atticus finch essay

To Kill a Mockingbird

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You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view—“

“—until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.”

“If you shouldn't be defendin' him, then why are you doin' it?”

“For a number of reasons,” said Atticus. “The main one is, if I didn't I couldn't hold up my head in town, I couldn't represent this county in the legislature, I couldn't even tell you or Jem not to do something again.”

"Atticus, are we going to win it?"

“No, honey.”

“Then why—”

“Simply because we were licked a hundred years before we started is no reason for us not to try to win,” Atticus said.

After my bout with Cecil Jacobs when I committed myself to a policy of cowardice, word got around that Scout Finch wouldn't fight any more, her daddy wouldn't let her.

“Remember it's a sin to kill a mockingbird.” That was the only time I ever heard Atticus say it was a sin to do something, and I asked Miss Maudie about it.

“Your father's right,” she said. “Mockingbirds don't do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don't eat up people's gardens, don't nest in corncribs, they don't do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That's why it's a sin to kill a mockingbird.”

It was times like these when I thought my father, who hated guns and had never been to any wars, was the bravest man who ever lived.

“Atticus, you must be wrong…”

“How's that?”

“Well, most folks seem to think they're right and you're wrong…”

“The one that doesn’t abide by majority rule is a person’s conscience.”

“It's when you know you're licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what. You rarely win, but sometimes you do.”

Dill's eyes flickered at Jem, and Jem looked at the floor. Then he rose and broke the remaining code of our childhood. He went out of the room and down the hall. “Atticus,” his voice was distant, “can you come here a minute, sir?”

Beneath its sweat-streaked dirt Dill's face went white. I felt sick.

Jem was standing in a corner of the room, looking like the traitor he was. “Dill, I had to tell him,” he said. “You can't run three hundred miles off without your mother knowin'.” We left him without a word.

“They've done it before and they did it tonight and they'll do it again and when they do it—seems that only children weep.”

Atticus had used every tool available to free men to save Tom Robinson, but in the secret courts of men's hearts Atticus had no case. Tom was a dead man the minute Mayella Ewell opened her mouth and screamed.

A boy trudged down the sidewalk dragging a fishing-pole behind him. A man stood waiting with his hands on his hips. Summertime, and his children played in the front yard with their friend, enacting a strange little drama of their own invention.

It was fall, and his children fought on the sidewalk in front of Mrs. Dubose's [...] Fall, and his children trotted to and fro around the corner, the day's woes and triumphs on their faces. They stopped at an oak tree, delighted, puzzled, apprehensive.

Winter, and his children shivered at the front gate, silhouetted against a blazing house. Winter, and a man walked into the street, dropped his glasses, and shot a dog.

Summer, and he watched his children's heart break. Autumn again, and Boo's children needed him.

Atticus was right. One time he said you never really know a man until you stand in his shoes and walk around in them. Just standing on the Radley porch was enough.

“When they finally saw him, why he hadn't done any of those things…Atticus, he was real nice…” His hands were under my chin, pulling up the cover, tucking it around me. “Most people are, Scout, when you finally see them.” He turned out the light and went into Jem's room. He would be there all night, and he would be there when Jem waked up in the morning.

Who was Atticus Finch?

Letters from Harper Lee shed new light on the beloved and now controversial character

By Laura Douglas-Brown | April 5, 2018

For more than 50 years, Atticus Finch stood as one of the most beloved characters in American literature, the model of a principled white man who spoke out for racial justice and a gentle father who guided his children by example rather than through fear.

A central character of Harper Lee’s acclaimed novel “To Kill a Mockingbird,” published in 1960, Atticus is a lawyer in the small town of Maycomb, Alabama, who earns the ire of some white townspeople — and the admiration of his young daughter — when he defends a Black man, Tom Robinson, accused of raping a white girl and facing an all-white jury.

Known by her nickname, Scout, Jean Louise Finch is Atticus’s daughter and the novel’s narrator. Spirited, precocious and usually clad in grubby overalls, she idolizes her father and finds in him the acceptance she is already learning can be hard to come by under the rigid social rules that govern Maycomb and the world beyond.

Generations of American readers, many of whom read “To Kill a Mockingbird” for school assignments during their own formative years, grew to love both characters. And many reacted with something akin to grief when “Go Set a Watchman” — the only other novel known to be written by Lee — was published in 2015 after the manuscript was found in a safe-deposit box by the elderly writer’s lawyer.

