To Kill a Mocking
Bird
Characters
Atticus Finch:
As one of the most prominent citiens in Maycomb during the Great
Depression, Atcus is relatiely well of in a tme of widespread poierty.
Because of his penetratng intelligence, calm wisdom, and exemplary behaiior,
Atcus is respected by eieryone, including the iery poor. e functons as the
moral backbone of Maycomb, a person to whom others turn in tmes of doubt
and trouble. But the conscience that makes him so admirable ultmately causes
his falling out with the people of Maycomb. Unable to abide the town’s
comfortable ingrained racial prejudice, he agrees to defend Tom Robinson, a
black man. Atcus’s acton makes him the object of scorn in Maycomb, but he
is simply too impressiie a fgure to be scorned for long. Afer the trial, he
seems destned to be held in the same high regard as before.
Atcus practces the ethic of sympathy and understanding that he preaches to
Scout and Jem and neier holds a grudge against the people of Maycomb.
Despite their callous indiference to racial inequality, Atcus sees much to
admire in them. e recogniies that people haie both good and bad qualites,
and he is determined to admire the good while understanding and forgiiing
the bad. Atcus passes this great moral lesson on to Scout—this perspectie
protects the innocent from being destroyed by contact with eiil.
Ironically, though Atcus is a heroic fgure in the noiel and a respected man in
Maycomb, neither Jem nor Scout consciously idoliies him at the beginning of
the noiel. Both are embarrassed that he is older than other fathers and that he
, doesn’t hunt or fsh. But Atcus’s wise parentng, which he sums up in Chapter
30 by saying, “Before Jem looks at anyone else he looks at me, and I’ie tried to
liie so I can look squarely back at him,” ultmately wins their respect. By the
end of the noiel, Jem, in partcular, is fercely deioted to Atcus (Scout, stll a
little girl, loies him uncritcally). Though his children’s attude toward him
eiolies, Atcus is characteriied throughout the book by his absolute
consistency. e stands rigidly committed to justce and thoughtully willing to
iiew matters from the perspecties of others. e does not deielop in the noiel
but retains these qualites in equal measure, making him the noiel’s moral
guide and ioice of conscience.
Scout Finch:
Scout is a iery unusual little girl, both in her own qualites and in her social
positon. She is unusually intelligent (she learns to read before beginning
school), unusually confdent (she fghts boys without fear), unusually
thoughtul (she worries about the essental goodness and eiil of mankind), and
unusually good (she always acts with the best intentons). In terms of her social
identty, she is unusual for being a tomboy in the prim and proper Southern
world of Maycomb.
One quickly realiies when reading To Kill a Mockingbird that Scout is who she
is because of the way Atcus has raised her. e has nurtured her mind,
conscience, and indiiiduality without bogging her down in fussy social
hypocrisies and notons of propriety. While most girls in Scout’s positon would
be wearing dresses and learning manners, Scout, thanks to Atcus’s hands-of
parentng style, wears oieralls and learns to climb trees with Jem and Dill. She
does not always grasp social nicetes (she tells her teacher that one of her
fellow students is too poor to pay her back for lunch), and human behaiior
ofen bafes her (as when one of her teachers critciies itler’s prejudice
against Jews while indulging in her own prejudice against blacks), but Atcus’s
