What is a good father? According to FamilyShare “a father has many roles to play, all designed to enrich his and the lives of his children.” It also says that a father should be a provider, protector, teacher, friend, disciplinarian and exemplar. Therefore, this shows exactly some traits of Atticus being a good father. In fact, the novel “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee shows that Atticus is very caring and understanding, protective and has a very great style of showing discipline. Atticus Finch demonstrates that he is a good father because of his caring and understanding nature. When Mr. Cunningham stopped by to repay him with hickory nuts, stove hood and turnip greens, Atticus told him that it was enough and he had more than repaid him. Atticus knew that Walter Cunningham was going through a rough time because he was poor (Lee 20-21). A second good example of Atticus being a very caring and understanding man would be when Mrs. Dubose was taking medication that she had been addicted too. She wanted to get off the morphine before she died and this made her very irritable (111). When Jem destroyed her camellias bush, she was very upset with him. Atticus knew that this was not the right thing for Jem to do: “to do something like that to a sick old lady is inexcusable. I strongly advise you to go down and have a talk with Mrs. Dubose,” (104). Jem went to Mrs. Dubose house to apologize; she wanted him to read to her for a month. Jem did not want to but Atticus forced him because he knew that Mrs. Dubose was going through a rough time and needed help to get her mind off the medication (104-105). Another example of Atticus being caring and understanding is when Atticus was at the post office after the trial. Mr. Ewell came along and accused him of being a nigger lover and spat in his face. Atticus did not react, just wiped his face off: “So if spitting in my face and threatening me saved Mayella Ewell one extra beating th