100 Greatest Fictional Characters |publisher=Fandomania.com |accessdate=2010-05-21| archiveurl= http://web.archive.org/web/20100620104536/http://fandomania.com/100-greatest-fictional-characters-35-31/| archivedate= June 20, 2010 <!--DASHBot-->| deadurl= no}}</ref> ''[[Entertainment Weekly]]'' placed Finch on their list of ''The 20 All Time Coolest Heroes in Pop Culture''.<ref name="autogenerated1">{{cite web|url=http://www.ew.com/ew/gallery/0,,20268279_2,00.html |title=''Entertainment Weekly's'' 20 All Time Coolest Heroes in Pop Culture |work=Entertainment Weekly |accessdate=2010-05-21}}</ref> 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, said about his performance:
-{{Quote box
- |quote  = 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.
- |source = {{mdash}}[[Gregory Peck]]<ref>[http://www.usatoday.com/life/2003-06-12-peck-obit_x.htm ''"Oscar-winner Gregory Peck dies at age 87"''] USA Today</ref>
- |width  = 75%
- |align  = center
-}}
-Lee continued to praise Peck's portrayal of Finch in the years following the film's release:
-{{Quote box
- |quote  = In that film, the man and the part met.
- |source = {{mdash}}[[Harper Lee]]<ref name=Eagan>Daniel Eagan. [http://books.google.com/books?id=2CIJFMMvx9MC America's film legacy: the authoritative guide to the landmark movies in the National Film Registry.] ''[[National Film Preservation Board]]'' (U.S.)</ref>
- |width = 75%
- |align = center
-}}
-The 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", spoken by Finch in both the novel and film, was one of 400 film quotes nominated by the [[American Film Institute|AFI]] for its ''[[AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movie Quotes|100 Years... 100 Movie Quotes]]'' list, but was not included in the final list.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.afi.com/Docs/tvevents/pdf/quotes400.pdf |title=AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movie Quotes Official Ballot |publisher=afi.com |accessdate= May 21, 2010}}</ref>
-''[[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 (film)|A Time to Kill]]'' is a "copycat descendant" of Atticus Finch.<ref name="autogenerated1"/>
-==Social references==
-Atticus Finch's willingness to support social outcasts and victims of prejudice is the eponymous inspiration for the name of the [[Atticus Circle]].  The Circle is an organization composed of "[[straight allies]]", [[heterosexual]] persons supportive of the [[LGBT rights]] movement.<ref>{{Cite web
-  | title = About Atticus Circle
-  | year = 2009
-  | url = http://www.atticuscircle.org/about-atticus-circle
-  | accessdate = November 17, 2011
-  | postscript = .}}
-</ref>
-==References==
-{{reflist|colwidth=30em}}
-==Bibliography==
-*Johnson, Claudia. ''To Kill a Mockingbird: Threatening Boundaries.'' Twayne Publishers: 1994. ISBN 0-8057-8068-8
-*Johnson, Claudia. ''Understanding To Kill a Mockingbird: A Student Casebook to Issues, Sources, and Historic Documents.'' Greenwood Press: 1994. ISBN 0-313-29193-4
-*Lee, Harper. ''To Kill a Mockingbird''. HarperCollins: 1960 (Perennial Classics edition: 2002). ISBN 0-06-093546-4
-*Mancini, Candice, ed. (2008). ''Racism in Harper Lee's ''To Kill a Mockingbird''&nbsp;'', The Gale Group. ISBN 978-0-7377-3904-6
-*Petry, Alice. "Introduction" in ''On Harper Lee: Essays and Reflections.'' University of Tennessee Press: 1994. ISBN 1-57233-578-5
-*Shields, Charles. ''Mockingbird: A Portrait of Harper Lee.'' Henry Holt and Co.: 2006. ISBN 0-8050-7919-X
-{{DEFAULTSORT:Finch, Atticus}}
-[[Category:Characters in American novels of the 20th century]]
-[[Category:Fictional characters from Alabama]]
-[[Category:Fictional lawyers]]
-[[Category:To Kill a Mockingbird]]
-[[Category:Fictional characters introduced in 1960]]
-[[Category:Fictional American people of European descent]]
-[[Category:Drama film characters]]
-[[it:Atticus Finch]]
-[[simple:Atticus Finch]]