Near the end of the book Atticus says to Heck Tate, Sometimes I think :: English Literature

Near the end of the book Atticus says to Heck Tate, Sometimes I think I'm a total failure as a parent, but I'm all they've got. How do you judge Atticus as a parent? Does he make any mistakes? What do other characters say about him? Near the end of the book Atticus says to Heck Tate, "Sometimes I think I'm a total failure as a parent, but I'm all they've got." How do you judge Atticus as a parent? Does he make any mistakes? What do other characters say about him? Atticus is a single parent who is nearly fifty years old when we first meet him. He lives with his two children, Jem who is 10 at the beginning of the book, and Scout who is six. His wife died when Scout was two, so Atticus has had to bring the children up for four years, on his own, with help from Calpurnia-a coloured servant. Atticus is a lawyer, who practises in his hometown, which is a small town called Maycomb in Alabama. Hard times fall upon the Finch family when Atticus is appointed to defend a black man, Tom Robinson, who has been accused of raping Mayella Ewell, a white girl. Atticus does not have to agree to take the case, but his self-respect and pride demand that he makes sure Tom gets a fair trial. He knows that he does not have a good chance of winning the trial, because it is a case of a white mans word against a black man, he admits this, "we were licked before we started". This act displays his belief in humanity and his sense of justice. It also verifies that Atticus is not a racist man and views the black community as equals. This attitude was not prevalent at the time, despite the fact that it was over seventy years since the Civil War. We learn of Atticus' approach to bringing up his children when Scout says, "he played with us, read to us, and treated us with courteous detachment". This, however, is not the only view Scout and Jem have of their father. To begin with they seem disappointed that their father does not do the same sort of things that other fathers do. He does not play football or poker, and he does not drink or smoke. Even though Atticus may have been remote in some of his dealings with his children, he did speak frankly to them, even about embarrassing things. He bought them a shotgun for Christmas, telling them not to kill a mocking bird. He may have been reserved, but I think he was