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Secondary Characters
Aunt Alexandra:
Atticus's sister, a strong-willed woman with a fierce devotion to
her family. Alexandra is the perfect Southern lady, and her commitment
to propriety and tradition often leads her to clash with Scout.
She is constantly nagging Atticus about how he raises Scout because
she's a tomboy. back
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Mr. Avery: Mr. Avery
is a fat neighbor who tells Jem and Scout that the weather only
changes because of bad children like them. So when it snows just
a little, Jem (with Scout's help) constructs a snowman that looks
just like Mr. Avery. back
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Miss Caroline: Miss
Caroline is Scout's young first-grade teacher who gets on Scout's
bad side by telling her that she can't read with Atticus anymore
because he doesn't know how to teach. She also whips Scout on the
first day of school because she misunderstands when Scout tells
her that Walter Cunningham is poor and that's why he doesn't have
a lunch. Miss Caroline had a trying day that day because not only
was Scout unintentionally causing her problems, but she also had
a run-in with Burris Ewell who cursed her and made her cry before
he left the school that afternoon. back
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Miss Stephanie Crawford:
Miss Stephanie lives in the same neighbourhood as the Finch
family. She is a gossip and a busybody tattletale. Miss Stephanie
is one of the main sources for stories about Boo Radley. back
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Mr. Cunningham: Mr.
Cunningham was one of the men from Old Sarum who came to lynch Tom
Robinson but was unsuccessful because of Scout, Jem, and Dill's
interruption. He was also one of Atticus' clients when he needed
legal help with a land problem. Scout and Jem had taken his son,
Walter, home from school to have lunch with them on their first
day of school. When Scout recognized him and began to talk to him
on a personal level, he was convinced to lead the Old Sarum mob
back home without hurting anyone. back
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Walter Cunningham: Walter
is the son of a local farmer whom Atticus helped with a legal problem
regarding his land. The Cunninghams are a poor family who pays their
debts with the yield of their crops. Scout gets in trouble for explaining
that Walter won't borrow any money for lunch from Miss Caroline
because he can't pay her back. After Jem rescues Walter from Scout's
abuse on the playground later that day, Walter goes home with them
for lunch and gets Scout into trouble again because she questions
him when he pours molasses all over his lunch. back
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Mr. Link Deas: Mr. Link
Deas owns the cotton fields that Tom Robinson worked in. He stood
up in court after Atticus questioned Tom, and insisted that Tom
was a good man who'd worked for him for eight years and never caused
any trouble. His outburst, although meant to help Tom, got Mr. Deas
thrown out of the courtroom, and his words were stricken from the
record. In his willingness to look past race and praise the integrity
of Tom's character, Deas epitomizes the opposite of prejudice. back
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Mrs. Henry Lafayette Dubose:
Mrs. Dubose is a sickly old neighbor two houses down from the Finches.
She is a crotchety old woman who yells mean things at Scout and
Jem about how they'll amount to nothing when they grow up. Jem takes
her abuse until she says something mean about Atticus, and that
finally gets to him. That afternoon on his way back from town Jem
takes Scout's new baton and breaks off all the blossoms of Mrs.
Dubose's camellia bush. Atticus sends him down to apologize to her
and she insists that Jem read to her for two hours every afternoon
for a month. He does it and hates every minute of it. Not long after
his sentence ends, Mrs. Dubose dies and leaves Jem a perfect camellia
blossom. Atticus explains that she was a morphine addict, and she
died after freeing herself from her addiction. Atticus considers
her one of the bravest people he knows and he wanted Jem to see
that about her. back
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Burris Ewell: Burris
Ewell makes his appearance on Scout's first day of school. Miss
Caroline notices a 'cootie' crawling in his hair, and when she sends
the filthy child home to bathe and wash his hair, he curses her
and tells her that he's done his time by coming to the first day
of school. He has been to the first day of first grade for three
years, and he never shows up again after that. All of the Ewell
kids do this. He challenges Miss Caroline to make him stay and then
reduces her to tears with all sorts of horrible insults when she
sends him away. He comes from the wretched Ewell family of Maycomb
County, which everyone leaves to their own filth and rancour. back
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Mayella Ewell: Bob
Ewell's abused, lonely, unhappy daughter. Though one can pity Mayella
because of her overbearing father, one cannot pardon her for her
shameful indictment of Tom Robinson. back
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Simon Finch:
Simon was the first Finch in the United States. He sailed across
the Atlantic from his Cornwall home because of persecution against
the Methodist church, and he ended up in Alabama making money as
an apothecary. He built the family homestead known as Finch's Landing
