To Kill a Mockingbird Character Chart

Scout Finch

Scout (Jean Louise) Finch is the narrator in TKAM. She is a tomboy and she gets in trouble a lot. At school, she is very smart, but she does not get along with others very well. She gets very physical and beats up other kids. She gets in trouble on her first day of school because she already knows how to read. Also, she gets in trouble because she does not use good language. In this novel, she is “engaged” to Dill because they are very close friends.

When Atticus decides to defend Tom Robinson in the case, a lot of people are mean to him and his family. Scout and Jem are bullied because of it. All that Atticus wants is for Scout to understand what is right, instead of listening to everyone else (and learning to do evil). She watches the case with her brother and Dill. She realizes that what they have done is wrong. Scout grows up and becomes more mature. By the end, she realizes that it was wrong that people believed a white man’s word (worst white man) over a black man’s (good man). She knows that there are alot bad people who are evil, but it is important to still see that there are good people. Even though she was not treated well by others, she was still able to find the good and realize what is just.

Atticus Finch

Atticus Finch is Scout’s father. He is a lawyer and is busy. He gives Scout and Jem a lot of freedom, but he does not like it when they are near the Radley Place. Right now, Atticus is defending a colored man, named Tom Robinson, in a case. He knows that this case will be hard to win against the white judges. He also knows that it is important to not judge people by their race and hopes that Jem and Scout will understand. Atticus tries to set a good example of doing what is just. He shows them this by defending a black man in front of a white and racist town (very mean to Atticus). At the trial, Atticus does a very good job defending Tom and actually proves that Bob Ewell is guilty. However, because he was against a white court, he was unable to prove Tom innocent, no matter how hard he tried. Atticus did achieve his goal of teaching his kids what is right.

Jem Finch

Jem (Jeffrey) is Scout’s older brother (four years older). He is very adventurous and is very interested in the Radley Place. He comes up with many different plans to communicate with Boo Radley. As the novel progresses, he starts to grow up. He becomes tired of playing games with Scout. When Atticus decides to defend Tom Robinson, he hopes that Jem and Scout will understand that he is doing the right thing. Jem attends the trial and watches Atticus prove that Tom is innocent. After watching it, he knows that Tom is going to win. When he finds out that Tom is guilty, he cannot process this very quickly. Right before the end of the book, Scout and Jem are attacked while they are walking home from the pageant. Jem’s arm is broken and he is knocked unconscious. In the end, he understands that the blacks were treated unfair and that it is important to do what is right, even when everyone else (people in Maycomb) do not.

Raymond

Dolphus Raymond is a white man who owns all of one side of the riverbank (rich). He is married to a black women. His kids are half black and half white. Dolphus Raymond likes black people more than white people. At court, he decides to sit with all of the black people. He carries around a paper bag with alcohol everywhere, so that it is hidden (alcohol is not allowed in public). Some people think that he likes blacks people better because he is always drunk (so he makes bad decisions). He actually carries around coke in his paper bag. He does this because he wants people to assume that the alcohol poorly influences his brain to make these decisions. He does not want people being mean to him, so he avoids most of it by doing this.

Alexandra

Aunt Alexandra is Atticus’s sister. She thinks very highly of herself and she is very demanding. Aunt Alexandra likes to gossip and she thinks that the Finch family is the only perfect family. Also, she is a feminine influence for Scout. When she first arrives in Maycomb to stay with Scout, everyone welcomes her. She is recognized by everyone, even Nathan Radley. She is in charge of Scout for a little, but they always fight, so it does not work out.

Calpurnia

Calpurnia is the Finch’s colored caretaker. She takes care of Jem and Scout during this book. Scout is a troublemaker and is always trying to get Calpurnia fired at the beginning of the book. Calpurnia is described as a ruler with power because whenever Scout gets in a fight with her, Atticus backs her up. She is motherly figure every since Mrs. Finch died. She attends church every Sunday and she is one of four people who can read. Calpurnia takes Scout and Jem to her church on one weekend. Calpurnia shows them what it is like in the black community and teaches Scout many valuable lessons.

Boo Radley

At the beginning of TKAM, Boo Radley is known as the phantom. There were rumors that he stabbed his father with scissors, while reading the newspaper. Scout and Jem are very scared of him until he starts giving them gifts. Then, they are more anxious to communicate with Boo Radley. One night, while Scout and Jem were walking home from the pageant, they were attacked. After the attacker left, Boo carried Jem to their house. Scout realized that he was Boo. She also realized that Boo stabbed Mr. Ewell. Scout walks Boo home, and after that, she never saw him again.

“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 blood-stained--if you ate any 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 (Lee, 14).” 

Nathan Radley

Nathan Radley is Boo’s older brother. He comes back to Maycomb after Mr. Radley dies. Nathan realizes that Boo is communicating with Jem and Scout by putting different objects in a tree hole. He fills the tree up with cement. This stops Boo from communicating with Jem and Scout.

