To Kill A Mockingbird: Character Analysis

Who is the most important person to you in your life? Some people might say their significant other, or their best friend, or their children. But personally, and I believe for Scout and Jem, it is their mother. Or rather, at least in their case, their lack thereof. In Harper Lee’s novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, we see a young girl, Scout, and her brother, Jem, try to navigate through their childhood in a small town in Alabama in the 1930s. Their father, Atticus Finch, is a talented lawyer who sparks controversy often in the town with his progressive views, but there is a significant absence in their family, that being Scout and Jem 's mother, and Atticus’s wife. We learn early on in the book that their mother was a young woman of high standing who passed away due to a heart attack when Scout was two and Jem was six. Her death had a great effect on Jem, who is old enough to remember her, but Scout says it doesn’t hurt her as it does him. However, her absence has made her the Scout that we see in the book. Instead of having a mother who was always there for them, who took care of them and loved them because she had to, we have women of the town taking on that role because the care about Jem and Scout. The maternal figures in To Kill a Mockingbird are plentiful and have a massive impact on the story, especially for Scout. One main example of a maternal figure is Calpurnia. She is the African-American housekeeper and cook who has watched over Scout all her life. “ She was