Boo Radley.

Maudie also doesn't succumb to the traditions of the Southern women around her, avoiding the common, petty gossip of the town and choosing to live life on her own terms. In chapter 5, it is noted that she is a widow, a

chameleon lady who worked in her flower beds in an old straw hat and men's coveralls, but after her five o'clock bath she would appear on the porch and reign over the street in magisterial beauty.

This shows both her independence (dressing as the task demands instead of in what "fine" Southern society might expect) and her strong presence in the town. She is quite comfortable in her sense of self, and she evokes a respect from others despite her unwillingness to conform to expectations.

Miss Maudie's sense of humor, combined with her sharp wit, makes her one of my favorite characters in all of literature. Consider this quote in chapter 5 when Miss Stephanie is trying (as usual) to stir up suspicion in the town:

Stephanie Crawford even told me once she woke up in the middle of the night and found him looking in the window at her. I said what did you do, Stephanie, move over in the bed and make room for him? That shut her up a while.

Even gossipy Miss Stephanie is no match for Miss Maudie, who uses her wit to try to stop unkindness around her.

Miss Maudie exemplifies wit, strength, independence, and compassion. Her role in the children's lives is quite maternal, and she complements Atticus in providing them with parental guidance.

Atticus is my favorite character. He represents the kind of individual that the American experiment depends upon if the aspirations and idealisms of America are to have a fighting chance. His profession as an attorney, representing American justice, only adds to the dynamics of what we call freedom and liberty. The fact that Atticus is a father also lends itself to the idea that those he teaches will have a better grip on the realities that ignorance can breed. Atticus is an attorney by trade, but he is a teacher by humanity. His understands the complexities of the human experience in America which are not very nice at times, yet he is able to raise and teach his children that if they look hard enough they will see goodness in their world.

My favorite character in "To Kill a Mockingbird" is a tie between Atticus and Scout.

I like Atticus simply because of how honorable he is. He treats every person he meets, no matter how they treat him, with respect and dignity. He is also willing to risk himself for what he believes in--he stands up for what's right, no matter the cost or trouble. Being a decent, honorable human being has no gotten easier, and Atticus still sets and example for everyone. He is intelligent and dryly funny and Gregory Peck does an amazing job portraying him.

I like Scout for her innocence. She is smart and funny and great at being a kid. As a teacher, she reminds me that kids always have a great and new way of looking at life. She also reminds me how to keep things simple.

Atticus Finch has to be my favourite. I love the fact that he is such a good father - he makes his children think that they are beating him in the games they play, whereas all the time he is a better player. His act of standing up for what he feels is right, even when it causes danger to both him and his family, is admirable and noble.

I find it very difficult to choose a favorite character from this novel.  I grew up knowing that Atticus Finch was my father's favorite character in all of literature, and I can obviously see why.  But like meowmix, I love Calpurnia.  I think that her role in the children's lives is more important than they realize, and I am always impressed by how consistent she and Atticus are when it comes to teaching the children right from wrong.  It really is like she's a member of the family--for so many different reasons.

I always tell my students that I admire Atticus because he did the right thing even when other people thought he was wrong.  If you can do that in life, you'll go far.  As a father, he's incredible.  I always like that he always answers the questions Scout ask him.  He never says, I'll tell you when you're older, which would be the easy thing to do.  He always answers truthfully.

Atticus is my favorite. When I read this novel as a girl, I fell  in love with the tragic-romantic idea of Atticus as the single father fighting for justice. I could never imagine him cursing a t a car engine, or yelling at Scout for leaving her bike in the driveway. His patient discussions with his children were unbelievable to me. He respected that his children had their own thoughts and ideas about things. My father always treated me like his baby (still does), and while that was nice, Atticus was my dream man.

Calpurnia.  I admire the way she is able to float between two worlds: Coloured and White.  When Cal switches dialects, it reminds me how my mother is like that.  She would have her proper speech (silted due to the lack of her English vocabulary) and her "emotional" speech (Lots of Chinese when she is feeling strongly about something.)  Just like Miss Maudie, Cal can be honest about things to Scout and makes sure it is still at a level Scout can understand.

Favorite Character Who is your favorite character?

My favorite character is Atticus. My father is just as quiet as Atticus, and in many ways he is as good a man. However, he is a gentle man, and as a teenager I had an intense fantasy of him stepping up to do something traditionally manly, as Atticus does when he shoots the dog. I was so jealous of Atticus.

Greg

I like Miss Maudie. Miss Maudie takes out her teeth to show Scout; she gives her cake; she tells her about her father; she wears men's overall, which must have been a great comfort to Scout.  On the one hand she is earthy and unpretentious, and on the other she understands life and human relationships--she's smart. She also understands Atticus, and often it is through her that we understand him better, too, for Scout's point of view never quite allows the perspective Aunt Maudie provides.  And best of all, I like Maudie when her house burns down, for though that must upset her enormously--her house is gone--she does not fall apart or even complain, but merely starts over again.  I admire such strength.  And she is a woman on her own--that too, notches her up as a role model for Scout--and for me as well.

