Julie Student
Mr. Alper
ELA
This is the character analysis
essay MODEL for SCOUT.
PLEASE REVIEW IT.
YOUR ESSAY SHOULD BE
FORMATTED THIS WAY.
17 November 2008
Adventures in Scouting
Jean Louise Finch is not a name that suits a child who is engaged by age nine, a student
who rebels against her teacher’s orders to not read at home, and an adventurer who seeks the
identity of the elusive Boo Radley; therefore, her loved ones simply refer to her affably as Scout.
Throughout the novel To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Scout learns some of the most
important lessons in life. Her personality is shaped and changed by the events occurring in her
childhood. Scout tries to live her life the best way she knows how in a time when the world is
spinning around her. She must learn to cope with the events resulting from her father Atticus’
attempt to provide justice for an African-American named Tom Robinson. Scout’s
confrontational, inquisitive, yet dynamic personality affects Scout’s interest in and reactions to
significant circumstances throughout the novel. ↑ THESIS STATEMENT ↑
Scout exhibits a confrontational personality in that she tends to react quickly to other
people’s actions and remarks without considering the consequences. Her argumentative side
surfaces when she finds herself in trouble with her schoolteacher for speaking without thinking.
Scout immediately blames Walter Cunningham Jr., a poor classmate, for her punishment and
proceeds to attack him physically until Jem, her older brother, stops her. Before Scout can put
herself in her teacher’s place, she reacts to her primary instinct: fighting. Atticus attempts to
explain to Scout that she must take into account all perspectives of a situation when he reminds
her to try and understand someone by seeing life from his or her point of view. However, Scout
has trouble heeding her father’s advice when later on her cousin Francis insults Atticus for
defending Tom Robinson. She narrates, "This time, I split my knuckle to the bone on his front
teeth. My left impaired, I sailed in with my right. . ." (Lee 84). Scout punches him in the mouth
even though she had promised Atticus that she wouldn’t hurt anyone in the future. Because
Scout is an extroverted child without the compulsion to hold back on her feelings, it is not
unusual that she would react so strongly to another’s derogatory comments about her father.
Scout’s interactions with her family and friends reveal her curious nature. Instead of
sitting around and sewing like most other girls her age, Scout plays outside and assists Jem and
Dill in trying to make their neighbor Boo Radley come out. The children had heard rumors their
entire life that Boo had stabbed his father in the leg or that Boo ate wild animals, such as
squirrels. Although Scout never instigates the decisions to investigate Boo’s home, she does
participate and is sometimes chastised by her father for bothering their introverted neighbor.
Atticus, however, encourages his children to ask questions and is not too surprised when Scout
asks him, „"Do all lawyers defend n-Negroes, Atticus?"‟ (75). He alleviates her inquisitiveness
by explaining that he is an ingenuous man, and that he „"couldn’t even tell you or Jem not to do
something again"‟ if he didn’t represent Tom, an explanation which satisfies Scout. At times,
Scout causes adults to feel uncomfortable due to her candid questions, and even though
Calpurnia, the Finches‟ housekeeper and cook, is accustomed to Scout’s ways, she side-steps her
question, „"What is rape?"‟ (124). Calpurnia replies, „"It’s something you’ll have to ask Mr.
Finch about"‟ —an answer her father will appropriately provide. Scout’s willingness to ask
questions and learn from them helps shape her into a constantly changing character.
Because Scout is presented with many controversial situations throughout the novel, she
has the opportunity to learn from them and thus be depicted as a dynamic character. Prior to the
Tom Robinson case, for example, Scout refers to African-Americans by the offensive "n" word,
but after seeing Tom in court expressing his emotions, she realizes he is a good person and sees
him as a human being for the first time. Additionally, Scout learns from her father, a man she
feels she must constantly defend due to his representation of Tom Robinson, that fighting is not
the best solution to a problem. When Cecil Jacobs, a peer, teases Scout because her father
defends black men, she is in the fighting position but remember the advice her father gave her.
Scout narrates, "My fists were clenched and I was ready to let fly. Atticus had promised he
would wear me out if he ever heard of me fighting anymore" (74). Instead of attacking Cecil, she
chooses to talk to Jem about the meaning of Cecil’s remarks. Scout effectively applies Atticus’
advice to "talk to people about what they are interested in, not about what you were interested
in" when she distracts the mob from possibly hurting her father in front of the jail and talking to
Mr. Walter Cunningham about his son and "entailments" (154). Due to Atticus’ didactic
parenting style, Scout grows up with good advice which will assist her through all of life’s
problems.
Scout Finch, a seeker of adventure and mockingbirds, teaches her readers how to grow up
during troubled times; the Great Depression, the Tom Robinson case, and the Boo Radley
incidents help define this confrontational, inquisitive, and dynamic girl. Although America
recovered by slowly creeping away from the grim conditions of the Great Depression and began
to cleanse itself of the ugliness of racism, its past should not be forgotten. Just as Scout learns
that Boo Radley is nothing to fear after experiencing his life first as fiction then as truth, America
must learn from Her mistakes. Jean Louis "Scout" Finch reminds her readers what it was like to
be young and curious from a child’s perspective, a point-of-view which should always reflect the
lessons discovered in childhood.