Dill Character Analysis Essay

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Charles Baker Harris, or "Dill", is a character from Harper Lee's novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, and the similarly named screenplay written by Horton Foote. Dill is a friend of Scout and Jem, who comes to Macomb County every summer. He is small for his age, barely taller than the collards he is sitting among when first being introduced in the book. Dill is inquisitive, a luminary, and ostentatious. First of all, Dill is inquisitive. He is described as having a "solemn, owlish face, a knowledge too old for his years." in the screenplay (7). When first meeting Jem and Scout, he states "I can read." (7) Of the thirty-four lines Dill has in the screenplay of To Kill a Mockingbird, eleven of those are, or contain a question. For example, he asks "Why is [Mr. Radley] the meanest man?" (9) when Jem mentions he is passing by, instead of just accepting Jem's statement. He also gets extremely excited when learning about Boo Radley (10). Furthermore, when Jem and Scout begin leaving to meet Atticus, Dill immediately questions where they are going, and why the two call their father "Atticus" (11). …show more content…

A luminary is someone "who inspires or influences others", according to the English Oxford Dictionary. Whenever Dill decides to do something, he can influence the other two to follow along. For example, he decides to visit the courthouse to take a look at the room Boo was locked up in after Jem accomplishes touching the Radley house, and even though Scout and Jem are apprehensive about it, they still follow him to the courthouse (18). After asking about Atticus' presence in the courthouse and being informed of the trial, he decides to watch despite Jem's warning not to (19), and the other two decide to stay. Later, after announcing he cannot see what is going on, he says "You lift me up so I can see what's going on.", and Jem lifts him up without complaint.

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