In the book, To Kill a Mockeningbird by Harper lee, Charles Baker Harris, also known as Dill, is one of the most important character. He’s curious, wants attention, and he can be dishonest.
One of the first characteristics seen in Dill is his curious nature. For example, the reader sees curiosity first when Scout and Jem are talking to Dill about the Radley’s, “The more we told Dill about the Radleys, the more he wanted to know, the longer he would stand hugging the light pole on the corner, the more he would wonder.” (15) By using this quote it shows how Dill’s curiosity struck by hugging the pole and starting to wonder, so now by them telling Dill more about the Radely’s it began his curiosity. Also another time that the reader can see his curiosity is when Scout is saying, “Dill and Jem were simply going to peep in the window with the loose shutter to see if they could get a look at Boo Radley, and if I didn’t want to go with them I could go straight home and keep my fat flopping mouth shut, that was all.”(69) This shows how there curiosity led them up to going to peek inside the window. Than by their curiosity they tale Scout if she didn’t approve of it than she should just go home and keep her mouth shut. Even though he was curious it didn’t stop there.
His second charateristics is him needing attention. The first time the reader see that he is needing attention is when Dill said, “Mr. Finch don’t tell Aunt Rachel, don’t make me go back, please sir! I’ll run of again!”(188) This quote shows how Dill is just wanting attention. Somebody who would say they’ll run away again just wants attention. Another time that the reader sees that he is needing attention is when Scout and Dill are talking, when Dill tells Scout, “The thing is, what I’m tryin’ to say is they do get on a lot better without me, I can’t help them any. They ain’t mean. They buy me everything I want, but it’s now-you’ve-got-it-go-play-with-it. You’ve got a roomful of things. I-got-you-that-book-so-go-read-it.”(191) By using this quote it shows how he’s wanting attention by wanting affection by his new parents. By the tone of this quote the reader can tale that Dill is filling upset that all he wants is attention.
In Harper Lee's "To Kill A Mockingbird" shows and teaches many lessons throughout the passage. Some characters that learn lessons in this passage are Scout, Jem, and Dill. Scout and Jems father Atticus, is taking a case that affects their lives in so many ways. They all learn new things throughout the story and it impacts their lives greatly. There are lots of things including the trial mostly that change the perspective of the world they live in. The kids are living in the Great Depression and it shows just how bad things really where. Scout, Jem, and Dill have experiences that force them to mature and gain new insight.
In the first part of To Kill a Mockingbird Dill is very outgoing. The first time we meet Dill is when he meets Jem and Scout. The first thing he says to the kids
“Next stop Maycomb Junction,” the conductor shouted. Everything went quiet. All of a sudden the whistles started to wail, and the train hissed. Eventually the gentle rumble of the tracks was all that could be heard. Harper Lee’s novel, To Kill a Mockingbird is a heartwarming novel about prejudice, family, and the innocence of a child. Every summer a boy, hailing from Meridian, Mississippi, takes a train to the small town of Maycomb, Alabama. This boy is Charles Baker Harris, although most people just call him Dill. Through the pages of the classic novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, the Character Dill shows that he is an imaginative, lonely, and innocent character as seen through many of his actions and ideas during this truly amazing and moral adventure.
So, one day the children took the time with Dill to search on his property to see if he can come out of his house. However, Scout was nervous and asked Jem to not go along with it. In addition, they all went on the Radley’s place and got a rude awakening. They got shot at by Nathan Radley. With that, irony was being presented. The children thought they would not be able to escape. However, a shotgun was not a joke in the matter and they barely made it out alive. With their rare escape of going under the gate and running back home, Jem had to go back to fetch his pants. Thinking from Scout’s point of view that Jem will be harmed in this action, Jem came back fully alive and with his pants. All of a sudden, Jem realizes that his pants were waiting for him, folded and ready for him to take it back then it being back on the gate stuck when he tried to escape for his life. “He came up the back steps, latched the door behind him, and sat on his cot. Wordlessly, he held up his pants. He lay down, and for a while I heard his cot trembling.” (Harper Lee 76) With what had just happened with these children, that was one the scariest moments to have happened. How ironic that they all survived when they could have been dead on the property of the Radley’s
He spends his times with Scout and Jem, either messing with Boo Radley or just creating fuss. Dill is from Meridian , Mississippi. He is jealous of Scout because she has Atticus who spends time with her and Jem. He says “The thing is, what I’m tryin’ to say is-they do get on a lot better without me, I can’t help them any” (Lee 143). He states that his family is better off without him because they don’t spend time with Dill as a family and have bonding time. Sorta like the Ewells when Bob Ewell is busy drinking whiskey, Dill’s parents are too busy working or don’t need Dill’s help. Dill criticized his own family for not having what the Finches have, family bonding. Dill mentions to Scout that “They kiss you and hug you good night and good mornin’ and good-bye and tell you they love you-” (Lee 143). All Dill wants is a family that shows love and affection like the
Throughout the book, Lee shows how Scout, Jem, and Dill mature through the actions and situations around them. One example is when Scout makes the connection about the mockingbird sin: When Scout and Jem first got air rifles for Christmas, they were told they could shoot all the birds they wanted, except mockingbirds because it was a sin to kill a mockingbird. The reason it was a sin, as explained by Miss Maudie on page 94, was because “mockingbirds don’t do one thing but make music for us to enjoy”. They don’t eat up people’s gardens, don’t nest in corncribs, they don’t do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That’s why it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.”
