An older and cantankerous neighbor who lives across the street from the Finches. He’s a portly man who whittles, though only to make himself toothpicks. Scout, Jem, and Dill find Mr. Avery fascinating since in the summers, he puts on a nightly show of sitting on his porch and sneezing—and one night, they caught him urinating an impressive distance off of his porch. Scout doesn’t like him much, but she takes him at his word that it’s written on the Rosetta Stone that Maycomb experiences bad weather when children misbehave. Despite being cantankerous, he’s one of the bravest men who fights the fire in Miss Maudie’s house.