Scout is a young girl age 7 (At the begining). Her father is Atticus Finch, and her brother is Jem Finch. She has many experiences in school and in a southern courthouse, and also comes across predjudice, and racial conflict. Throughout the story, she is constantly curious trying to find out answers to complicated questions in an adult world such as "What is rape?", and "Why does prejudice exist?".
Jem is a young energetic boy. He is the brother of Scout, and the son of Atticus Finch. He is very athletic, and also very daring. He goes on adventures with Scout learning along with her. He accepts many dares and carries them out to their fullest such as the pranks he pulled on Boo Radley during the Boo Radley Game.
Atticus Finch is a middle-aged southern lawyer. He has two children, Scout, and Jem. He is one of the few people in Maycomb County that is not prejudiced. In the story, he has to deal with great controversy over defending a black man for rape of a white woman. He does not belong in the south because he isn't prejudice, and although he has many talents for being a southerner, he hides all of them. He can shoot a gun so well that the sheriff needed him to kill a rabid dog.
Calpurnia is the Finchs' maid. She is a black woman who acts as a surrogate mother for Jem and Scout. She leads a double life. One with her fellow black friends, and one with the Finch family. She talks completly different around her friends then she would around the Finches.
Dill is a young boy from Meridian, Mississippi. In the summertime, he came to Maycomb to stay with his aunt Miss Rachel. He started the Boo Radley Game. Like Jem, he was a very daring boy. But unlike Jem, Dill could come up with masterful schemes. He and Scout were child-like boyfriend and girlfriend. But they decided to hide it from the rest of the world. Especially from Jem.
Ms. Maudie lived across the street from the Finches. She was a nice lady, and she didn't mind the kids playing in her yard as long as they did not touch her precious flowers. She took great pride in her flowers, and cared for them like a baby. In the story, her house catches fire, and most of the house is destroyed despite all the help from the townsfolk.
Boo Radley was the big mystery of the town. He was thought to have stabbed his father and was sentenced to be locked in his basement. He rarely came outside, and never had any other contact with the outside world. One mystery about Boo was started when Scout found several different items in a knot hole in a tree on the Radley's property.
Tom Robinson was a black man accused of raping a Mayla Ewell. Atticus Finch was appointed by the court to defend him. There was a large controversy about Atticus defending a black man, but Atticus kept Tom from being mobbed in several occasions.