Atticus essays

Atticus essays Atticus, a deeply moving novel by Ron Hansen, opens in winter on the high plains of Colorado to the tropics of Mexico, as well as from the realm of whodunit detective mystery to the larger realm of the Mystery, which has its own heartbreaking, calming, and redemptive logic. Misunderstanding, dissolute, prodigal, wayward, wastrel, alias, and subornment are only a few words that tell the powerful story of Atticus. The case was labeled as a suicide. The body was identified as forty-year-old Scott William Cody, a blue-eyed white male. The plot of the book takes three sharp turns. It begins as a conventional novel about the relationship between a father and his troubled adult son. After one character dies, it zigs into a murder mystery, and by the end has zagged into something entirely different, a parable, let's say, in which characters find redemption. Atticus Cody, Colorado cattle rancher turned oilman, appears at first to be a remote and judgmental dad, but as we observe the g entle, persistent concern he shows for his wayward son Scott, we discover nothing less than the ideal dad. Scott's testing of his father's love goes way beyond normal bounds: his alcoholism and general irresponsibility actually cause the deaths of several other characters. Scott's peregrinations take Atticus from his home in Colorado to the slums and bohemian underworld of a Mexican town. There, Atticus confronts a seamy and labyrinthine corruption that tries to separate him from the love of his son. Atticus, the Father, won't let go, and that's the point. In my humble opinion, the message of the book is that an ultimately moving meditation on the ineffable, unmatchable love between a parent and a child should always be a close bond, because you might not have a second chance for reconciliation. Atticus Cody receives a surprise Christmas visit from Scott, his estranged son who has been leading the life of a wastrel expatriate in Mexico. The frictio...