To Kill A Mockingbird: Compassion From Atticus Finch In Harper Lee’s novel To Kill A Mockingbird, Atticus Finch develops into an honorable, moral man who defends a black man, Tom Robinson, against malicious accusations of the rape of white woman. The novel confronts the issue of compassion or the lack thereof, which “…alone stands apart from the continuous traffic between good and evil proceeding within us” (Eric Hoffer, 1980.) Compassion is an element needed for those less fortunate, in the courts, and for those who take a moral stand. For taking a moral stance, the townspeople showed compassion toward Atticus. Throughout th