Hi, I am Jean Louise Finch, more commonly known in the story as Scout.  I am the narrator of the story, and wrote it when I was looking back on various summers of my childhood in Maycomb, Alabama.  During those times I lived with my father Atticus, my older brother Jem, and a black cook named Calpurnia, who filled the role of a mother to me.  My biological mother had died when I was two years old. Part of the time, my bossy and gossipy aunt Alexandra lived with us, too.  We never really got along well, as Aunt Alexandra was constantly frustrated that I didn’t act more like a proper southern belle. Also, as a child I was “engaged” to my good friend and playmate, Charles Baker “Dill” Harris.  Other children I played with included Cecil Jacobs and Walter Cunningham.   Dill, Jem, and I spent many summers playing together and making up our own dramas.  I was a tomboy at the time and felt very comfortable in their world.  In particular we wrote a play called “Boo Radley”.  At the time we happened to be fascinated with Boo Radley, our neighbor who had not left his house in many years.  There were many strange rumors about Boo, and we longed to see him come out.  Little did I know he would one day save my life, as well as Jem's.  It’s a long story, but it began with Tom Robinson’s trial.  Jem and I were present as my father was defeated, and were crushed by the verdict.  However, Bob Ewell wanted to get even with my father and tried to murder Jem and me on Halloween night while we were crossing the schoolyard after a community pageant.  If not for my ham costume, I would have been dead or at least severely wounded.  (I had participated in the pageant dressed as a ham.)  There were slits from his knife in my costume.  Anyway, Boo arrived just in time to save us, and I was the first human outside of his family to interact with him in who knows how many years?  A few summers prior, he had left us presents in a knothole of a tree.  As a child I was very intelligent for my age, in fact I got in trouble with my first-grade teacher Mrs. Caroline for knowing how to read.  I am proud of the fact that I once saved Tom Robinson’s life, by stopping a mob that visited him at the jail.  I did this by making friendly conversation with the leader, Mr. Cunningham.  I realize now that during the part of my childhood featured in the novel, I learned many lessons from Atticus and others about human nature and racism.  I also learned how to deal with people and resolve conflicts through other means than fighting.  As a child I was extremely impulsive and Atticus tried to teach me to think more of consequences before I acted.  In addition, he told me to see things from another person’s point of view in order to understand their motives better. I was fortunate to have Atticus as a father because he helped me learn right from wrong.

Dr. Reynolds is the Maycomb doctor. "Had brought Jem and me into the world, had led us through every childhood disease known to man including the time Jem fell out of the tree house, and he had never lost our friendship. Dr. Reynolds said that if we were boil-prone things would have been different...” He is well known to Jem and Scout. He has a strong bond with the Finches.