Scout- Character Summary
As the narrator of Lee’s novel, it is Scout’s voice that we hear most often. And, while she is a precocious child in the beginning of the book, she develops quite a bit as the book progresses. Her development moves from a tomboy to a more informed young girl.
For this assignment you are to consider Scout’s Developments and create a summary of her development. he may continue to develop as she enters her early adulthood. In your opinion, will Scout Finch the tomboy become Jean Louise Finch the southern lady? Or, do you see some other future for Scout? Here are the requirements for this assignment:
- Write an essay expressing your predictions about the type of person that Scout will become in the future
- Be sure to include textual support for your prediction
- Use MLA guidelines for citations
- Length 200-400 words
The following interview took place in 1993. Mary Ann, Camille, and Cecil are all from “good” southern families. All three women were youths in the 1930’s and experienced a childhood very similar to Scout Finch’s.
Interviewer: Were you proper, dainty little Southern girls?
Mary Ann: I was very fond of dolls. I was kind of a girl-girl. But I also climbed trees. I remember mother saying one day,” Don’t you think you’re getting too big to be doing tumble-saults on the floor?” But obviously Camille was the real tomboy.
Camille: I only played with boys. I played tackle football with boys until I was about twelve or thirteen. One day when I was tackled, I got the wind knocked out of me, and I went home and put on a dress and never played football again.
Cecil: I played boys’ games too, and my best friend was a boy. We had a club and we initiated new members by feeding them leaves of an elephant-eat plant. We’d give them nose drops with mustard in it. It’s a wonder we didn’t kill someone with out initiations.
Camille: I remember hating getting dolls and things for Christmas. I wanted trains and trucks and things that the boys got. We ended up using my dolls to re-enact kidnapping. We’d just throw them out the window.
Cecil: I also played jump-rope and jacks, and I skated.
…
Interviewer: In To Kill A Mockingbird, Atticus is reprimanded by Aunt Alexandra and Mrs. Dubose for not dressing Scout properly. Do you remember a special dress code for girls?
Cecil: I don’t remember any taboo against little girls wearing trousers, but we were usually dressed in dresses because I remember my mother saying that little girls should always wear pretty panties because they spent so much time on their heads.
Mary Ann: We definitely weren’t allowed to wear pants to school. It was unladylike to be sunburned. But nobody ever bugged me about it.
Camille: Oh, no.
Mary Ann: Never.
Cecil: In those days, blue jeans were really tacky.
Mary Ann: As my husband says, he struggled very hard so as not to have to work in blue jeans.
…
Interviewer: Was there a special code of behavior for little girls who were expected to grow up to be southern ladies?
Camille: Well, it was alright for boys to fight, but girls weren’t supposed to. It was perfectly alright for my brother to fight, but I was not allowed to. Of course, I did it anyway.
Cecil: Yes, we weren’t supposed to, but I did beat up a little boy once. I remember, his mother called to complain to Mama, and for once Mama stood up for me. I remember her saying, “Well, he started it and he’s two years older than she is and she is a girl.”
Mary Ann: Normally, little girls didn’t resort to violence. I only had one fight.
Cecil: Speech was a biggie, really. There were just certain things you didn’t say. You were corrected a lot.
Mary Ann: Correct grammar was extremely important.
-interview exerpted from To Kill A Mockingbird, A Student Casebook to Issues, Sources, and Historical Documents by Claudia Durst Johnson
Interviewer: Were you proper, dainty little Southern girls?
Mary Ann: I was very fond of dolls. I was kind of a girl-girl. But I also climbed trees. I remember mother saying one day,” Don’t you think you’re getting too big to be doing tumble-saults on the floor?” But obviously Camille was the real tomboy.
Camille: I only played with boys. I played tackle football with boys until I was about twelve or thirteen. One day when I was tackled, I got the wind knocked out of me, and I went home and put on a dress and never played football again.
Cecil: I played boys’ games too, and my best friend was a boy. We had a club and we initiated new members by feeding them leaves of an elephant-eat plant. We’d give them nose drops with mustard in it. It’s a wonder we didn’t kill someone with out initiations.
Camille: I remember hating getting dolls and things for Christmas. I wanted trains and trucks and things that the boys got. We ended up using my dolls to re-enact kidnapping. We’d just throw them out the window.
Cecil: I also played jump-rope and jacks, and I skated.
…
Interviewer: In To Kill A Mockingbird, Atticus is reprimanded by Aunt Alexandra and Mrs. Dubose for not dressing Scout properly. Do you remember a special dress code for girls?
Cecil: I don’t remember any taboo against little girls wearing trousers, but we were usually dressed in dresses because I remember my mother saying that little girls should always wear pretty panties because they spent so much time on their heads.
Mary Ann: We definitely weren’t allowed to wear pants to school. It was unladylike to be sunburned. But nobody ever bugged me about it.
Camille: Oh, no.
Mary Ann: Never.
Cecil: In those days, blue jeans were really tacky.
Mary Ann: As my husband says, he struggled very hard so as not to have to work in blue jeans.
…
Interviewer: Was there a special code of behavior for little girls who were expected to grow up to be southern ladies?
Camille: Well, it was alright for boys to fight, but girls weren’t supposed to. It was perfectly alright for my brother to fight, but I was not allowed to. Of course, I did it anyway.
Cecil: Yes, we weren’t supposed to, but I did beat up a little boy once. I remember, his mother called to complain to Mama, and for once Mama stood up for me. I remember her saying, “Well, he started it and he’s two years older than she is and she is a girl.”
Mary Ann: Normally, little girls didn’t resort to violence. I only had one fight.
Cecil: Speech was a biggie, really. There were just certain things you didn’t say. You were corrected a lot.
Mary Ann: Correct grammar was extremely important.
-interview exerpted from To Kill A Mockingbird, A Student Casebook to Issues, Sources, and Historical Documents by Claudia Durst Johnson