Characterizations
Scout: - aka Jean Louise Finch - narrator of the story when she was 6 years old - telling the story when she is now an adult
Jem: - aka Jeremy Finch - Scout’s older brother - likes to play football
Atticus Finch: - father of Jem and Scout - went to Montgomery to read law - lawyer at the Maycomb County
Calpurnia: - housekeeper and cook for the Finch family
Boo Radley: - aka Arthur Radley - neighbor of the Finch family and a mystery to Jem, Scout, and Dill - represents part one of the novel
Tom Robinson: - African American man who is falsely accused of rape
“We're paying the highest tribute you can pay a man. We trust him to do right. It's that simple.” quote from Harper Lee . To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee portrays the characters in the story in such a way that the reader almost feels as if they are best friends with the character themselves. Three of the main characters stand out to the reader: Jean Louise Finch, otherwise known as Scout, Jeremy Finch, known as Jem, and Atticus, plain old Atticus. These three characters show a great amount of loyalty deep loyalty to all their friends and family. The characters not only show loyalty to all around them, but fight for their loyalty. Out of many characters in To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Scout, Jem, and Atticus, display loyalty to all around them.
Jem Finch is one of the main characters in the novel; To Kill a Mockingbird by: Harper Lee. To KIll a Mockingbird is an intriguing book, in the beginning you are introduced to a character known as Boo Radley, Boo Radley comes up throughout the whole book and plays a big role specifically towards the end, there is a town trial during the trial there is a White man who goes up against a Black man. In Maycomb there is a lot of racism and
Matt Berman from Common Sense Media commented, “This richly textured novel, woven from the strands of small-town life, lets readers walk in the shoes of one fully realized character after another.” To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, one of the major messages is identity. Harper Lee lets the people look into the perspectives and identity of some of the characters that make it seem very life-like. In the novel, many characters possess both admirable and dislikable qualities which are shown through their actions. With the nurturing of her father, Scout contains the charming qualities of being courage and mature for her age. The father that instilled these characteristics in Scout, is Atticus Finch. While dealing with the stressful case of Tom Robinson, Atticus maintains to keep the likable aspects of sympathy and strong will. The antagonist in this novel fighting against Tom Robinson is Bob Ewell. Bob Ewell has instilled, in him, the terrible qualities of cruelty and racism. These life-like characters that Harper Lee illustrates gives people a clear vision of who the characters portray.
a) Atticus Finch is a wise, single father. He is a qualified, intelligent and distinguished lawyer practising in the south of Alabama in a rural town named Maycomb. Atticus has a high moral integrity and is bred from an upper-class background. He has a brother named Jack Finch and a sister named Alexandra. Atticus has two children named Jean-Louise Finch and Jem Finch. Jem is a quiet, studious boy who loves reading and football. Scout (Jean) is a tomboyish, confident girl who loves rolling in mud in her overalls and reading any book she can get her hands on. Maycomb is a close knit, old and
The first character compared to a mockingbird is the Finch’s neighbor, Boo Radley. Without knowing anything about Boo, Jem says to Dill, “Boo was about six-and-a-half feet tall, judging from his tracks; he dined on raw squirrels and any cats he could catch, that’s why his hands were bloodstained-if you ate an animal raw, you could never wash the blood off. There was a long jagged scar that ran across his face; what teeth he had were yellow and rotten; his eyes popped, and he drooled most of the time” (13). The description Jem gives to Dill about Boo Radley is based on what others have said, or the Radley Family history. Jem has not seen or met Boo to get to know what kind of person he really is. Towards the end of the book the children get a different perspective on Boo. Scout says, “I looked from his hands to his sand-stained khaki pants; my eyes traveled up his thin frame to his torn denim shirt. His face was as white as his hands, but for a shadow on his jutting chin. His cheeks were thin to hollowness; his mouth was wide; there were shallow, almost delicate indentations at his temples, and his gray eyes were so colorless I thought he was blind. His hair was dead and thin, almost feathery on top of his head” (270). When Scout sees Boo Radley for the first time he is not what she expected. She expected a monster, but instead she saw the real Boo, a innocent human being, just like herself. Later on Scout observed, “Neighbors bring food with death and flowers with sickness and little things in between. Boo was our neighbor. He gave us two soap dolls, a broken watch and chain, a pair of good-luck pennies, and our lives. But neighbors give in return. We never put back back into the tree what we took out of it: we had given him nothing, and it made me
In Harper Lee’s novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, the author follows the childhood of the main character known as Jeremy Atticus Finch. He is the son of lawyer Atticus Finch, and older brother of Jean Louise Finch, also known as Scout. The family lives in a fictional town called Maycomb, Alabama. In their early lives, the two siblings were infatuated in figuring out the secrets of the Radley family, especially Boo Radley, in the house down their road. At the beginning of the story, their curiosity plays a big part in their lives. This builds during their many experiences and gives the readers a better sense of the characters’ traits. Jem Finch plays one of the key roles in the storyline and has a very brave, emotional, and protective personality.
