1. Question: Choose a novel or a short story in which the author creates a fascinating character. By referring to appropriate techniques, show how the author has created this character and why you found him/her so fascinating.

2. INTRODUCTION Atticus Finch, Scout and Jem’s father in the novel To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, is without a doubt a fascinating character. I intend to prove this through an examination of characterisation, plot, setting, key incident and symbolism in the novel.

3. Atticus Finch - a fascinating character because:
A contrast with others
Setting
He is a contrast with most of the other characters in the town, who are hypocrites or have different public and private personas.

4. POINT EVIDENCE EXPLANATION FINAL REFERENCE TO QUESTION

5. POINT (SETTING)
Atticus Finch is shown to be a fascinating character through the setting of Maycomb itself. This is because he is a contrast with most of the other characters in the town .

6. EVIDENCE
Take Boo Radley’s dad, for example. Outwardly he is an upstanding member of the community: “a foot washing Baptist”, but at home he is a tyrant who believes “anything that’s a pleasure is a sin” and he has cruelly kept his son locked up for fifteen years.
Another example is Miss Caroline, who tells her class that in America they, “don’t believe in persecuting anybody”, but after the trial Scout hears her say that the verdict was the right result because it was time somebody “taught ‘em a lesson” (the black townsfolk) and “they were getting’ way above themselves”.

7. EVIDENCE (Cont)
But, as Scout says, “Atticus don’t ever do anything to Jem and me in the house that he don’t do in the yard”, I said, feeling it my duty to defend my parent. Miss Maudie also backs this up when she says “Atticus Finch is the same in his house as he is on the public street”.

8. EXPLANATION Through the medium of setting we find that Boo Radley’s dad and Miss Caroline are clearly hypocrites who pretend to be decent members of the community, but their private actions show them to be the opposite. Atticus, on the other hand, is not a hypocrite and he is the same man in public and in private.

9. FINAL REFERENCE TO QUESTION
So, Atticus is so fascinating because he stands out in comparison with all the other folk in Maycomb.

10. CONCLUSION
To conclude, I have shown how Atticus Finch is a fascinating character in Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird. I have conveyed this through an examination of characterisation, plot, setting, key incident and symbolism in the novel.