To Kill A Mockingbird. Dill.

[d12]

I need to do a character sketch on Mr. Charles Baker Harris, only problem is it's hard to find information on Dill because he isn't exactly a "main" character. Would you Dopers be kind enough to provide me with physical, personality, and emotional traits that he has (with examples from the book).
Thanks in Advance.
Justin K.

[andygirl]

Sucks when you put off your homework, doesn't it?

[acconav]

so... you want us to spend a couple hours basically rereading a book that most of us probably haven't read in years, and do your homework for you? come on.
if you have a more general question, you'll probably get a better response.

[andygirl]

One more thing.

If you go to a bookstore and buy Cliffs Notes, the clerk won't make fun of you. We will.

Incidentally, my first reaction to your post was to write up a detailed character analysis of Dill, referencing the book, the movie, and the play, all of which I dearly love. I would do this just to see what your teacher's reaction would be to read about how Dill is in fact a 6'3 20-year-old from San Diego with an anxiety disorder.

This is a public service announcement via Brick-In-The-Face Subtlety.

[Badtz Maru]

Dill was a very serious, unimaginative, and morose child for his age, due to the recent death of his mother. Scout was always trying to get him to do more than sit on the porch of the house he is staying at, with little success until later in the story. I believe Dill was added as contrast to the outgoing nature of Scout, and possibly as an example of the type of child who grows up to be the bigoted and closed-minded Southerner, as opposed to Scout's father, who is her role-model and whom she will most likely resemble when she gets older.

[Fiver]

Oh, this is rich. It's "hard to find information" on Dill. I guess it didn't cross your mind to read the book carefully, noting all the details about Dill when he's mentioned or shows up.

Anyway, I always wondered why a Norwegian kid like Dill was always wearing lederhosen, and why he was so obsessed by Manhattan jewelry stores.

[Legomancer]

Dill gets a suit of power armor in Chpater 14. He and Boo Radley then go after Lex Luthor, who it turns out is after the oil underneath Scout's home.

Later, Dill runs for governor, but loses to Charles Foster Kane.

[middleman]

Dill went on to lend his name and fortune to making adulty novelty toys.

[Ukulele Ike]

Somebody e-mailed me to come yell at the "Do My Homework For Me!" guy, but you guys are a stitch. Please carry on.

Didn't Dill become the sex toy of the famous aging Hollywood star, Cornichon Pickles Gherkin?

[Slacker]

Actually, I'm fairly certain that Dill went into business selling merkins door to door. Now that's a tough job!

[screech-owl]

Aw jeez, now I gotta go back and re-read the book
(and write these little tidbits in the margins)
Cool.

[WordMan]

FWIW, the character of Dill is actually based on Truman Capote; he and Harper Lee were childhood friends; his first book, Other Voices Other Rooms is a very different book than Mockingbird, but has a similar setting and features a Scout-like (Harper Lee-like) character, Idabell, IIRC....

But, if you haven't done your homework, coming out with this type of reference isn't exactly going to make a lot of sense...

[andygirl]

I would have loved the book were it not for that bizarre love triangle between Dill, Atticus, and the maid. What was Harper Lee thinking?

[middleman]

Originally posted by WordMan
FWIW, the character of Dill is actually based on Truman Capote; he and Harper Lee were childhood friends; his first book, Other Voices Other Rooms is a very different book than Mockingbird, but has a similar setting and features a Scout-like (Harper Lee-like) character, Idabell, IIRC....

Hey! We all would have pointed this out, but we deemed it to be FAR too helpful. YOU CROSSED THE LINE!

[lieu]

If memory serves me correctly, Dill used his lengthy earnings from the novelty bidness to pursue his true passion, horticulture. Dill uses hydroponic hose from shredded Firestones to make some kind of killer weed... now what's that shit called?

[Ivorybill]

...to make some kind of killer weed... now what's that shit called?

Erm <clearing throat> that would be the Macomb Bake-em.



Thank you folks! I'll be here all week!

[Tars Tarkas]

Dill used his lengthy earnings from the novelty bidness to pursue his true passion, horticulture.

In fact, Dill coined the phrase "you can lead a horticulture, but you can't make her think," and started scrawling it upon bathroom walls throughout the midwest.

[Ivorybill]

I forgot to mention that Dill's Macomb Bake-em profits started cutting into the Ewell's market for corn-likker and home-grown Macomb County weed. This naturally upset the Ewells, and they started to plot Dill's demise. Calpurnia helped Dill by funneling money to her friends and relatives. They formed a posse to protect Dill and Dill's market from the Ewells.

