In the court case she appears to be uncertain of her testimony, constantly stuttering and repeating herself. She tries to cover her guilt by accusing Atticus of 'making fun of me (her)'(p200). Scout curiously studies Mayella; she does not think much about her. Scout figures out that Mayella's life is much different from her own. She carefully studies Mayella, and questions Jem if Mayella had any sense.
Joseph Tasos Ms. Talbot ENG2D1 June 10th, 2014 Loss of innocence in To Kill A Mocking Bird In to kill A MockingBird the loss of innocence is revealed through the characters of Dill, Jem, and Scout. They have lost their innocence as a result of coming to a sudden realization that life is not always fair. Even though dill, Jem, and Scout realize that life is not always fair, they learn the important lesson that many things are not fair but in order to move through life they need to move on and keep going. When Scout begins her first day of school, she is introduced to her new teacher Miss Caroline and her new classmates. When Miss Caroline asks scout to read aloud she discovers that Scout seems to be more literate than the rest of the students.
“I was rubbing his nose in the dirt”(Lee 30) said Scout. This proves she is acting childish by bullying Walter for no reason, which is not going to help the situation. Second, Scout shows she is immature when fighting Francis because he made rude comments about her father. “ [she] split [her] knuckle to the bone on his front teeth. [With her] left impaired [she] sailed in with [her] right”(112).
Even on the first day of school, having no provocation Scout starts a fight. Over the course of the book, Scout becomes involved in countless other conflicts, most being in the fighting category. As a result of her short temper, Scout has often been scolded by her maid, Calpurnia, aunt, and father. “She asked me to tell you, you must try to behave like the little lady and gentleman you are.” It is in this quote which shows one of the many instances of Scout being scolded by her aunt Alexandra for not acting “ladylike” (Lee 133). While Scout somewhat remains a tomboy, her temper is smoldered as a result of
She watched but did not feel powerful enough to go against her classmates making outcasts of some children, such as an overweight girl with only one dress while everyone, teachers included deferred to the leading confident children. At the age of sixty, Paley can no longer resist those early memories of her past painful empathy with the outsiders. She undertakes to go beyond the usual practice of making the outsiders more acceptable to the insiders, to find a way to break the chain of exclusion without violating the other children’s sense of justice or ruining the atmosphere of her classroom. Several surprising things about Paley’s approach to problem solving with the children make the story engrossing and full of suspense. For one thing, she is genuinely ambivalent and does not know how imposing a new rule (“You can’t say you can’t play”) will work out.
Scout acted as if the whole world was coming to an end. But as soon as she realized school was nipping at our heels she perked up some. Scout had always awed in wonder when school was mentioned, since she had never been herself. This was her first year and I wasn’t exactly comfortable with the idea of having my little sister attend the same school as me. When Atticus volunteered me to show Scout to school her first day, I wasn’t too pleased.
Throughout the novel you see how Jem grows up and starts to become a young adult. Part of being a child is making childish mistakes, but being a young adult is coming clean and fixing the problems that you face, which is exactly what Jem does after wrecking Mrs. Duboses Camellia flower bushes. Jem and Scout were always angry with Mrs. Dubose because she always said rude
Although Scout and Jem are high in the social classes, as their father Atticus is a Layer, they are oblivious to their high standing in the social classes. A prime example of this naivety is when Scout debates with Aunt Alexandra about playing with Walter “but I want to play with Walter, Aunty, Why can’t I?”…”I’ll tell you why, because he is trash, that is why you can’t play with him.” This portrays Scout’s naivety and childlike understanding of the situations right in front of her. This is part of the novel’s allure; seeing the dramatic events unfold through the innocent eyes of childhood. The people of Maycomb lack the ability to see people beyond their social standing; this is tainted due to patronizing attitudes towards people who are inferior to them on the social ladder, which ultimately interferes with their ability to judge other people fairly and unbiasedly. Many characters and events in the novel To Kill A Mockingbird are based upon circumstances
“Over here we don’t believe in persecuting anybody. Persecution comes from people who are prejudiced.” However, her attitude towards the whole Tom Robinson case says the complete opposite. Scout even hears her say after Tom's sentence "it's time someone taught 'em a lesson, they were gettin' way above themselves, an' next thing they think they can do is marry us. " Scout does a lot of "growing up" in this novel. She doesn't understand much about the world in the beginning, and by the end she understands a little too much.
Boo does not act like a normal person. Being too bizarre and strange for your environment is just as bad as staying out of sight and cutting off contact with everyone else because then people will gossip and rumor about your life to compensate for not knowing. This is shown in the case of Boo Radley. Just because Boo wanted to be left alone and not be bothered he became the focal point for all the rumors and the gossip of the town. Children speculate and fabricate ideas as well as the adults do about Boo.