To Kill A Mockingbird Character Analysis

Strength doesn’t come from what you can do. It comes from overcoming the things you once thought you couldn’t.”

“To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee is an exceedingly powerful novel. It includes many significant minor themes such as racism and hatred which leave the reader to have grown more attentive to the past once they complete the book. The book takes place in Maycomb County Alabama during the great depression. During this period there was a great deal of hate and prejudice towards people of color, in addition to a great regard to social class. The novels protagonists, Atticus Finch a well-respected lawyer and his children Jeremy “Jem” Finch and Jean Louise “Scout” Finch are a few of the towns occupants who respect others regardless of social class or race. For this reason, Atticus has no objections

To Kill a Mockingbird, author Harper Lee uses unhypocritical, more experienced characters like Atticus to expose Jem and Scout to adult knowledge. Their adult influence is what brings about the empathetic growth and maturity of Jem and Scout.

“She did something that in our society is unspeakable: she kissed a black man” (page 272). It is easy to interpret this character as a villian in To Kill a Mockingbird, but is she honestly a victim? This girl has grown up in poverty, has been beaten, and has had to take care of an entire household. Unfortunately, there is nothing that can be done to change that. She lives a painful lifestyle, and that lifestyle has transformed her into the person she will always be. Mayella Violet Ewell’s important character attributes, mistreated, skeptical, and melodramatic, have forged her into the villain that most people see.

Can you recollect a person that you hate all the time? Is this person rude, not sociable, emotionally abusive, or just plain racist? In To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, the novel digs deep into the roots of Social Classes. One of these classes, in particular, is “White Trash.” “White Trash” is a class that has the poor white people that don’t contribute much to society and sometimes even make the society worse. There is one character that everyone loathes in Maycomb, and he is Mr. Ewell. Harper Lee portrays Mr. Ewell and his kids as uneducated, racist, murderous pigs because of three reasons. This family disrespects other members of the community in cruel ways, abuses their power by accusing a black man of rape, and tries to kill two

How would the novel be different if it were narrated from a different character’s perspective? Jem? Atticus? Calpurnia? Boo? What benefit does a child narrator provide?

“The one thing that doesn’t abide by majority rule is a person’s conscience,” (Lee 120). This quote from To Kill a Mockingbird is a good representation of the book. The book is set in the fictional town of Maycomb, Alabama during the Great Depression. Jean Louise (Scout) Finch, narrates the story of herself and her family facing the racial prejudices of the time. When her father Atticus, defends an innocent black man in a rape trial, Maycomb turns on Scout's family. Atticus, Scout, and her brother Jem stand up for what they believe in even if their neighbors disagree. By analyzing Harper Lee’s use of symbolism and tone, the reader can learn that courage isn’t physical strength, you gain morals as you grow, and prejudice kills innocence.

In her coming-of-age novel To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee, portrays the main character Jean Louise “Scout” Finch to reveal to the causes and effects of lies in the small southern town, Maycomb County. In Maycomb County, Alabama, the civilians of the town make “telling lies” a helpful thing to do. Most of the people who live in the town come up with lies to protect themselves and other, affecting the lives of innocents. This harmful and selfish act harms the town and its citizens in many ways. Through the use of characterization, rising actions, and falling actions, Lee portrays gossip spreading and telling lies have a big impact on the town, Maycomb.

Jem is the traditional young boy. He idolizes his father, and plans to follow his footsteps into a law career. Because Atticus has such a strong idea of equality and what the definitions of right and wrong are, so does Jem. However, unlike Atticus, Jem believes in the sexism that was prominent in the 1930s when To Kill a Mockingbird takes place. Despite his sister being his closest friend, he does not see her as a girl because of her tomboy antics. Whenever Scout is doing something Jem does not approve of, his first insult is to call her a girl. When Dill, Scout, and Jem were going to the Radley house to see if they could get a look at Boo Radley, Scout would not stop talking, trying to stop the boys from going. Jem eventually snaps. He says, “Scout, I'm tellin’ you for the last time, shut your trap or go home- I declare to the Lord you're getting more like a girl every day!” (69). In this instance, and in several others, Jem used the word “girl” as an insult. This shows, that Jem believes that women are less than men, and therefore to be called so is an

The sun still rose in the east and set in the west. Birds still flew and fish still swam. The citizens of Maycomb proceeded with their lives as normal, but Scout felt as though everything was different. Scout developed and matured enormously throughout Harper Lee’s novel, To Kill a Mockingbird. Prolonged summers, during The Great Depression, consisted of acting out characters, spying on the mysterious Arthur (Boo) Radley, and running around wild and free. These jaunty summers frequently overshadowed the realities of Scout’s world. As her life continued, experiences and encounters provided her the opportunity to step out of the picture frame and see the entire picture. Scout’s perspective is continually altered and progressed through challenging situations with Miss Caroline, experiences of goodness and solidarity in the black community with Calpurnia, and situations when her once fictional neighbor, Boo Radley, became a reality.

Maycomb County, Alabama during the Great Depression a young lady, Mayella Ewell blamed a black man, Tom Robinson of something incredibly despicable that turned Maycomb upside down. Mayella took advantage of the laws back then so that she could end the aggression her father gave her. Mayella is powerful due to the fact that she is white, her family is the poorest family out there, but because of her color she will always be preferred over African-Americans. In “To Kill A Mockingbird,” Harper Lee uses class, race, and gender to determine if Mayella has power after all.

Courage is an essential human quality. Facing fears against all odds is a feature in many novels. Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird is no exception. Many characters depicts the quality. Some in normal situations others, take on terrifying tasks in a unique and original way. Scout, Jem, Atticus, and Ms. Dubose show bravery in many areas of their lives, one character risks their careers, others have a situation that lacks massive consequences.

“Feed your child ideas of peace, harmony and compassion but at the same time give them courage to defend their identity and dignity.” A quote written by Abhijit Naskar in a study of child psychology. Children are molded by the milieu they are raised in, as apparent throughout the story of To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. Countless times we are exposed to children who are raised in different environments, from the Finchs to Ewells to even the Cunninghams. While we follow Scout, a 6 year old girl, and Jem, a 10 year old boy, through the story, we get to see their characters’ personalities evolve and change due to when and where they grew up at. We also get to experience how they interact and compare with each other as we progress. {}{}{}

A mockingbird is someone or something that does no harm to others. In the story To Kill A Mockingbird, there are three characters that symbolize a mockingbird. They are Boo Radley, Atticus Finch, and Tom Robinson. These characters are innocent and do good to others. They also deserve no harm to be done to them.

In the novel “To Kill a Mockingbird”, the author Harper Lee portrays multiple characters as mockingbirds. This includes three completely different men in Maycomb County; Tom Robinson, Atticus Finch, and Arthur “Boo” Radley. The topic of the mockingbird first appears when Scout and Jem are playing with their new air rifles. Even though Atticus doesn’t teach his kids how to use one, he tells his children “Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit ‘em, but remember it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird” (119) Confused at this, Scout and Jem visit their fellow neighbor Miss Maudie who then further explains “Mockingbirds don’t do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don’t eat up people’s gardens, don’t nest in corncribs, they don’t do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That’s why it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.” (119) Therefore, we learn that killing a mockingbird