What evidence could be used to say that Atticus was not a good person in To Kill a Mockingbird?

Atticus was somewhat of an absentee parent, but when he was there he made it count.

If you read Go Set a Watchman you might come away with the impression that Atticus did not age well.  The book does not portray him as the almost-saint he is in To Kill a Mockingbird. However, no one is perfect.  While Atticus has his faults, none of them really make him a bad person.  That being said, if you are looking, the following are Atticus's personal shortcomings.

Atticus Never Remarries

In our world, we would not consider it such a terrible thing that Atticus never remarried, but in the Depression-era South this would have been considered a travesty.  Children need both parents, and more importantly they need a mother.  The fact that Atticus never gave his children a mother when his wife died so young would have been considered somewhat of a minor scandal.

Our mother died when I was two, so I never felt her absence. She was a Graham from Montgomery; Atticus met her when he was first elected to the state legislature. He was middle-aged then, she was fifteen years his junior. (Ch. 2)

Because of this, Scout misses out on all of the advice a mother should have given her.  Alexandra is annoyed that Atticus lets her run around in overalls and climb trees when she should have been wearing dresses and attending tea parties. It would have been thought back then that there are some things only a mother can teach, and one is how to be a lady.

Atticus is an Absentee Father

In a point related to the last point, Atticus’s children are basically raised by the housekeeper, Calpurnia.  He works all day, either at his law office or in the state legislature, and when he is home he is often too tired to be a real father.

Atticus was feeble: he was nearly fifty. When Jem and I asked him why he was so old, he said he got started late, which we felt reflected upon his abilities and manliness. He was much older than the parents of our school contemporaries … (Ch. 10)

Atticus’s parenting style could be described as somewhat hands-off.  He gives his children little moral lectures from time to time, and he reads to Scout or lets her read with him, but he is mostly absent from their day-to-day existence.  It is easy to idolize a father you see so rarely.  Jem comments that Atticus has never even spanked him. And people of that time period may have thought that discipline through spanking was important for a parent to follow-through on.

“I—it’s like this, Scout,” he muttered. “Atticus ain’t ever whipped me since I can remember. I wanta keep it that way.”

This was a thought. It seemed that Atticus threatened us every other day. “You mean he’s never caught you at anything.”

“Maybe so, but—I just wanta keep it that way, Scout. (Ch. 6)

A father should follow through, and not just make threats.  Atticus tells his children he will “wear them out” but he never actually seems to punish them.  Children really can’t be raised like that.  Sooner or later they will figure out that you don’t mean what you say.

Atticus Doesn’t Believe He Will Win the Case

As a lawyer, you are supposed to try to win even if you are sure your client is guilty.  Atticus takes Tom Robinson’s case because he is ordered to by Judge Taylor, not because he is on some moral crusade.  And it can be argued that once he accepts the case, he doesn’t seem to try that hard to win it.  When Scout asks Atticus if they are going to win, he tells her there is no way it will happen.

“Atticus, are we going to win it?”

“No, honey.”

“Then why—”

“Simply because we were licked a hundred years before we started is no reason for us not to try to win,” Atticus said. (Ch. 9)

Believing your client is guilty is one thing, but giving up before the case even goes to trial is something else.  How can Atticus really defend Tom Robinson rigorously if he doesn’t believe that he can ever win?  He may seem to be trying, but he also seems to feel that the outcome is a forgone conclusion, just like everyone else.

So, in conclusion, Atticus Finch is not a saint.  Like everyone else, he has his personal foibles and his shortcomings.  Was Atticus Finch racist, or a champion of civil rights?  You just have to read what you will into it.