Written before “To Kill a Mockingbird,” “Go Set a Watchman” is also set in Maycomb, and also explores the relationship between Atticus and Jean Louise Finch. Here, though, Jean Louise is a young woman who has moved to New York City and is returning to Maycomb for an annual visit that mostly serves as a reminder of how different she is from the place she once called home.

Even her father, it turns out, is not who she thought he was, as the novel reveals that the same Atticus who defended a Black man accused of rape (in this version of the story, actually winning an acquittal, unlike in “To Kill a Mockingbird”) is a member of an all-white Citizens Council formed to oppose integration.

Now a collection of Lee’s letters  acquired by Emory University  helps shed light on these two versions of Atticus Finch by illuminating Lee’s relationship with her own father, long recognized as a model for the character.

The letters, spanning 1956 to 1961, offer glimpses into Lee’s life during the crucial years when she was writing “Go Set a Watchman” and writing and publishing “To Kill a Mockingbird,” and echo major themes from both novels.

“When ‘Go Set a Watchman’ was published, there was a lot of controversy over these two different versions of Atticus Finch,” says Joseph Crespino, Emory’s Jimmy Carter Professor of American History and author of “ Atticus Finch: The Biography ,” to be published in May 2018.

“These letters give us insight into Harper Lee’s personal life and what was going on in her hometown that would have inspired her to write these two different versions — the kind of conflicts she was trying to work out in her fiction,” Crespino explains.

Emory acquired the letters from retired attorney Paul R. Kennerson of La Jolla, California, who said he approached the university about becoming the permanent home of the archive after meeting with Crespino, who reached out to him while researching his book on Finch.

“These letters complement the research being done by Joe Crespino so perfectly that I was taken with the fit of it and was highly impressed with other work being done at Emory,” Kennerson notes. “I can’t think of a better place to house these materials for future use by researchers and scholars.” 

The "Paul Kennerson collection of Harper Lee material, circa 1947-1980s" is now available to scholars through Emory's Rose Library. View the Finding Aid for more details.

Now available to researchers and students by appointment in Emory’s  Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives and Rare Book Library , the letters bridge several of the Rose Library’s strongest areas of focus, including modern literature, African American life and culture, and Southern history and politics, notes Rosemary Magee, who served as Rose Library director when the letters were acquired.

“Harper Lee’s own life story, as revealed through the letters, occurs at a particular moment in history where lines are being re-examined and redrawn,” Magee notes. “As with her characters, we see Lee struggling in her own community; we enjoy her playfulness with language; we observe her devotion to good friends.

“In short, we recognize a young woman coming to terms with her times and her talent.”

Emory professor Joseph Crespino, author of "Atticus Finch: The Biography," explains why the character continues to resonate with readers and what we can learn from Harper Lee's letters.

A tale of two fathers

“To Kill a Mockingbird,” which won the 1961 Pulitzer Prize for Literature and cemented Lee’s place in the American canon, offers an idealized view of Atticus through the eyes of the young Scout: He is deeply moral, fair and kind, a man who earns respect from the African American community for his work to defend Tom Robinson, a father who guides his children to follow in his footsteps.

“The book has this almost unique place in our popular culture in the way that it serves as a kind of primer for so many white young people in learning the history of racial discrimination and racial inequality in the American South, but also having this model of racial morality,” Crespino says.

So for many readers, the contrast between the Atticus of “To Kill a Mockingbird” and the Atticus of “Go Set a Watchman” proved painfully jarring, almost like a betrayal, he explains.

The Atticus of “Watchman” is “condescending to his daughter, he says these terrible things about African Americans in the 1950s, he’s opposed to the changes going on — it’s such a polar opposite perspective from the Atticus that we have come to know and love,” Crespino says.

But instead of two separate characters, these versions of Atticus are meant to be viewed as two sides of the same person — and Harper Lee’s father, Amassa Coleman “A.C.” Lee, was the inspiration for both, he explains.

“One of the things that I have discovered by going back and doing research on Harper Lee’s father is that it is clear that he was a complex individual who would have inspired both versions of Atticus,” Crespino says.

Like Atticus, A.C. Lee was a lawyer and state legislator; he was also the owner and publisher of the newspaper in Monroeville, Alabama, the town on which Maycomb is based.

