Scout

Scout is the narrator of the story. Her full name is “Jean
Louise Finch.” She is six when the story begins.

She is very smart - - she can already read and write
when she starts school. She also has a BIG vocabulary.

She reads with her father every night. Her mother died
when she was only 2 years old.
Atticus

Atticus is Scout’s father,
and he is a lawyer.

He speaks to Jem and
Scout like adults.

Over and over, it is clear
that he tells the children
the truth . . .

he tells Jem he
shouldn’t have said he
was sorry about Mrs.
Dubose’s flowers if he
wasn’t sorry

he tells Uncle Jack that
he shouldn’t make up
stories and divert Scout;
he should have

Calpurnia is the African
American cook for the
Finch family.

Calpurnia is trusted and
valued by Atticus.

She takes care of the
home and the children.

She is the person who
has taught Scout how to
write in cursive by copying
verses from the Bible.
Calpurnia

Scout explains to her father that it is time to get rid of
Calpurnia because Calpurnia is not fair to her and favors
Jem.

Atticus tells Scout quite sternly that they could not make it
one day without Calpurnia and they will not get rid of her.
Jem

Jem is four years older than Scout.

His full name is Jeremy Atticus
Finch.

Jem plays, argues with, and
watches over his little sister.
Maycomb

The Finches live in a sleepy, slow Southern town in
Alabama during the Depression, the early 1930s.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt is the president, and he is
famous for saying, “We have nothing to fear but fear
itself.”

Under FDR’s “New Deal” program, America went back to
work in the WPA - Works Progress Administration
The Radley Place

There is a very scary old house just a few doors down
from the Finches home. It is closed up, but people live
there.

There are many rumors about the “malevolent phantom,”
named Boo Radley, who lives there.
Dill

Charles Baker Harris - - “Dill” - - is their playmate. He
comes to Maycomb every summer and stays with his Aunt
Rachel.

Dill has a BIG imagination, and Scout calls him their
“pocket Merlin” -- an allusion to Merlin the magician from
legends about King Arthur.

He is obsessed with meeting Boo Radley
The Ladies in the
Community

Miss Rachel Haverford, Dill’s aunt

Miss Caroline Fisher, Scout’s teacher who uses the
Dewey Decimal system of education

Miss Stephanie Crawford, the town gossip (“scold”)

Miss Maudie Atkinson, their neighbor who bakes cakes,
loves her flowers, and is a friend to the children. She is
honest and level-headed.
The Cunninghams

The Cunninghams are farmers from “Old Sarum.”

They are poor but hardworking, honest, and proud. They
do not accept charity.

Walter, the son, shows us their poverty when he does not
wear shoes to school on the first day; however, he is
clean, his shirt is ironed, and his pants are mended.

Walter “drowned” his meal in molasses when he ate
lunch with Jem, Scout, and Atticus.

Walter has a very adult conversation about crops and
cattle with Atticus - - which surprises Scout.

Scout asks Atticus why Mr.
Cunningham brings them a
bag of nuts, wood, and
potatoes.

Atticus explains that the
Cunninghams are poor
because of their entailment so
he cannot pay them with
money.
The Ewells

Burris Ewell is the boy who attends the first day of school
and then never attends during the school year.

Burris is very dirty, has lice in his hair, and uses loud,
mean, bad language when he yells at Miss Caroline as
he leaves school.

Atticus tells Scout that the Ewells are people, but they
live like animals.

The Ewell father spends his welfare check on alcohol
rather than on taking care of his eight children.
Fascination with Boo
Radley

Dill dares Jem to run up and touch the Radley house;
after much contemplation, Jem does it, and races away.

The children re-enact the life of Boo Radley in the yard
and on the porch of the Finch home.

They try to send a message to Boo by putting a note on
the end of a fishing pole and holding it up to the window.
Kids interest in Boo

Jem rolls Scout in a tire that crashes into the front step of
the Radley home; Scout does not tell Jem and Dill that
she could hear someone inside laughing.

