To Kill A Mockingbird Character Analysis

Most people behave different due to their surroundings and their family. This is because one begins to develop based on who one talks to and where one lives. That person will develop their peer’s behaviors and attitudes due to influences of others. In “To Kill a Mockingbird”, the main character has changed a lot and has lost her innocence after the beginning. In the book, Scout’s learning has been affected throughout the journey because of Atticus, Boo Radley, and Bob Ewell.

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.

“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

The typical 1950’s housewife was a stay at home mom, who would cook, clean, and take care of the children. Scout Finch, a fun-loving young girl, at the time of this story, is the exact opposite of this image. This is mostly to blame on how she was raised. Since her mother passed away when Scout was only two, she was raised by her kind father Atticus. He was an acclaimed lawyer who, when he was much younger, left his family’s farm to do more with his life. Atticus taught Scout that you do not always have to be just the same as everybody just like him in every way, including becoming a lawyer. Harper Lee foreshadows Scout becoming a lawyer by using textual evidence such as, Atticus’s lessons to Scout, going to Tom Robinson’s trial, and her love of literature.

A few factors highly influenced the moral growth of the main character in To Kill a Mockingbird; family life, personal experiences, and society each leave unique yet profound impressions on the young and observant Scout Finch. Scout is a curious and lively girl growing up in the racially-divided town of Maycomb, Alabama. When her wise, sage father Atticus must defend an African American in possibly the most controversial trial Maycomb has ever known, Scout learns to stand up for herself and her family. Despite the opinions of others around her, Scout discerns that the morals of her and her loved ones will always trump those of society.

“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.

The novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, is a classic authored by Harper Lee which takes place in Alabama during the depression. It is narrated by a six-year-old girl named Jean Louise ‘Scout’ Finch. The plot primarily revolves around everyday life in the community of Maycomb, focusing on Atticus Finch’s family and the challenges they encounter, including defending an African American in court. Throughout the novel, the community of Maycomb experiences significant change although there are those who hold steadfast to their convictions and habits. Perceptions of others, like Arthur Radley and Dolphus Raymond, are altered in the eyes of certain characters as they are exposed to other facets of the characters’ lives or personalities. Others, like Aunt Alexandra and Cecil Jacobs, undergo a certain level of maturity which significantly improves the way they interact with others. However, there are certain individuals within the community that do not experience a transformation and the community as a whole continue to maintain their racist views.

‘“You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view-…-until you climb into his skin and walk around in it”’(Lee 33). Said by Atticus Finch, this is perhaps the most important line from the book because it makes Scout Finch become who she becomes. Throughout the plot of To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Scout Finch’s views and understanding of the society that surrounds her changes very drastically. Her understanding of the good and evil in society evolves the most, due to the teachings of Atticus Finch. In the beginning of the book, Scout Finch was what every child once was; innocent and simple. As the book progressed, she became aware that life was a complex and confusing world, and she struggled to

After the whole ordeal with Jem, she walks Boo home and starts to analyze the past couple of years. As she stands on Boo’s front porch, she can see everything from his point of view. She sees two children running towards their father and then re enacting dramas in their yard in the summertime. Scout was seeing these couple of years through the recluse- Arthur “Boo” Radley, “Atticus was right. One time he said you never really know a man until you stand in his shoes and walk around in them. Just standing on the Radley porch was enough”(374). Scout has come to the realization of what these couple of years have been and what they have done to her. She’s grown as a person and has developed feelings that she was afraid of showing in her younger years. She no longers interprets Boo Radley’s reclusive lifestyle as mystery for children to solve and talk about as a myth. She now knows that Boo’s been living through her adventures with her and watching her grow up, he’s been watching and interacting with them in the way that he knows how to. Boo’s probably never going to have the children therefore he acts as if Scout and Jem are his own.

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.

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

To Kill a Mockingbird written by Harper Lee features the main characters of the Finch family, (Scout, Jem, and Atticus) the Radley family, (Boo and Nathan) Calpurnia, and Dill. Atticus is the father to brother sister duo Jem and Scout. The names Scout and Jem are nicknames, Scout’s full name is Jean Louise Finch and Jem’s full name is Jeremy Atticus Finch. Calpurnia is the family’s cook and helps to watch Scout and Jem. Calpurnia also mentors the children for she taught Scout how to write. Scout, being 5 years old, is very intelligent, curious, and empathetic for her age and this historic novel is told from her point of view. Jem who is 4 years older than Scout looks out for her and gets along well with his sister. Atticus is their father and he has raised the children for most of their life by himself with Calpurnia. Atticus’ wife died when Scout was two. Atticus is a lawyer which effects Scout and Jem causing them to better understand what goes on in their town . The Radley family is a very strange and closed off family that differentiates from the rest of the town. Boo and Nathan Radley are brothers who live at home with their mother. Nathan came back to live with Boo and Mrs. Radley after Mr. Radley had passed. Boo Radley was described by Jem as a man with “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.” Boo has a scary image and never seems to come outside of his house and takes a particular interest in the Finch children. Dill is a bit older than Scout and comes to visit every summer and stays with his aunt. Jem and Scout befriend him and they hang out often. The setting of the story is in a made up town called Maycomb located in Alabama during the time of The Great Depression. This book is essentially about a loss of innocence, as represented by the Mockingbird. A Mockingbird doesn’t bother anyone or thing, nevertheless being innocent. Killing a Mockingbird is then essentially killing or losing that innocence.

n the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, there are various struggles between good and evil. Although there will always be good in the world, evil will always overshadow it. Throughout the story, Harper Lee uses several examples to show how there is both good and evil in the world. Jem and Scout are logically some of the most innocent characters. Since they are so young and don’t understand that some people aren’t as gracious as they seem, it’s evident that they both have some of the most developed characters in the book. On several occasions Jem and Scout have many encounters with immoral characters. One of the first times they encounter the evil of the world is when Atticus takes Tom Robinson’s court case. Despite the fact that Tom is on trial for raping Mayella Ewell, he could also be considered an innocent character. Tom is a very honorable and moral character in the story, and therefore would be considered innocent. Boo Radley would also be thought of as an innocent character. The reason behind this thinking is that since he never leaves his house, never interacts with the townspeople, and has been a hermit all of his life, he hasn’t had the chance to be around the evil of the world yet. Even though there are all of these wholesome characters in the novel, the decisions of others greatly affect how they behave throughout the rest of the book.

Should someone be arrested for writing a positive message in graffiti? People do things that are not right and add conflict to our world to change it for the better like writing a positive message in graffiti; this is like what Dill, Jem, and Scout did in To Kill a Mockingbird. The children in To Kill a Mockingbird instill change by injecting chaos into the little town they live in called Maycomb. The children in To Kill a Mockingbird inject chaos multiple ways into the tightly knitted fabric that is the Maycomb community and through that chaos comes a change for the better.

If a town could speak and remember as humans do, would it know everything of its past? If we knew towns could store moments away, and bring them up whenever, would the villagers be more cautious of what they do? Harper Lee’s Alabama town in To Kill A Mockingbird and Go Set A Watchman seems to have that kind of power.