To Kill A Mockingbird
Summary
The winner of the Pulitzer Prize, Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird is now considered to be American Literature modern classic. Though the author did not have any great expectations about her novel, first published in 1960, it became a best-seller almost immediately, and made Harper Lee famous not only in the USA, but also abroad. This paper provides a short overview of the most significant characters of the novel under study; summarizes the plot and highlights the main themes of the narrative.
The most important characters of the novel
The events, described in To Kill a Mockingbird take place between 1933 and 1935, during the Great Depression in the imaginary town of Maycomb, Alabama.
The narrator of the story is one of the main characters, Jean Louise Finch, nicknamed Scout, who is a little girl living together with her brother and father. The story involves rather big number of characters, both main and secondary. While reading the novel I have made a short list of the most significant characters, including a brief introduction to each of them.
Jean Louise Finch, also known as Scout, is both the central character of the novel and its narrator. She is a curious girl of six years old, but the story is not simply told through the child’s perspective. It is narrated by older Scout, and appears as the memory of some significant past events.
Atticus Finch is Scout’s father. He is also a well-known Maycomb lawyer, and a single father, taking care of his two children. The interesting fact is that the narrator (that is Scout) does not refer to him as ‘father’ or ‘dad’ during the narration, simply calling him by his first name.Jeremy Atticus Finch, known as Jem, is Scout’s older brother and Atticus’s son.
Dill Harris (full name: Charles Baker Harris) is a young boy who comes to Maycomb to visit his aunt, the Finches’ neighbor. He makes friends with Scout and Jem, and becomes their ‘partner in crime’ in their adventures. Arthur Radley, also known as Boo, is the most mysterious character in the novel. Scout, Jem, and Dill are both terrified and interested by his personality, which increases their desire to discover who, in fact, he is.Tom Robinson is an African-American accused of raping a white girl. Atticus becomes his attorney, and he seems to be the only one to protect his rights and believe in his innocence.
Mayella Ewell is Tom’s ‘victim.’ Atticus later proves that she was the one who wanted to seduce Tom.Bob Ewell is Mayella’s father, who suffers from alcoholism. He is the one who accused Tom of rape. Bob is the antagonist in this story.
Aunt Alexandra is Atticus’ sister and Scout’s caring, but stubborn aunt with whom the girl does not seem to be able to find common language. Aunt aims at educating Scout to be a real lady, …
