Dill, also known as Charles Baker Harris, gives To Kill a Mockingbird a contrast between Jem and Scout. Dill's family life is dramatically different than the Finch children, where as Jem and Scout have a father who loves and cares for them. Dill, on the other hand, has a mother who doesn't need to be bothered with him in Meridian, Mississippi and ships him off to his Aunt Rachel's in Maycomb every summer. The Finch family is much older and traditional than Dill's broken family. Dill even runs away from home, because he feels his mother and stepfather don't care about him. .
Dill has blue eyes and white-blond hair. His tone is ironically cynical and worldly for a child, like when he says, "I told her till I was blue in the face where I was goin"-she's just seein" too many snakes in the closet. Bet that woman drinks a pint for breakfast every morning-know she drinks two glasses full. Seen her." But he also shares Jem and Scouts childhood innocence and imagination. Even though Dill is one year younger than Jem and one year older than Scout, Dill has experienced many things Jem and Scout have not, hence when he says, "I"m little but I"m old." He has seen the movie Dracula, ridden on the train by himself from Meridian to Maycomb, and was cunning enough to be able to run away to the Finch house. But Dill's stories are not always true and some are from his imagination. As Scout says at the end of chapter 14, "Dill was off again. Beautiful things floated around in his dreamy head. He could read two books to my one, but he preferred the magic of his own inventions. He could add and subtract like lightning, but he preferred his own twilight world, a world where babies slept, waiting to be gathered like morning lilies.".
When it comes to plot, Dill is one of the most integral characters in To Kill a Mockingbird. Even his nickname, Dill, gives you a hint that he spices up the novel. He makes up plays and stories that the children act out.