They sneak into the yard at night at the end of the
summer and try to look into the window. Mr. Radley
comes out and shoots a rifle! Jem loses his pants on the
fence as they race to escape from the Radley’s yard.
Fire!

Miss Maudie’s house burns down.

Miss Maudie is okay and is looking forward to building a
smaller house and having a bigger yard where she can
grow more flowers.

The kids are so intent on watching the neighbors fight the
fire that they miss seeing Boo Radley come out of his
house and put a blanket around Scout’s shoulders.
Atticus

The kids think Atticus is too old to play football and not
able to do much. He wears glasses and is old.

However, they find out differently when a rabid dog is
loose on their street.

Calpurnia calls the town telephone operator to reach
Atticus and to warn people on their street to stay in doors;
then she runs up the front steps of the Radley place to
warn them, also.

The sheriff, Heck
Tate, asks Atticus to
shoot the rabid dog.

He does it!

Miss Maudie reveals
that he was the best
shot in Maycomb
County.

They called him Ol’
One Shot
Mrs. Dubose

Scout tells us in Chapter One that Mrs. Dubose is “pure
hell.” She is an elderly woman who yells mean things at
them whenever they pass by her house.

Cecil Jacobs and cousin Francis have called Atticus a
n*gger lover, but when Mrs. Dubose says it, that is TOO
MUCH for Jem.

Jem looses his temper and destroys Mrs. Dubose’s
flowers.

His consequence is that he has to read to Mrs. Dubose
every day for TWO HOURS.
Courage

When Mrs. Dubose passes, Atticus tells them that they
helped her overcome her addiction to morphine.

Mrs. Dubose is an old woman who didn’t have to
overcome her addiction, but she chose to so she would
not be beholden to anyone or anything on earth when
she passed.
Calpurnia’s Church

Atticus has to go to Mobile, and Calpurnia takes Jem and
Scout to her church, First Purchase AME.

First Purchase is so-named because it was the first thing
purchased with the money the African Amercian
community earned after emancipation.

The church has many similarities and many differences.
experiences at Cal’s church

Lula expresses her opinion that Calpurnia should not
have brought the white children to the black church.

The other church members hustle Lula away and
welcome Jem and Scout.

Zeebo “lines” the hymns - - only a few of the black church
members can read.

Rev. Sykes orders the doors locked until enough money
is raised to help Helen Robinson. No one will give her
work because her husband is on trial.
Aunt Alexandra

Aunt Alexandra comes to Maycomb to “help” over the
summer while the trial is going on.

Aunt Alexandra is very caught up in the importance of
family background. She tries to impress upon Jem and
Scout that they are from a very good family!

She is very upset that the children went to Cal’s church.

Aunt Alexandra wants Scout to act like a lady and for the
children to live up to their family name.

Aunt Alexandra’s character is a foil to Scout’s character.
The trial is getting closer

Atticus tells the kids that things are going to be worse
during the summer - - which is when the trial will take
place.

Men come to their house to say they are worried about
the Old Sarum folks going to the jail because “someone”
has been moved to the town jail.

Atticus says he is not worried, but at bedtime he takes
the car and an extension cord and light bulb and leaves.

Jem, Scout and Dill go to
Atticus’ office, but he isn’t
there. They find him at the jail
with a big group of men. Scout
rushes in to say “hi!” to her
father, but then she realizes
that these men are strangers
and they smell like alcohol.

The men are there to get Tom
Robinson. They plan to lynch
him.
The Jail
Entailments are not good.

Scout recognizes Walter Cunningham’s father and starts
talking to him.

Her words make Mr. Cunningham put himself in the
shoes of Atticus Finch and makes Mr. Cunningham
realize what the mob is doing.

Mr. Cunningham tells the mob of men to head home, and
they all leave.
The Trial

Atticus is representing a black man named Tom
Robinson who is accused of raping a white woman.
The Scottsboro Boys

Tom’s case has similarities to a real trial where nine black
men were accused of raping two white women. This case
occurred during Harper Lee’s childhood.
The accusation

Bob Ewell says Tom Robinson raped his daughter,
Mayella.

Today the trial begins.