“There are plenty of things from his own past that are noble, where he takes a stand morally and speaks out on the editorial page for these kinds of important principles, and yet he is also a white Southerner living in rural Alabama in a time of great change, who resents and is opposed to many of the dramatic political and social changes that are transforming his home,” Crespino says.

Harper Lee sits with her father, A.C. Lee, on the porch of his home in Monroeville, Alabama. The character of Atticus Finch is based on A.C. Lee. Photo by Donald Uhrbrock/The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images.

The letters now housed at Emory offer important perspectives into Harper Lee’s feelings about her father, and therefore her famous character.

They are written from Monroeville, first when she has gone home in 1956 to help care for her father following a major health crisis, and then from later visits. Addressed to her friend Harold Caufield, a New York City architect, as well as Michael and Joy Brown, who helped finance her writing life, the letters are alternately witty and tender, showing Lee grappling with the realization of her father’s mortality.

“Sugar, I guess we all rise somehow to occasions: I’ve done things for him that I never remotely thought I’d be called on to do for anybody, not even the Brown infants, but I supposed there is truth in the adage that you don’t mind it if they’re yours,” Lee writes to Caufield on June 16,1956, later adding, “he’ll get over this, but it’ll take time, time, time, and that’s where I’m needed, and here is where I’ll stay until I’m not needed.”

She offers a similar take in a later missive titled as “Sunday letter” to Caufield: “While thinking of something to say to you I found myself staring at his handsome old face, and a sudden wave of panic flashed through me, which I think was an echo of the fear and desolation that filled me when he was nearly dead,” Lee writes. “It has been years since I have lived with him on a day-to-day basis, and these months with him have strengthened my attachment to him, if such is possible.”

This further evidence of Lee’s attachment to her father speaks directly to both novels, Crespino says.

“One of the things that we learn in these letters is we get a great portrait of the depth of her feeling and love for her father,” he explains. “Of course, her father is the key figure in both of the novels that she wrote.”

In Lee’s letters and in Crespino’s further research, we see both the admiration for her father that informs the young Scout’s view of Atticus in “To Kill a Mockingbird,” as well as the tensions with her father that are the crux of the older Jean Louise’s view of Atticus in “Go Set a Watchman,” where Atticus is also aging and now needs help with daily tasks.

“We can anticipate the way she is going to think about and want to work out in her fiction the very complex set of feelings that she has towards her father,” Crespino notes.

White women sit in an almost empty bus in Montgomery, Alabama, during the bus boycott by African Americans that spanned December 1955 to December 1956. The letters from Harper Lee now housed at Emory University place the writer at home in Alabama during this crucial year of civil rights protests. Photo by Grey Villet/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images.

P ivotal time in Southern history

In “Go Set a Watchman,” Jean Louise’s relationship with her father reaches a crisis point when she learns that he is on the board of the newly organized Citizens Council, a group of white segregationists who oppose what they view as interference from the Supreme Court and the NAACP that threatens their way of life.

While the letters in Emory’s collection don’t discuss A.C. Lee’s stands on the Citizens Council, and he likely would have been too ill by then to join, they do confirm that Harper Lee had a front-row seat to Monroeville’s struggles with these issues, and provide important insight into her opinion of the major players in the debate.

“Another key thing that we learn from these letters is we are able to place Harper Lee in Monroeville in an important time in the broader history of the civil rights movement in Alabama and in the South,” Crespino says. “Harper Lee is at home in Alabama in 1956. That’s important to know because 1956 is a critical year in the era of mass resistance in Alabama politics.”

By reading local newspapers from when the letters were written, the historian found that 1956 was the year the first Citizens Council — which he describes as “the white-collar Klan” — formed in Monroeville.

In a letter dated only “Sunday Night After You Called” but believed by Crespino to have been written in 1956, Lee sends Caufield an extensive description of the local political scene, including a man named Henry Lazenby, who she derides as “a singularly spineless creature all his life.”

Although Lee does not mention it in the letter, Crespino’s research shows that Lazenby was the leader of Monroeville’s Citizens Council.

In addition to letters, Emory's Harper Lee collection includes a 1947 University of Alabama yearbook, “The Corolla,” which includes a photo of Nelle Harper Lee, who was editor of the Rammer-Jammer, the campus humor magazine.

