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In To Kill a Mockingbird, Heck says killing the rabid dog is a one shot job and asks Atticus to do it. What does this tell us about Atticus?

Jem and Scout are shocked when Heck Tate hands his rifle to Atticus, asking him to shoot the dog. They are shocked, as perhaps the reader is, because they think of Atticus as "feeble," and even question his "abilities and manliness" (92). He is a wise and good man, but early in the book, we see him as more of a gentle and almost awkward figure who does not assume a particularly commanding figure in...

Jem and Scout are shocked when Heck Tate hands his rifle to Atticus, asking him to shoot the dog. They are shocked, as perhaps the reader is, because they think of Atticus as "feeble," and even question his "abilities and manliness" (92). He is a wise and good man, but early in the book, we see him as more of a gentle and almost awkward figure who does not assume a particularly commanding figure in his household. So when the children discover that Atticus is a deadly shot with a rifle (indeed, Miss Maudie tells them, he was once known as "One-Shot Finch") they are even more surprised. They have learned something new about their apparently old and feeble father: that he is not only the best shot in Maycomb County, but a decisive, courageous man who can stay cool under pressure. But, as Jem seems to understand as he tells Scout not to tell her schoolmates about the incident, Atticus is also a modest man. Atticus's performance in Tom Robinson's trial and, perhaps more importantly, the way he deals with the consequences of defending a black man charged with the rape of a white woman in the Jim Crow South, will only enhance their admiration for their father. 

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