He's human and he sees everyone else in the same way. Atticus Finch is not xenophobic or homophobic. That is a moral standpoint that you can hold whoever you are or wherever you are born. Atticus would now be defending issues that Harper Lee did not consider when writing the book, such as gay and lesbian rights, because what is at the heart of his character is an acceptance of who people are. I don't think he would be comfortable knowing that innocent lives were suffering because of inequality. To think that children are suffering across the world because of a tyrannical regime or an unfair justice system is a depressing notion, and I think a modern Atticus Finch would agree. Let it not be forgotten that a true piece of literature, like To Kill a Mockingbird, is meaningful in every period and that today, Atticus Finch's message should be heard in the midst of all the global conflicts that we hear of on the news every night. I find that a beautiful notion myself, but it seems that looking for these life lessons has become a less and less popular exercise as the years have gone by. Therefore everyone who reads it can take something out of it which no one has before. The beauty of literature and the reason why I love it so much is that a writer must eventually relinquish the meaning of his or her book.

Without denying the constancy of the moral message, and the pure ingenuity of the book, it's still open to debate whether, as with all classics, schoolchildren should be forced to read the novel and go over it page-by-page. We could consider that Atticus Finch felt that his own dream of an equal, morally decent society was also heading in the wrong direction. This was a time when economic difficulties meant that the American Dream was receding further and further away. In the 1930s, when the book was set, America was in the midst of the Great Depression. Women's rights and black rights movements were beginning to emerge and some campaigned through violence. If you take 1960, when the book was written, America was in a state of ethical development as social inequality was - very - gradually being overcome. Being in itself a generic message, the idea of 'doing what's right' obviously has a different meaning depending on when and where you're reading the book. Even the titular quote: 'Shoot all the blue jays you want, if you can hit 'em, but remember it's a sin to kill a mockingbird' is in itself an allegory for this message. To Kill a Mockingbird focuses on that gut instinct of right and wrong, and distinguishes it from just following the law.

To kill a mockingbird