To Kill A Mockingbird Minor Character Analysis

Significance of Minor Characters in To Kill a Mockingbird

In Harper Lee’s novel To Kill a Mockingbird, there is an abundance of minor characters. Three of these characters, Dill, Alexandra, and Calpurnia are especially significant because of the influence they had on Scout.

Dill is an outsider of the town. He provides another child’s point of view, a child who is not related to Scout. According to the text, “Dill was from Meridian, Mississippi, was spending the summer with his aunt, Miss Rachel, and would be spending every summer in Maycomb from now on” (8). Dill isn’t from Maycomb, so he sees things differently than the natives of the town. It adds a new layer into all the things Scout is going through. Dill is young, but more mature than

One Sunday, while their father is away, Calpurnia takes Jem and Scout to her church. The reverend says, “‘The collection taken up today and for the next three Sundays will go to Helen-his wife, to help her out at home’” (160). This reveals that the entire black community is involved in the Tom Robinson case, and they are all working together to help him and his family. During the trail, Scout, Jem, and Dill sit in the balcony with the reverend they met at church. After Tom is declared guilty, Scout says, “I looked around. They were standing. All around us and in the balcony on the opposite wall, the Negroes were getting to their feet” (283). The fact that they all stand shows their respect for Tom and Atticus, and is another example of the black community uniting. In the twenty fourth chapter, Atticus comes home with the news that Tom was shot and killed. He says “‘Cal, I want you to come out with me and help me tell Helen.’”(315). Calpurnia does go with him, to aid him. This is another example of blacks helping blacks.. The unity of the black community throughout the novel was only seen through Calpurnia.
To Kill a Mockingbird has dozens of minor characters that are important to the novel. The three most important, however, are Dill, Alexandra, and Calpurnia. They each have their own unique effect on Scout, which helps shape her personality as she matures throughout the course of the