Scout
The narrator of the story
Scout
Scout’s brother
Jem
The righteous lawyer of Maycomb county that everyone relies one to do the right thing
Atticus
The Finch’s cook and the kids‘ mother figure
Calpurnia
Atticus’ sister
Alexandra
Boo Radley is a mysterious character that is described as a monster through rumors that almost everyone believes in. But, when Scout actually meet him, she realizes that
He was actually a normal person instead of the monster that he was described to be, just someone more pale and awkward than the average person.
Jem is a character that is slowly maturing throughout the story, although Scout does too he matures more than she does. An example of his maturity is during the trial
He saw the injustice that was present in the trial for Tom Robinson and was disgusted by the racism of all the people in his town.
Atticus is a righteous person no matter what, always doing what’s right even if everyone is against him. An example of this is when he defended Tom Robinson like he would for anyone else.
This shows that even though probably no one else would defend Tom Robinson and that it would be a losing battle no matter what since Tom is a black man accused of a crime done to white people, Atticus will still defend him because it’s what is right.
An example of how Calpurnia is a mother figure to the kids is whenWalter Cunningham went over to their house to eat. Walter had asked for honey for food that didn’t go with honey and Scout had started making fun of him for that.
Calpurnia pulled her to the side and told her off, saying that she has to be respectful to their guests no matter what. She taught Scout that some things are unacceptable to do.
Aunt Alexandra moved in with them because
she wanted to help Atticus out and after seeing Scout, she wanted her to have a feminine person in her life to influence her.
Dill would go to Maycomb every summer and they would play together all the time and go near the Radley’s place to try and look at Boo.
Dill is the reason why Jem and Scout get closer to Boo Radley because h head brought them closer with his curiosity about Boo when he arrived that summer
Another example of Jem’s maturity is when he and the other kids went to the jail to see Atticus.
When he realized the gravity of the situation with the group of people there, he refused to leave knowing that something bad would probably happen to Atticus if they’d left.
Another example of his righteousness is when Heck Tate found Bob Ewell‘s body. Atticus had thought that Jem killed him and didn’t want to lie about what happened. He wanted to tell the truth no matter what thinking that if he lied about it the whole town would probably think even worse about Jem than they would if he had just told the truth.
Even though Jem wasn’t the person that did it, Atticus still thought it through and wanted Jem to take full responsibility for what he thought he did.
Another example of how Calpurnia is a mother figure is when she teaches Scout penmanship.
She would teach Scout like a mother would for a daughter and afterward reward her for it, which in this case was a sandwich.
Aunt Alexandra is overbearing and she likes to have things her way
This causes the kids to not like her.
Scout is still a kid and doesn’t understand certain things but that has helped in situations too. For example, when they all went to the prison where Atticus is protecting Tom Robinson and the group of people came.
Because Scout was there, she was able to make Mr. Cunningham realize that what he was doing was wrong whether she meant to or not by talking casually since she doesn’t realize what is happening and thus calm down the situation
When Dill would come for the summer, Jem would go with Dill to the Radley’s house all the time. Dill had brought back the curiosity that they felt about the Radley’s house.
They went further into Radley territory than they ever before Dill came. They had actually went to the backyard of the Radley’s.
Even though Bob Ewell offically won the court case, they both know that people didn’t really agree with Bob Ewell. This angered Bob Ewell and he started taking it out on everyone else, for example he went to Atticus at work and had spit in his face.
Despite that, he was ok with it saying that he would rather Bob take out his anger on him than on say his daughter. Showing further that he is a righteous person no matter what.
When Scout and Jem was unable to go to the church they normally go to, Calpurnia invited them to go to her church. This also shows that Calpurnia is a mother figure because she was also worried that something might happen to them if they left for their church alone so she took them to hers instead.
Going to the church also showed the kids the amount of respect the black people have for Atticus.
An example of this pushiness is when she want to change their lives to how she thinks would be good. Like changing Atticus‘ parenting style, how Scout acts and what she wears, and not wanting them to be with Calpurnia, and wanting her to leave the house.
She isn’t as nice as the other adults are and she is more racist than the rest of the Finch Family. For example, even though slavery is over, when she arrived aunt Alexandra still treated Calpurnia as if she was their slave rather than a cook who works for them with her own free will. All of this doesn’t make her seem as likeable.
Another example of how Scout is still a kid that didn’t understand what is going on around her is during the trial.
While Jem is disgusted by how unfair the trial went, Scout didn’t really understand it as Jem did and didn’t think about it like Jem did.
When Jem and Scout was walking home from the play, Bob Ewell was following them and Jem heard that someone was following them, getting cautious and trying to run away with Scout. Bob Ewell run to them and try and stab them. Jem protected Scout and ended up getting his arm broken.
This shows that he had matured and protected his sister though he was probably really scared as well.
Although Bob Ewell offically won the court case, the People was more convinced by Atticus and thus took hours before coming to a decision that Tom was guilty when normally it would probably be decided in seconds.
This shows that Atticus was able to talk through to the people’s consciousness and make a difference from what would normally happen.
Another thing that Calpurnia taught Scout is when she asked her why Calpurnia had spoke differently than she normally did. Calpurnia said, “You’re not gonna change any of them by talking right, they’ve got to want to learn themselves, and when they don’t want to learn there’s nothing you can do but keep your mouth shut or talk their language.”
This shows that she’s saying it is pointless for her to speak grammatically because it won't change the behavior of other African Americans If they didn’t want to talk like that. It is a lesson that can be for different things too, not just the way you talk.
This shows that aunt Alexandra is teh opposite of Atticus, in the way she do things and how she thinks. They have different ways of thinking and probably isn’t going to work out great.