Atticus’s brother who is 10 years younger and a doctor. He’s unmarried but has a female cat, and he spends a week every Christmas with Atticus, Scout, and Jem. Scout adores him as he doesn’t seem much like a doctor to her—rather than acting cold and clinical, he makes her laugh or explains in detail what he’s doing while performing minor procedures. He punishes Scout at Christmas for beating up Francis but feels horrendous about it when Scout accuses him of being horrible with children and not asking for her side of the story. He later tells Atticus shamefully that Scout’s rebuke makes him never want to have children.
Uncle Jack Quotes in To Kill a Mockingbird
The To Kill a Mockingbird quotes below are all either spoken by Uncle Jack or refer to Uncle Jack. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 16
Quotes
“Well how do you know we ain't Negroes?”
“Uncle Jack Finch says we really don't know. He says as far as he can trace back the Finches we ain't, but for all he knows we mighta come straight out of Ethiopia durin' the Old Testament.”
“Well if we came out durin' the Old Testament it's too long ago to matter.”
“That's what I thought," said Jem, “but around here once you have a drop of Negro blood, that makes you all black.”
Related Characters:
Jean Louise Finch (Scout) (speaker), Jeremy Atticus Finch (Jem) (speaker), Uncle Jack
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire To Kill a Mockingbird LitChart as a printable PDF.
Uncle Jack Character Timeline in To Kill a Mockingbird
The timeline below shows where the character Uncle Jack appears in To Kill a Mockingbird. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 5
...was stuffed up the chimney, which makes Miss Maudie declare that Jem is turning into Uncle Jack , a childhood friend.
(full context)
Chapter 9
Christmas is a mixed bag for Jem and Scout. On the plus side, Uncle Jack visits for a week. On the downside, they have to spend time with Aunt Alexandra...
(full context)
Uncle Jack arrives on the train with two long packages, pecks Atticus on the cheek, and shows...
(full context)
...Scout punches him so hard she splits her knuckle to the bone. Aunt Alexandra and Uncle Jack separate them, and Francis bawls that Scout called him a “whore-lady.” Scout doesn’t deny it...
(full context)
At home, Scout locks herself in her room and tries to keep Uncle Jack from coming in to talk to her. Scout accuses him of not understanding children and...
(full context)
Later, when Scout gets up for water, she stops in the hallway and listens to Uncle Jack tell Atticus that he’ll never have children after Scout’s dressing down earlier. He doesn’t betray...
(full context)
Chapter 16
...and asks how they know that they’re not black too. Jem says that according to Uncle Jack , they don’t know, but they may have come from Ethiopia during the Old Testament...
(full context)