Alienation and identification

Lee’s letters to Caufield and the Browns also illustrate her broader sense of isolation in returning to Monroeville, similar to Jean Louise’s sense that she no longer belongs in Maycomb — her awareness of “a sharp separation” and that “all of Maycomb and Maycomb County were leaving her as the hours passed,” as Lee writes in “Go Set a Watchman.”

In a letter to the Browns dated only “Sunday,” Lee describes the “ecclesiastical gloom that is Monroeville” and writes of how “sitting and listening to people you went to school with is excruciating for an hour — to hear the same conversation day in and day out is better than the Chinese Torture method.” 

“These letters give us a good sense of Harper Lee’s feeling of being an outsider in her hometown — this town that she loves and where her family is, but she feels like she no longer has a home there,” Crespino says. “This is a major theme of ‘Go Set a Watchman,’ where Jean Louise comes home, and she is homeless now, because she has changed.”

But despite her own alienation, Lee also continues to defend her home, the South, from those in the North who would see it only as the land of the Klan.

In the final letter in the new collection, written on Nov. 21, 1961, after “To Kill a Mockingbird” was published to great acclaim, Lee writes of her disappointment that Esquire Magazine has rejected a piece she wrote about Southern politics.

“My pastiche had some white people who were segregationists & at the same time loathed & hated the K.K.K. This was an axiomatic impossibility, according to Esquire!” she writes. “I wanted to say that according to those lights, nine-tenths of the South is an axiomatic impossibility.”

To Crespino, the passage shows Lee’s frustration that Northerners can’t accept a more nuanced version of the South.

“That is very much a central theme of this book that we don’t discover until 2015,” he says. “Jean Louise is upset with Atticus, but one of the things that she comes to understand over the course of ‘Go Set a Watchman’ is that Atticus could be a member of the Citizens Council, but that doesn’t mean necessarily that he has thrown in full-bore with the reactionaries of Southern politics. And, of course, as Jean Louise discovers that, Harper Lee intends for the reader to discover that.”

Recalling that “Watchman” was written before “Mockingbird”and that this letter was written after “Mockingbird” has made Lee a literary success, “what is fascinating from these letters is that we understand that Harper Lee is still struggling with that,” Crespino points out. “She still wants to get that message out.”

With these letters now available at Emory, more and more readers will have the opportunity to gain deeper insight into Lee’s takes on family, friendship, politics and publishing.

“Collections such as the Harper Lee letters are invaluable resources for scholars and students of all ages to understand the story behind the story, to gain insight into the relationships that shaped an author and the creative processes and environment that gave rise to a notable literary work,” says Jennifer Meehan, interim director of the Rose Library.

“Preserving these resources ensures that such stories are available for discovery by current and future generations.”

Harper Lee received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor, from President George W. Bush in 2007. Reads the citation: "At a critical moment in our history, her beautiful book, 'To Kill a Mockingbird,' helped focus the nation on the turbulent struggle for equality." Lee died in 2016 at age 89.

To learn more about Emory, please visit:

Emory news center, emory university.

Atticus Finch - List of Essay Samples And Topic Ideas

Atticus Finch is a character in Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird” known for his moral integrity and strong principles. Essays could analyze his character, discuss the novel’s exploration of racial injustice, or delve into why Atticus Finch remains an iconic figure in American literature and culture. We have collected a large number of free essay examples about Atticus Finch you can find at Papersowl. You can use our samples for inspiration to write your own essay, research paper, or just to explore a new topic for yourself.

Atticus Finch Character Analysis in to Kill a Mockingbird

Whether he is a father, lawyer, friend or foe, Atticus Finch exudes prominent traits admired by his children and the community. He stands as a honest and morally upright character in To Kill a Mockingbird. Written by Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird takes place in Maycomb, a small town in Alabama and is primarily told from the eyes of nine-year-old Jean Louise Finch (Scout). Her father, Atticus Finch, takes a controversial case to defend Tom Robinson, a black man […]

To Kill a Mockingbird: Atticus Finch

In To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee demonstrates a very detailed image of Atticus Finch as he deals with his quarrels and dissensions. As he goes about his normal life in Maycomb county, he is faced with troubles including hate, racism, and disappointing his acquaintances by sticking up for an African American man. Despite being talked down on and being disrespected by everyone around him, he puts on a smile and demonstrates a character that inspires not only his children […]

