To Kill a Mockingbird Characters: Complete Analysis

Scout Finch (Jean Louise) is the novel's 6-to-9-year-old narrator, a tomboyish girl growing up in Maycomb, Alabama. She's intelligent, curious, and questions adult hypocrisy she doesn't yet understand. Scout's innocence allows Lee to show racism through fresh eyes—she genuinely doesn't understand why race matters to adults, which makes the injustice clearer than any adult narrator could. Her father Atticus Finch is the town's moral center, a widowed lawyer defending Tom Robinson despite knowing the case is unwinnable. Atticus teaches Scout and her brother Jem about empathy, courage, and justice, embodying the novel's central lesson: "You never really understand a person until you climb into his skin and walk around in it." Jem Finch is Scout's older brother who goes from believing in justice to watching it fail publicly. The trial breaks something in him—he believed Atticus would win because the truth was obvious, but Tom's conviction teaches him the system is rigged. Boo Radley (Arthur Radley) is the mysterious reclusive neighbor who children create legends about, but who ultimately saves Scout and Jem from Bob Ewell's attack, revealing that the "monster" was actually a shy, kind man all along. Tom Robinson is the Black man accused of raping Mayella Ewell—clearly innocent (his injured left arm makes the attack physically impossible), but convicted anyway because the all-white jury won't believe a Black man over a white woman. Bob Ewell and his daughter Mayella represent poor white racism. Bob likely abused Mayella, who then accused Tom to cover the abuse. After the trial, Bob attacks Scout and Jem out of revenge against Atticus, leading to his death and Boo Radley's emergence as hero. Calpurnia is the Finch family's Black housekeeper who helps raise Scout and Jem, teaching them about respect and the Black community's perspective.