Scout is the main character of the story who lives in a small town in Alabama called Maycomb. She lives with Jem, her brother, and Atticus, her father. It took place during The Great Depression, many people were affected and a lot lost their jobs but the Finch family weren’t affected that much because Atticus was a lawyer. Dill who came to Maycomb for the summer hangs with Jem and Scout and they make games up about Boo Radley and talk about him. Jem leaves when school starts and comes back next summer, they try to go inside of Boo Radley’s house but get scared when someone shoots and they run away. After that was over the case of Tom Robinson starts. Tom Robinson was a colored person that was accused of hurting a white women and Atticus
The general topic in the novel To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, is criticising helpless people that have done no harm, and how it is a terrible deed. In the Novel a Mockingbird is a symbol of one of these helpless people. In part 1 of the novel, characters such as Boo Radley and Tom Robinson are portrayed as “mockingbirds”. The general topic also represents injustice, especially in the south. Atticus Finch is presented as seeker of justice that believes in equality for all, as well as one of the few characters to never rethink an opinion. Furthermore, Atticus is the father of Scout and Jem Finch, who he treats like adults and answeres all questions honestly as he would to any other Maycomb county member. He is portrayed as a decent respecting
In the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, written by Harper Lee, there are many examples of a wonderful plotline. The first example is when the protagonist is announced, “when my father, Atticus Finch, went to Montgomery to read law, and his younger brother went to Boston to study medicine,” (4). This is when Atticus Finch, a lawyer, is recognized. The second example is when the antagonist is announced when the author proposes, “Calpurnia sighed. “Old Mr. Bob Ewell accused him of rapin‘ his girl an’ had him arrested and‘ put in jail—” (140). Mr. Ewell starts off his antagonistic ways once he accused Mr. Robinson of raping and leading to the trial against the man. The third example is with the conflict when it is expressed, “ It’s a peculiar case—it
To Kill a Mockingbird: Minor characters are often missed and overlooked upon, yet they can be just as engaging as the major characters and are detrimental to the support of a story's theme. Minor characters can significantly contribute to the evolution of the plot and add comic relief. These minor characters are crucial to the development of the main protagonists as they can help establish important messages. In her novel To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee uses an array of minor characters to effectively develop the theme of preconception versus reality, and how blind accusations can harm individuals.
Jem Finch is Scouts older brother by four years and constant playmate at the beginning of the book. Jem moves into adolescence during the story and his ideals are shaken by evil and injustice that happens during the trail of Tom Robinson. Dill Harris is Scout’s childhood friend/ companion. In the novel he is the representation of innocence. Tom Robinson is a black field hand that was accused of rape and dies later on in the novel.
One of the hallmarks of memorable literature is the creation of interesting, believable characters. This is a reason why Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird” is still remembered to this day. Harper Lee’s characters demonstrate realism through their actions and words, and I believe Atticus Finch is a fine example of such. There are many ways to describe Scout, due to the characterization displayed of her by Harper Lee.
Thesis: In the notable novel, To Kill A Mockingbird the characters Boo Radley, Dolphus Raymond, and Ms. Dubose are occasionally seen even though they are an essential members of the story and do affect the central theme of the novel.
We must learn to live together as brothers, or perish together as fools.” A quote from Martin Luther King Jr. His age of motivation in the Civil Rights Movement was directly after the setting of To Kill a Mockingbird. The book is about the lives of the two children of a white attorney, that grow up in a small southern town called Maycomb.
To Kill A MockingBird was written by Harper Lee,who was a white woman and not racist. She wrote this book based off of the Scottsboro boys trial because her father was a lawyer and though the boys were being wrongfully accused. The book is in the Great Depression time period where there is a white 6 year old girl named Jean Louise(goes by scout) Finch,Her 9 year old brother Jem finch,her non-racist father Atticus Finch, their friend Charles Baker(but goes by dill) who is 7 years old,and Calpurnia who is black and takes care of the kids and the house. The Mockingbird stands for innocence and Harper Lee put that as the title because their are people in this story that bad things happen to for the wrong reason..