Every child wants a caring father, who is caring and understanding, and will listen to his children's problems and readily impart wisdom to them. However, such a man is hard to come by. Someone who could be so thoughtful and patient as to be considered an ideal father would be rare indeed. In Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, Atticus Finch is portrayed to be one of this rare breed of men, constantly being the main figure of his children's lives, an honest and level-headed lawyer, and one non-judgmental mind out of a million narrow-minded others.

From the beginning of the novel and on, Atticus's daughter Scout does not hesitate to call him by his first name. His son Jem does the same, though both siblings occasionally call him "sir." The fact that Atticus allows them to do so shows that he wants to be on the same...