To Kill a Mockingbird Theme of Morality and Ethics

“To Kill A Mockingbird” is a book that takes many turns which makes it not easy to put down. It is set in Maycomb, Alabama around the time where slavery still existed. The story is focused around a trial where Atticus Finch has chosen to defend a black man named Tom Robinson. When read at the present time it is not felt as a big deal but at the time it was more than a big deal. It was something […]

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The Unyielding Morality of Atticus Finch

Within the canon of contemporary American literature, the persona of Atticus Finch stands out as one of the most recognizable and admired characters. Atticus Finch, a lawyer and parent living in the racially volatile American South in the 1930s and introduced in Harper Lee's magnum work, "To Kill a Mockingbird," exemplifies a unique mix of quiet strength, unyielding morality, and compassionate humanism. Atticus is the embodiment of a rare blend of quiet strength, unyielding morality, and compassionate humanism. His part […]

Scouts Moral Growth in to Kill a Mockingbird

The novel “To Kill A Mockingbird” is a book that takes many turns which makes it not easy to put down. The story is told by Scout Finch who is the daughter of the main character, Atticus Finch. The story is focused around a trial where Atticus Finch has to defend Tom Robinson. Tom Robinson is a man being accused of raping women. In Maycomb, Alabama at the time, racism was a problem. The color of Tom’s skin is what […]

Scout Finch: Gender & Prejudice in ‘To Kill a Mockingbird

Tomboy in Maycomb: Scout's Unique Identity The book that I read for Marking Period 2 was To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee. The genre of To Kill A Mockingbird is a novel, thriller, mystery, domestic fiction, and a legal story. The story is about two kids called Jeremy Finch (Jem) and Jean Louise Finch (Scout) and their father, Atticus Finch, who is a lawyer. The Scout and her brother are having a fine life until their father decides to […]

How does Atticus View Calpurnia: a Cherished Motherly Figure

Understanding Poverty: Walter Cunningham's Integrity Walter Cunningham refuses to take money from his teacher because he knows he is not going to be able to pay it back due to the fact that he comes from a poor family. Walter did not want to accept the quarter that Miss Caroline gave him because there was no way he was going to give back the money he was going to borrow. Scout says, “The Cunninghams never took anything they can’t pay […]

Atticus Finch: the Moral Compass in Harper Lee’s Masterpiece

In the tapestry of literary characters, Atticus Finch from Harper Lee's "To Kill a Mockingbird" emerges as a singular thread woven with moral fiber and profound virtue. This iconic character, set against the charged backdrop of the 1930s Deep South, transcends the pages of fiction to become a timeless symbol of righteousness. Atticus's moral compass not only steers him through the tumultuous waters of a racially divided society but also serves as a guiding light for readers traversing their own […]

The Evolution of Atticus Finch: a Character Analysis

In the literary panorama, Atticus Finch emerges as a towering figure, an enduring beacon of moral resonance embedded within the fabric of Harper Lee's literary tapestry, "To Kill a Mockingbird." Unveiled to the world in 1960, the novel casts its narrative gaze upon the canvas of racial injustice, unfurling against the evocative backdrop of the 1930s American South. Atticus, a principled attorney, isn't just a character; he stands as a guiding force, steering readers through the labyrinthine corridors of societal […]

Atticus Finch: a Quiet Revolution in Mayfield’s Moral Landscape

In the sleepy town of Mayfield, a figure named Atticus Finch emerged as a paradoxical force – unassuming in stature, yet a giant in moral fortitude. Amidst the sweltering heat of a Southern summer, Atticus navigated the murky waters of a society steeped in bias and ignorance, a lone voice echoing the pursuit of righteousness. Widowed and raising two children, Scout and Jem, Atticus crafted their upbringing with the delicate threads of compassion and the audacity to question prevailing norms. […]

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Critic’s Notebook

Why Kristi Noem Is in the Doghouse

Americans like their politicians to be dog people. Gov. Noem broke the mold.

After this photo of President Lyndon B. Johnson lifting his pet beagle by the ears appeared in Life magazine in 1964, a public outcry ensued. Credit... Cecil Stoughton/LBJ Presidential Library

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By A.O. Scott

• May 6, 2024

In April 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson was photographed lifting one of his beagles (he had two, named Him and Her) by the ears. The picture, published in Life magazine, caused widespread public outcry. Johnson apologized — and after leaving the White House released an EP called “ Dogs Have Always Been My Friends .” But the episode became part of his legend and legacy.