A protagonist can be generally defined as the main or central character in a literary text. Scout Finch is the protagonist of To Kill a Mockingbird. She is also the narrator, and she narrates the story of what happens to other characters, but the main story she tells is her own.  Scout the narrator must be distinguished from Scout the character, however. It is the adult Scout who narrates, looking back to a crucially formative period in her childhood; her younger self is the character. The novel is essentially about how she begins to come to maturity and gains an understanding of the world and of other people. Other characters help her to come to a broader understanding of life. The fate of Tom Robinson, for example, teaches her the negative effects of racism and prejudice. Her father Atticus teaches her about good values, and provides an exemplary model for her to follow. The older, wiser narrator Scout looks back and reflects on the important lessons she learned during this period of her life.

The reason Scout is the protagonist in this story is evidenced by the changes that take place in her life over the two year period the book covers. She begins as a rather naive little girl who is not familiar with the lifestyles of those outside her household. Her world is the safe and comfortable confines of her home and father. She believes her father is a little boring and has few outstanding traits. She will find that he is the crack shot in Maycomb County and is not afraid of upholding truth and justice even when his peers do not agree with him. She finds other lifestyles, like those of the Ewells, the Radleys, Miss Maudie's, are not how she experienced life sheltered by Calpurnia and her family. As Scout learns, she accepts changes in her life that are beyond control. She begins  to learn a female's role in society and how justice is not always just to those of color. Her acceptance of Boo Radley as a protector, not a gruesome monster, shows her understanding of people maturing.

Scout is the protagonist of this book because she is the one we really identify with.  We see things through her point of view and, therefore, we come to share her thoughts, hopes, and concerns.  That makes her the protagonist.

To me, the antagonist in this story is not a single person.  Instead, the antagonist is the society in which Scout lives.  She is constantly fighting against the things that her society expects from her, but these expectations can be expressed through various characters.  For example, at one point, societal expectations are expressed by her teacher, but her teacher is not the antagonist throughout the book.

Jean Louise "Scout" Finchis both the narrator and protagonist of the novel To Kill a Mockingbird. She tells the story, in retrospect, of the events that led to how her brother, Jem, broke his elbow when he was nearly thirteen years old. Scout is six years old when the novel begins, which makes the story entertaining and humorous because it is told from a child's point of view. Scout recounts important events, characters, and lessons that help her develop into a morally conscious individual. Scout looks up to her morally upright father, Atticus, for advice and instruction throughout the novel. She witnesses Atticus defend Tom Robinson in front of a prejudiced jury and community, where she observes racial injustice first-hand. Scout also learns the true identity of her reclusive neighbor, Boo Radley. As Scout matures, she learns that Boo Radley is not the "malevolent phantom" she and Jem imagined, but is simply a shy, innocent person who has suffered at the hands of an abusive father.

"Protagonist" is another word for "main character" or "the good guy." To find the protagonist in any story, look to see who the story is mostly about. Who seems to be the most important character, the one whose experiences and struggles make up the bulk of the story?

In To Kill a Mockingbird, the protagonist is Scout. Her full name is Jean Louise Finch, but everyone calls her by her nickname, Scout. A lot of students get confused about Scout and think that she's a boy, since her name and her behavior are very boyish. But Scout is definitely a girl.

She's the one who features all throughout the story: we follow her adventures, stay focused on her experiences, and even listen in on her thinking.

So, you can call Scout the "protagonist." You can call her the main character. You can even call her the narrator for this story, since she's the one who tells it.

Here's a fun fact and a way to remember what "protagonist" means. We got this word from Greek; it meant "first actor." ("Proto-" means "first," like in the word "prototype," and "-agonist" means "actor.") So if you were going to make a movie about your story, who would be the first actor you'd need to hire? That would be the person playing the main role, the most important one. 

The protagonist is a character, usually a main character, who changes or learns a lesson as a result of the events of the story. The protagonist also must resolve the main conflict of the story.

Jean Louise Finch, also known as Scout, is the protagonist of the story.  She is also the narrator of the story and so the reader understands all of the characters and events through Scout's point of view. This means if she likes a character, we would mostly see the positive traits in that character. Likewise, if she fears or dislikes a character such as Boo Radley or Mrs. Dubose in the beginning chapters, then we see mostly the negative traits of this character.

When a story is told from the first person (using "I"), then it is a good indication that the narrator is the protagonist. This is because we are experiencing how an important character in the story experienced the events and changed because of them, a key trait of a protagonist. The story is also a story of maturity as Scout grows in age throughout the novel.  This is known as a "coming of age" story. It is narrated by Scout as a child (through flashbacks) and occasionally from Scout as an adult.  The adult Scout fills in information that Scout learns to help us understand the events.  As an adult narrator, Scout gives us information that the young Scout simply could not express to the readers because she is a child.

Scout must resolve several internal conflicts of morality presented in the story. Scout struggles with the conflict of seeing her town's prejudice and the injustice in the Tom Robinson trial because an innocent man is convicted for a crime he did not commit.  Her father, Atticus Finch, wants her to learn to make her own decisions instead of relying on the gossip she hears from adults in the town. She learns the lesson that someone should not be judged until you see their actions through their perspective.  Scout does this and eventually changes her opinions about several people in the town including Tom Robinson, Walter Cunningham, Mrs. Dubose, and Boo Radley. Most importantly, Scout recognizes that Boo Radley, her neighbor, is NOT an evil man as the town believes.  She comes to realize that he is a lonely man who wants friends.

Finally, the events in the story are based on Harper Lee's own childhood and a similar trial to the Tom Robinson trial known as the Scottsboro Trial.  I have included a link to a website that explains the Scottsboro trial and includes actual documents relating to the trial.