To kill a mockingbird - help with understanding!

[wannabe]

Hey! I'm taking Literature as a subject and we're reading To kill a mockingbird, (actually we're having mid-year exams and the Lit exam is on Monday) I was going through cliffnotes TKAM analysis and it was written there, "Scout depicts her world as a place of absolutes. This strong foundation provides an important starting point for the story."



But, what do they mean by absolutes - as in, is it referring to Scout and Atticus believing that everyone is essentially good? How does this provide good foundation?

Also, "The fact that he has a "profound distaste for criminal law" foreshadows the emotions he has surrounding Tom Robinson's trial later in the story." What emotions are these - anger, frustration, dislike?... If he doesn't like it then why do it?

[kelby_lake]

Atticus does law because he wants to make a change. However it will be a long process.

[_Shannon_]

Have you actually read the book? What are some of your thoughts about the question at hand beyond what you've written?

[ennison]

No Atticus is not a crusader lawyer. He dislikes criminal law because his first two clients were executed. He would have preferred not to have had the Robinson case but when he was picked to defend him he chose not to refuse because he believed it was a challenge to his personal morality. His conscience would not let him refuse and conscience does not abide by majority rule as he tells Scout.