Gentleman as Hero: Atticus Finch and the Lonely Path

Abstract

Any reviewer of Tom Shaffer’s biography and the list of his more than 250 articles, essays, and books, is reminded of the way in which Tom distinguishes a hero from an everyday lawyer. His distinction perhaps fits Tom, but it more surely describes a major character of lawyer fiction with whose name Tom Shaffer’s will be forever linked – the person of Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird. Why does the Gentleman from Maycomb stand as perhaps the most enduring image of Tom Shaffer’s work? As others have suggested, the image seems most anachronistic: Finch is a man, a white man, a Southerner, a gentleman, a rural lawyer, a lone practitioner engaged in general practice who disdains the commercial hustle for a genteel way of life. This article compares Atticus Finch to Tom Shaffer.

Keywords: Tom Shaffer, To Kill a Mockingbird, Atticus Finch, Lonely Path, gentlemen, hero, everyday lawyer