Atticus Finch and Ralph: Braving Conflicts

Critical Lens Essay Henrik Ibsen stated “The stronger man upon the earth is he who stands most alone.” The quote means that the strongest man is he who stands alone. Whoever is the most independent and doesn’t need to rely on other people to survive will prosper. The people who are independent tend to realize the strength within themselves and use it to their advantages to survive. If you take actions into your own hands, you have a higher probability to be successful. Two works of literature that support the thesis are Lord of the Flies by William Golding, as well as To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. William Golding and Harper Lee support the quote through characterization and conflict. Atticus Finch is an extremely independent lawyer. He is defending Tom Robinson while the rest of Maycomb is against it. He never second guesses any of the decisions he commits. The way he parents Scout and Jem is different than other normal parents. He almost treats them like adults instead of children and never lies to them. Anything they ask, is answered with complete honesty. Atticus believes in justification and that everything should be fair. Even though the evidence is stacked up against Tom Robinson, Atticus does the best he can to defend an innocent man. Atticus is one of the only characters that aren’t racist, even when he goes to Helen’s house, which means he is the only white man to kindly spend time in a black community. Atticus Finch has multiple conflicts in To Kill a Mockingbird. But the major one was him defending Tom Robinson. The judge specifically chose Atticus because he knows he isn’t prejudice, and nobody else would be willing to defend Tom in the trial. He was a bit hesitant to accept the task at first, be he knew he had to do it whether people would hate him or not. Atticus has a lot going on in his life. He’s attempting to defend Tom and try to win the trial, but at the same time he’s raising Jem and Scout. He decides he can’t do it alone se he brings his sister into the equation to help raise the kids. Even with everything Scout had asked him, he was able to answer everything and teach he a life lesson. Ralph was a good, civilized kid when they were on the island. He had the qualities to be a great leader. He was extremely intelligent and used common sense to solve most problems. He was the one to come up with the fire, meeting place, and huts for shelter. In the times of stress like when they were investigating castle rock, Ralph kept his cool and continued on. Even with the fact that he feared the beastie. Ralph had quite a few conflicts, not only external, but mostly internal. Ralph and Jack were always at each other’s necks about everything. Whether it be from a simple decision, to a complex one. He also had to worry and figure out how to survive on the island. They had to be able to gather food, water, and make shelter encase of a storm, which eventually did hit and they survived because of Ralph’s intuition. Some of the conflicts he had to deal with himself were the thoughts of: whether they were going to be rescued, if they could survive, how good of a leader he was, and what type of terrible things Jack would do next. It takes a brave person to be able to deal with certain conflicts. If you’re strong enough to deal with things happening on the outside, and the inside. You can cope with almost anything. Hence the reason Atticus and Ralph were used as examples.