To Kill A Mockingbird Character Analysis

In the beginning of the play, after the sermon with the Rabbi, Louis shares:

In the passage, Prior implies that Louis introduces himself as “Lou” in order to hide his lisp when he pronounces “the sibilant S”. A lisp is a childlike, imperfect, or faltering way of speaking. Because they are on the subject of talking about Louis’ homosexuality, Louis’ refusal to display his lisp, something which he sees as imperfect, can be interpreted as Louis’ refusal to display his homosexuality in front of his family. Furthermore, the use of a diminutive suffix— “closety”— in Louis’ explanation can suggest that he feels small when he’s hiding who he really is to his family. Additionally, the dash in the first sentence not only show how Louis stutters from trying to apologize to trying to explain

From the passage, it is evident that Harper and Joe’s roles have changed from the beginning of the play. Initially, Joe was the caretaker who married Harper because he believed he could “save” her (Kushner, 81). But now, with Harper being the one administrating the pills to Joe, she has become the caretaker. Her authority as such suggests that she knows what is best for Joe, which strengths the importance of her message to him to come out. In the beginning of the play, Harper is described as a sufferer of agoraphobia, a type of anxiety disorder in which people fear and often avoid places or situations that might cause panic and/or the feeling of being trapped, helpless or embarrassed. The fact that after she abandons Joe, she is able to take a “night flight to San Francisco” (Kushner, 284) suggests that by leaving, she is liberating not only herself but Joe as well. Furthermore, the fact that Joe is now the one who should take Valium suggests that maybe it is now him who needs to deal with the fear of feeling trapped, helpless, or embarrassed by who he