Small southern town situated in Maycomb County in the 1930's.
Atticus Finch is a respected man in this community, being a lawyer .
and single father.This might change when he is assigned to defend .
a black man accused of raping a white girl. Being a black man in .
the South during the 1930's was full of hardships because most .
people were prejudiced. Most white lawyers, when assigned to .
defend a black man, would just go through the motions, knowing that .
an all-white jury would convict a black man. Atticus looks through .
the evidence and decided that he would defend Tom Robinson, the .
black man, to the best of his ability. This act alone puts Atticus into .
stage six of Lawrence Kohlberg's spectrum of moral development.
Being a black man in 1933 was not easy, especially if .
you had just been accused of raping a white girl. Since most black .
folks couldn't afford a lawyer, one would be appointed to them. Their .
lawyers had no real obligation to try their hardest so they would just sit .
back, relax, and wait for the trial to end. Atticus was different from .
them. Even the morning after Mr. Cunningham and a gang of men try .
to storm the jail and lynch Tom, Atticus only says that "Mr. .
Cunningham's basically a good man [.] he just has his blind spots .
along with the rest of us"(157). Atticus knows that Mr. Cunningham is .
probably not educated enough to know that even though their skin .
color is different, they are both members of the human race. Mr. .
Cunningham, as well as the rest of the men, are probably good .
people but they just have places where they are not as informed as .
they could be. For this reason, Atticus was in stage six while the other .
men were probably in stage three or four. .
.
Of all the wisdom Atticus gives Jem and Scout, there is not .
one piece more valuable then when he tells Scout to use patience and .
thoughtfulness before judging people. He tells her that you never .
really understand someone until you have "[Climbed] into his skin and .