Tom Robinson was a leader of the posse, but miscalculated when he went to shake-down the Ewells. You know the rest, he was accused of rape so as not to blow the cover on the Ewell's likker and weed bidness.

Man. I love that book.

[Captain Amazing]

Come on, guys, the kid needs help. Don't tell me you never put off your homework.

Seriously, though, D12, what suprised me was when I found out that Dill was really Boo Radley's little brother. That's why he hid the evidence that it was really Boo Radley that raped Maybelle Ewell, and arranged it to make people believe that it was Tom Robinson. I shouldn't have given that away, though, if you haven't read the book yet.

[Ellen Cherry]

Dill? Slobbery little baby, last name a' Pickles? Big brother Tommy, and cousin Angelica?

I watch way too much Nickelodeon.

[lawoot]

After his many nude 'swimming lessons' with Jem, Dill founded Maycomb County's first Gay and Lesbian Alliance. He also managed to clean up Mayella Ewell, who went on to be the Maycomb County Pork Festival Queen.

[south333]

1. Do not start a thread asking someone else to do your homework for you.
2. Sparknotes.com is your friend.

[GingerOfTheNorth]

Originally posted by andygirl
I would have loved the book were it not for that bizarre love triangle between Dill, Atticus, and the maid. What was Harper Lee thinking?

"The Maid", Calpurnia, was actually the inventor of the Cotton Gin. She was going incognito in Maycomb County while studying the lady in the moon, sitting at her dressing table and combing her hair.
She was funded by a radical splinter group of the Daughters of the American Revolution, whose ultimate goal was to see how it was possible for ladies in the Maycomb heat to end up like saddened, over powdered, wilting tea-cakes by late afternoon.

Come ON. If we're gonna be helpful, we have to give the whole story.

[d12]

Cal didn't invent the cotton gin, EVERYONE knows it was Al Gore!

Well now that I've nearly finished the book () I've noticed that Harper Lee hardly gives any sort of physical descriptions of Dill. The only one that comes to mind is in Chapter 25 (I think) it says something along the lines of Dill's fat foot came crashing down on the bug?

Fat Foot = Fat Dill?
I'm not exactly accustom to the writing style of 1957.

Oh yeah, I also just found out Harper Lee is a girl!

[TPWombat]

d12, humourous comments aside, if you really want to impress the teacher, you need to include references to the sequel.

[Some Guy]

Bah.

TPWombat, I can't believe you would bring that up. I mean, the whole point of the original book is to explore Dill's drive to succeed, as contrasted with his failure to win in the heavyweight bout with Apollo Creed. The so-called "sequel" is just an excuse to tack an unneeded happy ending onto a much greater original. Not to mention that it set up a bunch of even more derivative sequels in which Dill beats up on progressively more grotesque opponents, with nary a bit of plot to be found. Personally, I refuse to admit that those later sequels even exist.

[RenMan]

"Evil Dead Mockingbird"

The bird is back.

And it's very very hungry.

[d12]

I'm not even going to bother to ask if there really is a sequel.

[China Guy]

I personally think To Kill a Mockingbird really only made sense after finishing the trilogy. Sure, the second and third books were pretty formulaic and a bit of a disappointment, but did provide a complete picture if you took the time to track them down and read through them.

*possible spoiler* I personally found the Eldridge Cleever/Black Panther sections toward the end of the third book to be highly entertaining, but that's just me.

[d12]

What have I gotten myself into?!
I honestly need to know if anyone add physical attributes to this:

Dill, or Charles Baker Harris, arrives one summer... yadda yadda yadda.

[andygirl]

Originally posted by China Guy
*possible spoiler* I personally found the Eldridge Cleever/Black Panther sections toward the end of the third book to be highly entertaining, but that's just me.

Even though they revealed that the sex scenes were ghostwritten? I thought it compromisd her artistic vision.

And the scene in the second book where the cat is tortured to death is just sick.

[Tequila Mockingbird]

Originally posted by RenMan

"Evil Dead Mockingbird"

The bird is back.

And it's very very hungry.

/hijack/ May I use this for a sig?/end hijack/

[amarinth]

Originally posted by TPWombat
d12, humourous comments aside, if you really want to impress the teacher, you need to include references to the sequel.

No, the sequel didn't do it for me. I felt Lee was just phoning that one in. I really got into Dill's mind in the prequel. It's his voice, his point of view, sheds light on his unique point of view. Hunting that down will blow it wide open for you.

[lieu]

To me, the saddest part of the book was when Addicus had to lock the rabid dog up in the corncrib and then kill it with 11 shots from a WristRocket. That after the dog had come all the way across the county with that blind dog and the cat.