The immediate political fallout, though, was minimal. Johnson won the 1964 presidential election in a landslide. There’s no indication that manhandling his dog helped him defeat Barry Goldwater, but it doesn’t seem to have hurt.

Kristi Noem is no L.B.J. The South Dakota governor, frequently mentioned as a potential running mate for Donald J. Trump, wrote in “No Going Back,” her just-published memoir, about shooting Cricket , her family’s 14-month-old German wirehair pointer. The criticism has been ferocious , including from within Noem’s party. Trump, whose non-love for dogs is well-documented , has expressed his revulsion , as has Mitt Romney , who dealt with a canine-mistreatment scandal of his own during the 2012 campaign.

Appearing on “Face the Nation” on Sunday, Noem was unapologetic . She insisted that Cricket, whom she described in her book as an “ untrainable” chicken-killer , got what was coming. More than that, she tried to reclaim political advantage by giving the issue a partisan, culture-war spin.

What about Joe Biden? Not that he’s a puppy killer. Quite the contrary: Noem criticized the president for not euthanizing — or just plain blowing away — Commander, a German shepherd and serial biter who has attacked, according to Noem, “ 24 Secret Service people .” “How many people is enough people to be attacked and dangerously hurt before you make a decision on a dog?” she said. In her book, she implies that, were she in the executive branch, she’d take out Biden’s dog herself: “ Commander, say hello to Cricket for me .”

All of this has been portrayed as a career-detonating political blunder , a monumental failure to read the room, which in mid-2020s America is strewed with dismembered chew toys. We may not like one another all that much these days, but red or blue, MAGA or woke, we sure do love dogs.

(Maybe not all of us, but it seems unlikely that Noem is sending a signal — I guess we can’t call it a dog whistle — to anti-canine voters. When have cat people ever swung an election?)

In a Hollywood movie, harming a dog is often a sign of utter, unredeemable depravity. It’s no surprise that Almira Gulch, on her bicycle taking Toto “ to the sheriff to make sure he’s destroyed ,” turns into the Wicked Witch of the East. The most over-the-top Disney villain is surely Cruella de Vil from “101 Dalmations” — “devil” is right there in her name.

The unending slaughter of humans in the “John Wick” movies begins as the hero’s righteous payback after some bad guys kill his beagle . In Stephen King’s “The Dead Zone,” Greg Stillson appears to most of the world as a charismatic and popular politician. The reader knows otherwise, having seem him mercilessly kick a dog to death in the book’s prologue.

This is obviously not the company that any ambitious politician wants to keep. Dogs have long been the friends of presidents, Trump being a notable exception in recent times. After Richard Nixon joined Dwight Eisenhower’s ticket for the presidency in 1952, a cocker spaniel named Checkers — or at least a speech about that dog — saved him from disgrace. On his record, L.B.J. actually sings a duet with Yuki , a mixed-breed rescue who had sometimes accompanied him to White House news conferences.

Americans like their presidents to be dog people — or maybe presidents assume that’s what the people want. While Noem admits that she “hated” Cricket, she does insist on being seen as a particular kind of dog person: the unsentimental, law-and-order, decisively alpha kind, in keeping with the style of governance that “No Going Back” seeks to promote.

Johnson claimed that picking up beagles by the ears was common practice in rural Texas where he grew up. Noem uses Cricket to embroider her own version of rough-hewed, small-town, middle-American authenticity.

Sometimes, in that world, it’s necessary to shoot a dog. In books and movies, not everyone who kills a dog is a monster. What about Atticus Finch, who steps out into the street to blast a rabid cur? What about “Old Yeller,” in which the titular pooch — as fine a dog as ever graced the screen — also catches rabies, and a bullet? These deaths are somber, even tragic, sad necessities in a world defined by human fallibility and canine innocence.

The most sympathetic reading of the Cricket story — though not to Cricket, of course — is that it’s Noem’s attempt to work in this genre, to lay down a hard and homely truth while also burnishing her leadership credentials. The reaction may have more to do with the manner of the telling than with the content of the tale. The hero might have to shoot the dog. The villain brags about it.

A.O. Scott is a critic at large for The Times’s Book Review, writing about literature and ideas. He joined The Times in 2000 and was a film critic until early 2023. More about A.O. Scott

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To Kill a Mockingbird: The Analysis of a True Lawyer and a Worthy Person

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