After Atticus kills the mad dog with a single shot in
Chapter 10, both Scout and Jem are dumbfounded. Miss Maudie, a witness to the incident,
immediately remarks, "Well now, Miss Jean Louise, still think your father can't do
anything? Still ashamed of him?" This is an obvious reference to the children's
complaints that Atticus, who is older than many of their peers' fathers, doesn't do many
of the things that other fathers do. (For instance, Scout complains, in the beginning
of Chapter 10, that Atticus is "feeble" and doesn't smoke, hunt, play tackle keep-away,
drive a dump-truck, or do other things that other children's fathers
do.)
With these complaints in mind, Miss Maudie proceeds to
tell the children that their father's nickname was "Ol' One-Shot," a nickname he
acquired because of his excellent marksmanship. The children, still in a state of
disbelief, wonder why Atticus never told them he could shoot, and Scout says, "Wonder
why he never goes huntin' now." In a very telling statement, Miss Maudie
replies:
If
your father's anything, he's civilized in his heart. Marksmanship's a gift of God, a
talent--oh, you have to practice to make it perfect, but shootin's different from
playing the piano or the like. I think maybe he put his gun down when he realized that
God had given him an unfair advantage over most living things. I guess he decided that
he wouldn't shoot till he had to, and he had to
today.
Obviously, Miss Maudie
is able to recognize that Atticus doesn't value his gift of marksmanship the way the
children would like him to. We can assume that Jem would have liked to know about
Atticus's talent so he could brag to his friends about it. Readers know, though, that
the most important thing to Atticus--and the lesson he would like his children to
learn--is that being a good person who treats all others with respect and fairness is
much more important than shooting a gun accurately.
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