[Fiver]

Agreed with most of you about the sequels. I often think it would have been better if Harper Lee had only ever written one book.

[Annie-Xmas]

Was it a mistake for Gregory Peck to take a pass on the movie based on the sequel? After all, both Quentin Tarratino and John Travolta got Emmy nominations for it!

The third movie was crap, and is only seen Sunday afternoons and during baseball rain delays.

[RenMan]

/hijack/ May I use this for a sig?/end hijack/

/hijack/
Tequila Mockingbird: no problem
/end hijack/

[WordMan]

Whoa, whoa - whaddya mean it would've been better if Harper Lee had only written one book? Now you're going to tell me that it would've been better if her son had taken on the challenge and expanded the whole Mockingbird series, and all of the movies that resulted:

To Pummel a Mockingbird
To Kill a Mockingbird Harder- Samuel L. Jackson did a wonderful job as Tom Robinson Jr. in the movie, but I though Bruce Willis made a poor adult Jem
Atticus Finch and the Goblet of Fire- Spielberg was right not to direct this, n'est pas?
The Mockingbird is Not Enough - granted, Pierce Brosnan was okay as Dill, but couldn't hold his own against Rene Russo's Scout all grown up - rowr!

and my personal favorite:

To Kill A Mockingbird - yeah, he used the same title, but Tim Burton's insightful re-interpretation was money! Who'da expected the shocker at the end when Scout looks behind the door and instead of Boo Radley, sees Papa Ewell, who then kills her...I am still in shock!

[Captain Amazing]

Originally posted by andygirl

And the scene in the second book where the cat is tortured to death is just sick.

It's only sick if you don't understand it. That scene was symbolic of Calpurnia's forbidden love for Atticus.

[lieu]

[quote]Originally posted by Captain Amazing

That scene was symbolic of Calpurnia's forbidden love for Atticus.

As exemplified by her endorsement of the rich syrup poured all over the supper plate by Jim's schoolfriend guest? I'll be dammed... I missed that before.

[China Guy]

Originally posted by Fiver
I often think it would have been better if Harper Lee had only ever written one book.

Bwahahahahahahahahahhahahah

[reprise]

Originally posted by Fiver
Agreed with most of you about the sequels. I often think it would have been better if Harper Lee had only ever written one book.

Damn Fiver, how am I going to get the tea out of the keyboard?

Oh, and d12, you might try reading the book some time - unless you believe that we can channel Harper Lee, you aren't going to get any more information about Dill than the author chose to put in her novel (strange that, isn't it?).

_{OK, I should have suggested that the OP search the net for interviews with Harper Lee in which she expands on her characters, but I'm just not feeling that sadistic tonight.}

[screech-owl]

Not to mention the blatant copycatting by other authors trying to jump on the bandwagon:

Alas, Mockingbird
One Flew Over the Mockingbird's Nest
The Electric Kool-Aid Mockingbird Test
I, Polyglottos/Polyglottos the God

[nerv]

Everybody, have you heard?
I'm going to kill me a mockingbird
And if that mockingbird don't die
I'm gonna bake it in a pie

[Netbrian]

I'm sorry to continue to ask, but I'd like to know if there really was a sequal to To Kill a Mockingbird, and if so, what were the titles? That was one of the more enjoyable books I read for school, and I think it might be interesting to see them...

[Miss Creant]

Originally posted by Netbrian
I'm sorry to continue to ask, but I'd like to know if there really was a sequal to To Kill a Mockingbird, and if so, what were the titles? That was one of the more enjoyable books I read for school, and I think it might be interesting to see them...

uh..yeah, there is...its called..um..um...To Cook a Mockingbird...

[Rico]

Dill...I am your father......

- Darth Vader

[Netbrian]

Why would someone want to eat something as rough as THAT thing?

[KimKatt]

Didn't Berkeley Breathed film a sequel to "To Kill a Mockingbird" ?

Can't exactly remember the title. I think it was "Mo' Better Mockingbird."

[DPWhite]

Excuse me, but it only takes a few hours to read this book. You are going to spend less time finding out (I don't remember Dill at all) than trying to sort all the crap people are giving you here. The character was probably changed or left out of the movie. This movie was one of Peck's better ones. He usually played his characters with such a stick up their butts that it got to be annoying. This role suits that fairly well, and he found a few others where his New Englandness wasn't simply maddening.

For a real hoot, Gregory Peck fans, watch The Boys From Brazil where he and the Baron of Brighton compete to see which can be the biggest ham. Peck simply blows Sir Laurance out of the water.