Argue Against Atticus
The motion: “Atticus Finch is not the moral hero this novel presents him as.”
Your opponent: Harper Lee · Course: Pearson Edexcel International GCSE English Literature (4ET1) · Assessment objectives: AO1, AO4
You almost certainly disagree. That is the point of this format — and the reason it is the sharpest evidence of understanding you can give.
What you are asked to argue
You must argue AGAINST Atticus, from the text, and argue it well. Harper Lee will defend him.
What the specification expects you to bring
- Atticus's conduct in the trial and outside it
- His remarks about the Ku Klux Klan and about Mrs Dubose
- Tom Robinson's own words and how little of him the novel gives
- The retrospective child narrator and what it protects
- Maycomb's hierarchies — not only race, but class and gender
Positions that are defensible
Disagreeing with the figure is not an error. Any of these can score full marks if argued well:
- That the criticism is of the novel's construction rather than the character
- That Atticus is a good man in a system he does not challenge, which is the novel's real subject
- That the charge is anachronistic — and that this itself is worth arguing
Common misconceptions this debate is built to expose
- Wrong: In a reverse-position debate you may signal that you do not really mean it.
The correction: The format assesses whether you can construct the strongest case for a position — hedging is the one thing that cannot score.
What passing it proves
A genuinely strong case for the position you would not choose, evidenced from the text, that engages Lee's defence rather than conceding to it.
Why them?
Read the life before you argue with it — the case you are about to meet was built by a real person, over a real career:
- The life of Harper Lee — Author of To Kill a Mockingbird · Novelist · 1926–2016