One of the principal aims of To Kill a Mockingbird is to subject the narrator to a series of
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee seems like a complete replica of the lives of people living in a small Southern U.S. town. The themes expressed in this novel are as relevant today as when this novel was written, and also the most significant literary devices used by Lee. The novel brings forward many important themes, such as the importance of education, recognition of inner courage, and the misfortunes of prejudice. This novel was written in the 1930s. This was the period of the “Great Depression” when it was very common to see people without jobs, homes and food. In those days, the rivalry between the whites and the blacks deepened even more due to the competition for the few available jobs. A very famous court case at that time was the Scottsboro trials. These trials were based on the accusation against nine black men for raping two white women. These trials began on March 25, 1931. The Scottsboro trials were very similar to Tom Robinson’s trial. The similarities include the time factor and also the fact that in both cases, white women accused black men.
Scout learned a number of things in the book, but most of them all refer back to a statement that Atticus and Calpurnia said, which goes, “It’s a sin to kill a mockingbird because all they do is sing their hearts our for us.” (Lee, pg. 90). Scout learned that about people, too. She learned that some people don’t do anything to you, so it would be a sin to do something mean in return. Over the course of the story Scout becomes more mature and learns the most important facts of life. She was living through a very difficult time and most of that helped her get through.
As To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee progresses, Jem abandons his childish behavior, becoming more serious, more idealistic, and more protective of his sister. At the start of the novel, Jem plays the Boo Radley game with Scout and Dill, and he accepts Dill’s dare to touch the Radley’s house. However, after he finds gifts in the tree and discovers that Boo has mended the pants he abandoned when Nathan Radley fired a rifle in the air, Jem no longer wants to continually taunt Boo. The incident with Mrs. Dubose’s carnations also aids in Jem’s development because he learns not to allow the abusive language of others to color his understanding of their problems. By reading to Mrs. Dubose while she fights her morphine addiction, he recognizes
As Dill, states, “I'm Charles Baker Harris. I can read. I can read anything you've got.” Dill Harris states this quote too Jem and Scout when they first met. Dill is considered a minor character not only because there is not an abundance of information to remember. Dill is a minor character because in the book his negative home life and complications with his mother are explained in detail. While in the movie, Dill is underdeveloped because you never learn about the complications. The absence of Miss Rachel in the movie turns into Stephanie Crawford being Dill’s aunt. This is easier to understand because it limits characters, and helps shorten the movie. The minor characters are important because they help bring out the main characters. Forcing two personalities, together helps bring out the full detail of the plot and shortens the film making it easier to understand. Even though both main characters and minor characters are important, in the story the themes are understandable. The themes are understandable because they are both majorly implied in both the book and the movie. As Atticus, explains, “Shoot all the blue jays you want, if you can hit 'em, but remember
Another way Scout changed a lot was in the way she treated Boo Radley. At the beginning of the book Jem, Dill, and herself enjoyed playing "Boo Radley" as a game and tormenting him by trying to have a chance to see him or prove their bravery by touching the house. As time went on, Scout's fears and apprehensions regarding the Radley place slowly disappeared. She mentions how "the Radley Place had ceased to terrify me (her)..." As she matures and is more able to take care of herself, she realizes more and more that Boo Radley is a human being, just like herself.
Jem takes part in the game with Boo Radley’s house. This demonstrates his lack of knowledge about many things in the world. He displays a strong sense of innocence throughout the story, but, unlike Boo Radley, he was not a mockingbird throughout the entire story. He developed into one later on. All of the children can be seen as mockingbirds, but I think that Jem and Dill have a stronger importance to the outcome of the story than Scout does. In some scenes, Scout is the strongest and most mature of the children, even though Jem is the oldest. She takes Dill out of the courtroom when he is uncontrollably crying, and she comforts him. I also see Jem and Scout as having a symbolic importance to the story because they have the last name “Finch”. A “Finch” is a type of bird. It is a songbird, just like a mockingbird. There is a lot of symbolism all throughout the book. I think that an overall recurring theme that I saw in the book is that of innocence, and how easily it can be destroyed. Mockingbirds are songbirds, and they just fly around singing, causing no
Scout starts to understand people’s needs, opinions, and their points of view. In the beginning, Scout does not really think much about other people’s feelings, unless it directly pertains to her. Jem and Dill decided to create a play based on the life of one of their neighbors, Boo Radley. According to neighborhood rumors, Boo got into a lot of trouble as a kid, stabbed his father with scissors, and never comes out of the house. The children create a whole drama and act it out each day. “As the summer progressed, so did our game. We polished and perfected it, added dialogue and plot until we had manufactured a small play among which we rang changes every day” (Lee 52). Scout turned Boo’s life into a joke, something for her entertainment. She did not think about how Boo would feel if he knew what they were doing. Near the end of the book, while Boo was at the Finch house, Scout led him onto the porc...
Dill is dreamy, enigmatic and insecure. Unlike the Finch children he feels unwanted until they welcome him under their wing. Dill talks of his stepfather and mother as well off people who show him the sights of the urbanised area that they live in. In reality this is not what the picture is with Dill and his parents. They don't want him and he is passed from relative to relative in an attempt to be rid of him for some time. He is moved on from his one relative to the next when they get tired making Dill feels unwanted although he doesn't show it. As a result of this when Dill comes to Maycomb and meets Jem and Scout, he feels comforted and contented to be with people who have time for him and who enjoy his company.