In To Kill a Mockingbird Dill Harris is a very imaginative kid, curious, and amicable because it is his way of coping with his dismal childhood. Dill wants to be in a totally different world; he desires to escape from the pains of reality. He also sees new joys in his audacious friends, Jem and Scout. He likes the fact that he can make an adventure out of everything and that he embodies the fact that you can’t fear something until you really know how it actually makes you feel when you encounter it. He also doesn’t want anyone to really feel anything that presumably was really as sickening as his childhood by treating them nicely.
“The more we told Dill about the Radleys, the more he wanted to know, the longer he would stand hugging the light-pole on the corner, the more he would wonder (Lee15). Dill had already mentioned hinted at the fact that he might have abused by his father or simply been neglected. Dill had been yearning for something that could bring some joy to his life, but he didn’t really find his chance until he hears about Boo. When he finally realizes there is something thrilling he realizes that he has something that can let him let go of all of his worries. The primary reason Dill keeps acting curious and wandering near Boo’s house is because no one knows how Boo looks and because of the very exaggerated rumors about Boo.
Dill doesn’t seem to care about the impeding dangers that lie ahead that could result because of his choice to bother Boo. He could be seeing Boo as a potential enemy like his dad except this enemy seems more intriguing and more fantasy-like. He doesn’t be stuck to the inhibitions of reality that will mostly be in control unless he decides to get rid of them.
“Dill was a villain’s villain: he could get into any character part assigned him”(Lee 52). Dill is very imaginative in the sense that he can be whoever he wants to be in his own world of acting. He plays a multitude of characters from a tall person to a very naught boy. When he plays someone he would never ever be in real life. He is once again escaping pains that he doesn’t want to be locked into. Dill never got to be the person he wanted to be in real life, by being with a family that loved him.
He can take out his anger from his childhood by acting as a very invidious character. It really shows that Dill wants to bend the inequity of life and cheat karma. Dill was after all very isolated socially so he plays all these fictitious games to enjoy being with friends that he never has back home. Dill was being probably bullied in school because of his size. Dill know that these kids are friendly that he can rest his childhood with Jem and Scout since they are also dependent on Dill due to the fact that they don’t have that many friends either to play with every summer in Maycomb.
“He staked me out, market as his property, said I was the only girl he would ever love, the he neglected me. I beat him up twice but it did no good, he only grew closer to Jem” (Lee 55). This shows that Dill is definitely showing some signs of being very amiable. Dill is not being loved by anyone so he wants to love someone. That way they will not have to go through the pain he had to go through. However, his bad memories come back to hold him back. These memories are the memories that describe his moments of neglect. That is why he abandoned Scout after loving her. He still feels a close bond that is very good-willed with Jem, which is why Scout mentions he get close to Jem. Dill wants the kids to know that a peer like him can be there for them in tough times. Dill didn’t have any peers who had his back in all the tough times he had to go through. Dill now has two sympathetic peers: Jem and Scout.