Dill

Dill hangs out with Jem and Scout in the summer, when he stays in Maycomb. He lies about almost everything. He is very interested in what is happening in the Radley’s house. He is “engaged” to Scout and they have a very close relationship. At one point, he hides in the Finch’s house becaise he said that his parents didn’t give him a lot of attention. For the majority of the story, he was an adventurous boy who lies a lot.

Miss Rachel

Miss Rachael is the Finch’s next door neighbor. She is Dill’s aunt. She takes care of Dill during the summer. She gets mad at Dill often because he is always misbehaving. She is not mentioned a lot during the story.

Miss Caroline

Miss Caroline is Scout’s first grade teacher. She is very young and strict. When she finds out that Scout knows how to read she becomes very frustrated with Scout and assumes that her father is teaching her. She tells Scout to tell Atticus to stop teaching her because Miss Caroline believes that Scout does not know how to read right (Scout did not follow her way). Miss Caroline only likes it when everyone learns the same way, from her. She is very frustrated with Scout the whole year for learning how to read and talking back during class.

Miss Maudie

Miss Maudie lives across the street from the Finch’s. She is a widow. Miss Maudie loves gardening and sitting on her porch with Scout. One day, her house burns down, but she is happy because she didn't actually like her house. Miss Maudie believes in justice. She did not go to the trial because she did not want to see Tom get sentenced to death.

Miss Merriweather

Mrs. Merriweather attends Aunt Alexandra’s tea at the Finch’s. She is considered the most devout lady in Maycomb, but she is actually a hypocrite. She says that she helps poor Africans, but at the tea, she criticizes Atticus and Tom Robinson. So, at the same time she claims that she helps black people, but she cannot stop complaining about Tom Robinson. In conclusion, she actually is not who she claims she is.

Mrs. Dubose

Mrs. Dubose was a neighbor of the Finches. Jem and Scout used to destroy her flowers because they thought she was mean. Mrs. Dubose passed away almost halfway through the novel. Jem and Scout later found out that she was a morphine addict. Atticus told them that she took it for years. She slowly started using less to get off of her addiction. Atticus admired her real courage because she left the world on a clean slate.

Tom Robinson

Tom Robinson is a black man who belongs to Calpurnia’s church. Calpurnia said that he was clean-living and had a good family. He was accused of raping Mayella Ewell, so he was sent to jail. Atticus Finch represented him in court. He is crippled because his left arm is 12 inches shorter than his right arm. It got stuck in a cotton gin when he was younger. He was found guilty and got the death sentence. While he was in jail, he tried to run away, but he was killed (shot 17 times).

Burris Ewell

Burris Ewell is a very mean boy. In first grade, he was in Scout’s class. On the first day of school, he got lice. Miss Caroline told him to leave and freshen up. Burris was very mean to her and made her cry. He left and did not return the next day. This is because every year, the Ewells attend the first day of school and then leave. No one tracks them down because they are the meanest family in Maycomb.

Bob Ewell

Mr. Ewell is poor and does not earn a lot of money. He is always drunk because he spends his money on whiskey. He only makes his kids go to school on the first day, and then they never show up again. No one cares because Mr. Ewell is a pain and does not follow any rules (ex. he hunts when he is not supposed to). In this story, he accuses Tom Robinson for raping his daughter, Mayella. He also threatens to kill Tom, when he sees him with Mayella. This is because he is racist. Bob Ewell is found dead, lying under a tree, with a knife in his chest at the end of the story.

Mayella Ewell

Mayella Ewell is supposedly “raped” by Tom Robinson in this novel. She is going to court against Tom Robinson. At court, she accuses Tom of taking advantage of her. However, Tom said that she kissed him and that he was actually tackled and hugged by her. She is very lonely and has no friends. She is in charge of all of her younger siblings and their house. Her father is very mean because he is always drunk and he spends their family’s relief checks on alcohol. She is not close with her father at all.

Walter Cunning-ham Sr.

Mr. Cunningham is a poor farmer. He was hit the hardest by the stock market crash. Because his family does not have any money, they pay with what they have. When Atticus helped Mr. Cunningham, he gave Atticus crops because he could not actually pay for a lawyer. He never took anything that he could not pay back. Later in the book, Mr. Cunningham is a part of a mob who wants to hurt Tom. He turned against Atticus, his old friend. After the trial, Atticus found out that the reason the decision took so long was because one of the Cunninghams thought that Tom was innocent. So, they became friends with the Cunningham family again.

Walter Cunning-ham Jr.

Walter Cunningham was in the same first grade class as Scout. On the first day of school, he did not have a lunch, so Miss Caroline offered him a quarter. She told him to pay her back the next day. He did not accept it because he did not take anything that he could not pay back. At the beginning of the book, Scout was enemies with Walter, but when she found out that the Cunninghams believed Tom was innocent, she wanted to become best friends with Walter.

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