We Admire Atticus as a Compassionate Father and Lawyer

To Kill A Mockingbird     Dr. Collins
Topic: We admire Atticus as a compassionate father and lawyer
In To Kill A Mocking Bird Harper Lee depicts Atticus as a very appealing family man and lawyer who shows strong, moral sympathy for other people’s suffering. Atticus shows his compassion in many parts of the novel, three of these are when he tells Scout and Jem to stay away from Boo Radley, forcing Jem to read to Mrs Dubouse and the main one, accepting Tom Robinson’s court case.
Early on in the novel Jem and Scout are constantly toying with Boo Radley, the run into the Radleys yard, play out the front and then at one stage with Dill, sneak into their backyard and try to enter the house through one of the windows. Atticus sits Jem, Scout and Dill down and talks to them about why he never comes out. Dill replies with "We're askin' him real politely to come out sometimes, and tell us what he does in there – we said we wouldn't hurt him and we'd buy him an ice cream." Atticus is showing compassion for Boo as he only comes out at night, because of his dark past.
In the middle of the novel Jem and Scout come into closer contact with Mrs Dubouse. Mrs Dubouse starts talking about their father behind his back. She says "Your father is no better than the niggers and trash he works for!" right in front of the kids. This was the last straw for Jem, so she took Scouts newly bought baton and in a blind rage tears Mrs Dubouse’s garden apart. Atticus again shows compassion and forces Jem to read for her for a month. A month later Jem was told again to keep reading because Mrs Dubouse was a very sick old lady and wasn’t far off dying. More weeks go by and even after what she said about Atticus, he was there when she died.
The biggest showing of compassion by Atticus is when he accepts Tom Robinson’s court case. Tom was accused of the rape of Mayella Ewell, the only eye witness was Bob Ewell the lowest most ignorant man in Maycomb. The case continues for a number of weeks and...