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How have critics viewed the portrayal of Black characters in To Kill a Mockingbird?

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Book cover for To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, featuring a silhouette of a child under a tree and a large moon, with the title in script and — To Kill a Mockingbird This book cover is one of many given to Harper Lee's classic work *To Kill a Mockingbird* (1960). The novel won a Pulitzer Prize in 1961 and the next year was made into an Academy Award-winning film.

Critics have offered varied perspectives on Harper Lee’s portrayal of Black characters in To Kill a Mockingbird. While the novel is widely acclaimed for its exploration of racism and prejudice in the American South, some scholars and readers have raised significant concerns regarding the depth of its African American figures.12

Common criticisms include:

One-Dimensionality: Some critics argue that the Black characters in the novel are one-dimensional.1
White Savior Trope: The book has been faulted for its reliance on the "white savior" trope, wherein the narrative focus remains heavily on the moral development of white characters like Atticus Finch rather than the experiences of the Black characters themselves.1

In a 2010 interview, novelist James McBride noted that while characters such as Calpurnia are "morally deep" and "morally sound," they lack the full dimensionality found in the works of authors like Toni Morrison. McBride contextualized this by observing that Lee was writing from the perspective of the world she knew in the 1950s, a time preceding the peak of the American civil rights movement.1