How Does Harper Lee Use Minor Characters in to Kill a Mockingbird to Explore Some of the Main Themes of the Novel?

Essay Assignment:

How does Harper Lee use minor characters in To Kill a Mockingbird to explore some of the main themes of the novel?

Prejudice of any sort can always be found amongst people, no matter where they are in the world. Prejudice is an unreasonable dislike of a particular group of people or things or a preference for a group of people of things over another. It is prevalent within gender, sexuality, social status, race and religion universally. In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, the main themes of the novel are revealed through the minor characters. The minor characters in the novel portray Harper Lee’s true opinion about the greater controversies of the themes in a timid manner. Through Mayella Ewell, Miss Caroline, and Walter Cunningham Sr., the themes of prejudice, poverty and ignorance are established. In my opinion, Harper Lee uses minor characters in To Kill a Mockingbird to explore some of the main themes of the novel by relating each character to specific scenes in the novel, giving them a particular name, and connecting their actions to something greater.

Mayella Ewell is a fairly important character in the novel, because Tom Robinson’s life and hope are dependent on her words and actions. Mayella Ewell is the daughter of one of the local farmers, Mr Ewell. She represents the theme of prejudice as a minor character because she is openly accusing a black man for rape although he is clearly innocent and only being accused because of the colour of his skin. Mayella is an important minor character because not only was she literally manipulated by her father, but the fact that she represents the whole of Maycomb as a victim of manipulation at the same time. ”Do you love your father, Miss Mayella?” Was his next? “Love him, whatcha mean?” “I mean, is he good to you, is he easy to get along with?” “He does tollable, ‘cept when-“ “Except when?” Mayella looked at her father, who was sitting with his chair tipped against the...