TKAM+Lit+Crit

I have heard of 'right' and 'left' being used as symbols for good and bad respectively before; looking back on it, the references throughout the book were pretty obvious, (Lee seems to have a habit of hammering points home; did you get that Bob is bad? Did you pick up on the fact that it's a sin to kill a mockingbird?) and so I think I probably picked up on at least some of all that symbolism at least subliminally, though I might be bluffing.

Redemption of Atticus: The fanatical part of me says 'How //dare// you accuse Atticus Finch of these things!' and that's probably because a little bookish fangirl part of me says 'I <3 Atticus'. However, I must back away and look at things reasonably. I don't think Atticus is a paternalist, and I think his motives behind taking up Tom's case where as pure as could be asked for. I don't think Atticus thought he was any better than Tom. he was the one who stood up against the whole of racist Maycomb to call Mayella out for her wrongs, and who should be seen as a symbol of unspotted justice. I don't think Atticus has ulterior motives; he is there to be good, just and fair, and I, or at least the bookish, fanatical fangirl within me should weep if Atticus were to be believed nothing more than a hypocritical paternalist who could only rise so far above the filth as to look down his bespectacled nose upon the rest of Maycomb, standing on his cracked pillar of justice to declare that Tom is innocent only because //he//, an oh-so-privileged white man, has the ability to declare such things. I don't believe Tom could only be innocent if //Atticus// says so