has adult
conversations with . We, the reader, never really know how much she absorbs and understands,
but she is smart and far beyond her years. However, there are certain areas where her
naivety is obvious, and some of those situations get her in trouble, and some are
humorous.
Scout looks out the window one morning and nearly died of fright.
She screamed and Atticus came running into her room.
"The world's ending, Atticus! Please do something" (pg 64)
It was snowing, and she had never seen snow --- not unusual in
Alabama.
When Scout visits the family, her cousin, Francis, says horrible
things about Atticus. Scout hits him in the mouth. Uncle Jack reprimands her for hitting
Francis and cussing. Uncle Jack asks Scout what Francis said about Atticus.
"A nigger-lover. I ain't very sure what it means, but the way
Francis said it..." (pg 86)
She didn't even know
what "nigger-lover" meant ---- she just knew it wasn't nice from the way it was said.
She had to ask Atticus to get a definition later in the book.
One of the
funnier conversations is when Scout and Dill discuss where babies come from. Dill says you can
order one from this man who rows across from an island. Scout replies,
"That's a lie. Aunty said God drops 'em down the chimney. At
least that's what I think she said." (pg 144)
A
serious situation happens when Atticus is approached by the mob at the jail, Scout has NO idea
how dangerous that situation was. She walked right up to those men and started talking to
them. Her young wisdom made the men realize the situation Atticus was in and that he had helped
out many of them in that town. Scout says,
"Well,
Atticus, I was just sayin' to Mr. Cunningham that entailments are bad and all that, but you said
not to worry. It takes a long time sometimes.... and that you all'd ride it out together"
(pg 154)
Later in the book,tells Scout there are four
kinds of people: ordinary people, people like the Cunninghams, people like the Ewells, and the
Negroes. When Scout asks him about the Chinese and the Cajuns, he tells her that the four kinds
of people were from Maycomb County.
"I told Jem if
that was so, then why didn't Tom's jury made up of folks like the Cunninghams, acquit Tom to
spite the Ewells? Jem waved my question away as being infantile. " (pg 226)
After the trial, Scout comments that few people ever discussed the
issue with the children. However, Scout thinks,
"There was one odd thing, though, that I never understood: in spite of Atticus's
shortcomings as a parent, people were content to re-elect him to the state legislature that
year, as usual, without opposition. I came to the conclusion that people were just
peculiar." (pg 243)
Finally, in 1933, Congress
enacted the National Recovery Act that was to ensure fair competitive prices for industry. The
Supreme Court ruled that the Act was unconstitutional and it "died". Scout says that
Maycomb returned to normal except for two minor changes. One of them was that the people had
taken signs out of their windows that said "NRA --WE DO OUR PART".
"I asked Atticus why, and he said it was because the National
Recovery Act was dead. I asked who killed it: he said nine old men." (pg 251)
The voice used in To Kill A Mockingbird is
more mature than an eight year old would write, so the reader tends to think of Scout as more
mature, but she does have her naive moments.
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