and began the Finch family line. He lived to an old age and died
wealthy. back
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Miss Gates: Miss Gates
was the teacher Scout discovered to be a hypocrite. Miss Gates preached
to her class the evilness of Hitler's prejudice but didn't realize
the same error in her own heart. Scout remembered that after the
trial she'd overheard Miss Gates talking about how right the jury
was to put black people back into their place because they'd been
getting too high and mighty lately. back
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Mr. Gilmer:
Mr. Gilmer is the solicitor from Abbottsville who comes to town
when court is in session. He is the prosecutor in the case against
Tom Robinson, and he and Atticus are friends. The way that he questions
Tom Robinson in his cross-examination upsets Dill because Dill thinks
he's being mean to him. Scout thinks that Mr. Gilmer wasn't really
trying very hard in this case because she'd seen him be a lot rougher
on other defendants, but it still bothered Dill nonetheless. back
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Francis Hancock: Francis
is Scout and Jem's cousin. They see Francis at Christmas when they
go visit their Aunt Alexandra at Finch's Landing, but they don't
really like him very much. The Christmas after Atticus took on the
Tom Robinson case, Scout beat Francis up for saying mean things
about Atticus, and her Uncle Jack whipped her for it before he heard
her side of things. back
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Cecil Jacobs:
Cecil Jacobs is Scout's classmate who scares her and Jem as they're
walking to the high school pageant on Halloween. On their way home,
Scout and Jem believe that Cecil is following them again in an attempt
to repeat his prank, but it's really Bob Ewell preparing to kill
them to get revenge against Atticus for making him look like an
idiot and a liar in court. back
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Mrs. Merriweather:
A pious old church member who attends one of Alexandra's missionary
teas and proceeds to humiliate Alexandra by going on and on about
people who do things thinking they're right when really they're
just stirring up trouble in relation to Atticus defending Tom Robinson
in court. Miss Maudie, the Finch's neighbour and long-time friend,
summarily hushes Mrs. Merriweather. back
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Miss Rachel: Miss Rachel
lives next door to the Finch family, and her nephew, Dill, comes
to stay with her every summer and becomes close friends with the
Finch kids. back
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Mr. Radley:
Mr. Radley was Boo and Nathan's father, a very religious, strict
man who walked to town and back home once a day and never spoke
to anyone when they greeted him. He died when Jem and Scout were
a few years younger, but Boo didn't even come out of the house then.
back
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Mrs. Radley: Mrs.
Radley is Boo and Nathan's mother, and her only visible function
in the family is to come out onto the porch and sweep occasionally.
Mrs. Radley dies just before the cold snap when Miss Maudie's house
burns down. back
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Nathan Radley: Nathan
Radley is Boo's older brother who moved back to Maycomb County from
Pensacola when his father died. Nathan cruelly cuts off an important
element of Boo's relationship with Jem and Scout when he plugs up
the knothole in which Boo leaves presents for the children. back
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Mr. Dolphus Raymond:
A wealthy white man who lives with his black mistress and mulatto
children. Raymond pretends to be a drunk so that the citizens of
Maycomb will have an explanation for his behavior. In reality, he
is simply jaded by the hypocrisy of white society and prefers living
among blacks. back
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Reverend Sykes:
Reverend Sykes is the preacher at Calpurnia's church who goes out
of his way to be kind to Scout and Jem. He makes them feel welcome
when they accompany Cal to church. At the courthouse, he takes them
up to the balcony where the colored people are sitting because all
the seats on the first floor are taken. back
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Heck Tate: Heck is the
Maycomb County sheriff who hands over his gun to Atticus when confronted
with a rabid dog. He's also one of the men in the group who comes
to talk to Atticus about the danger of having Tom Robinson locked
up in the Maycomb County jail. He didn't want to be responsible
if Tom got lynched. back
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Judge Taylor: Judge
Taylor is the Maycomb County judge who presided over the Tom Robinson
trial. He is an informal man who runs his court with ease. back
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Uncle Jack: Jack is Atticus'
younger brother who is a doctor in Boston. He comes to stay with
Atticus, Jem, and Scout for a week every Christmas, and the kids
love him. It is he who takes Scout aside when she's going through
her cussing phase and convinces her to quit because he doesn't like
to hear such words. back
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Mr. Underwood:
Mr. Underwood is the editor, writer, and printer for The Maycomb
Tribune. Although he is a bigot, he hides in his office next to
the jailhouse to protect Atticus and Tom Robinson from the Old Sarum
mob that tries to take Tom from the jail to lynch him. back
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