Atticus Finch and his children
At the centre of the Finch family tree stands Atticus Finch, a lawyer in Maycomb, Alabama, who is close to fifty when the story opens.2 He is a widower. His wife died when Scout was two, so young that Scout has no memory of her, and the novel never gives her a first name.14 On the chart she is drawn as Mrs Finch, with the cross of a death that comes before the story.
The two children stand under that marriage. Jem, whose full name is Jeremy Atticus Finch, is nearly ten at the start, and his sister Scout, Jean Louise Finch, is six.24 Scout tells the story as a grown woman looking back on three years, 1933 to 1935, and she opens chapter 1 with the arm Jem broke near the end of those years.1
The household holds one more person who is not family by blood. Calpurnia, the cook, has worked for the Finches for years and raises the children with Atticus.1 Her grown son Zeebo collects the town’s rubbish and leads the singing at her church, which the children visit with her in chapter 12.2 The chart draws Calpurnia inside the Finch household and gives her a caretaker line to Scout.
Alexandra, Jack and the old homestead
Chapter 1 traces the Finches back to Simon Finch, who founded Finch’s Landing, a cotton homestead on the river about twenty miles east of Maycomb.2 Several generations pass between Simon and Atticus without names, so the chart leaves Simon in its note and starts with one symbol for the elder Finches, the parents of three children.
Those children are Atticus, his brother Jack and his sister Alexandra. Jack is a doctor about ten years younger than Atticus and has not married.2 Alexandra stayed at the Landing with her husband Uncle Jimmy, a man Scout barely notices.3 Their son Henry leaves his own son Francis with his grandparents, and Francis is the cousin Scout meets each Christmas.43
Chapter 9 brings the whole Finch family tree together for Christmas Day at the Landing. Francis insults Atticus for taking Tom Robinson’s case, and Scout hits him so hard that she splits her knuckle. Uncle Jack punishes her before he hears her side, and he apologises later that evening.3 The rivalry line between Francis and Scout runs from chapter 4 to the end of chapter 11.
In chapter 13 Alexandra moves into the house in Maycomb, and the chart moves her into the Finch household from that story point on. She presses Scout to behave like a lady and wants Calpurnia dismissed, and Atticus refuses.1
The Radleys, the Ewells and the Robinsons
Three households of Maycomb cross the Finch family tree To Kill a Mockingbird draws around the trial. The Radleys live two doors down. Mr Radley kept his younger son Arthur Radley, called Boo, shut inside for years, and after his death the elder son Nathan takes his place in the house.21 Boo leaves small gifts for the children in the knothole of an oak, and in chapter 7 Nathan fills the hole with cement.1
Bob Ewell lives near the town dump with nine children and no wife.4 His eldest daughter, Mayella, is nineteen.2 She accuses Tom Robinson, a married field hand of twenty-five, of rape, and Atticus defends him at the trial of chapters 17 to 21.21 Tom’s wife is Helen Robinson.
The jury convicts Tom against the evidence. In chapter 24 he is shot dead while trying to escape from the prison farm, and Helen is left a widow.1 Bob Ewell, shamed at the trial, spits in Atticus’s face and threatens Helen.1 On the chart his line to Atticus turns to enmity at that point.
The Finch children have one more friend from outside the family. Dill, whose name is Charles Baker Harris, spends each summer with his aunt Miss Rachel Haverford, the Finches’ next-door neighbour.2 Across the street lives Miss Maudie Atkinson, a widow who explains to the children why it is a sin to kill a mockingbird.21
The Finch family tree chapter by chapter
Each card gives the changes to the chart at the end of a group of chapters. Read each card after its chapters, since the later cards name deaths.
Chapters 1 to 3
The summer of Dill
Spoiler note. Nothing beyond chapter 3.
- Scout, Jem and Atticus live in Maycomb with Calpurnia, and Dill arrives for the summer.
- The children dare one another to touch the Radley house.
Chapters 4 to 11
Gifts, Christmas and a case
Spoiler note. Atticus takes the case.
- Gifts appear in the oak until Nathan Radley cements the knothole.
- The family meets at Finch’s Landing, and Scout fights Francis.
- Judge Taylor appoints Atticus to defend Tom Robinson.
Chapters 12 to 16
Alexandra moves in
Spoiler note. The family grows by one.
- Calpurnia takes the children to her church.
- Aunt Alexandra comes to live in Maycomb, and Dill runs away from home to the Finches.
Sources1
Chapters 17 to 21
The trial
Spoiler note. The verdict is given.
- Bob and Mayella Ewell testify against Tom Robinson.
- The jury finds Tom guilty.
Chapters 22 to 27
A death and a threat
Spoiler note. Tom Robinson dies.
- Tom is shot dead at the prison farm, and Helen is widowed.
- Bob Ewell spits on Atticus and threatens the people who shamed him.
Sources1
Chapters 28 to 31
The night of the pageant
Spoiler note. The ending is told in full.
- Bob Ewell attacks Jem and Scout in the dark, and Jem’s arm is broken.
- Boo Radley saves the children, Bob Ewell is found dead, and the sheriff says Ewell fell on his own knife.
Sources1
How to read this Finch family tree
A square is a man and a circle is a woman. A double line is a marriage. The elder Finches are drawn as one symbol because the novel never names them, and the children of that symbol are Alexandra, Jack and Atticus.
Read this way, the Finch family tree To Kill a Mockingbird sets out has five households and one trial at its centre. Each household wears its own colour, with a letter at the corner of every member. Alexandra starts in the gold of Finch’s Landing and gains the blue of the Maycomb house in chapter 13. The coloured lines tell the story between families. The teal arrow runs from Atticus to Tom as counsel to client, the dark red dashed arrow runs from Mayella to Tom as the charge, and the dotted grey line from Boo to Scout is the secret of the gifts, which turns to friendship in chapter 28.
Each line carries words at both ends. The line between Boo and Bob Ewell, for example, gives what each side does on the night of the pageant and keeps the sheriff’s account beside it. To build a family tree of your own book, open this chart in the editor or start from the story charts. The symbols are set out in the genogram symbols.
Questions about the Finch family tree
Who is in the Finch family tree
Atticus, his children Jem and Scout, his late wife, his brother Jack and his sister Alexandra with her husband Jimmy, their son Henry and Henry’s son Francis.23
Is Scout’s mother named in To Kill a Mockingbird
No. The novel says only that she died when Scout was two.1
How is Francis related to Scout
Francis is the grandson of Aunt Alexandra, so he is Scout’s first cousin once removed.4
Is Dill part of the Finch family
No. Dill is the nephew of Miss Rachel Haverford, the Finches’ neighbour, and visits each summer.2
People and sources
A page of its own lists all 22 characters on the chart, each with a short note and the sources for it, and the four numbered sources this article cites. It also gives this page as a reference in the APA, MLA, Chicago and Harvard styles, ready to copy.