Jean Louise Finch, nicknamed Scout, is the protagonist of “to kill a mockingbird”. She is almost 6 years old when the book begins and 9 when it ends. At the beginning of the book the reader might get the impression that she is in fact a boy, because her behaviour doesn’t suggest otherwise. Her gender is not specified until page 7 when Jem mentions it. She wears bangs and overalls, which is unusual. The conventional way to dress for a girl was very different from the way Scout dresses, which is why her choice of attire is often frowned upon, but she insists that she “could do nothing in a dress”(p.90) When she mentions that, she gets the response that she “wasn’t supposed to be doing things that required pants.”
One of the reasons why Scout is different from the other girls is because of the way she was raised. Her mother died when she was only two years old, so she didn’t have a big influence in Scout’s life. The remaining female influences Scout had in her life were their cook Calpurnia and her neighbours. Her father Atticus didn’t raise her with the goal to make her the perfect lady, but tried to teach her to use her mind and have empathy with others. He didn’t try to change her and force her to be something that she is not. He accepts her for who she is, because “she knows (he) know she tries”.
Scout is smart, even if she
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She does not know a lot about social inequalities, because she has never experienced it herself. She was allowed to grow up the way she wanted to, but the older she gets the more people want her to behave more like the stereotypical girl. She does not realise which influence racism has, because they have always had Calpurnia and never treated her as something less. This changes during the course book of the book and leaves her more experienced. She knows more about humanity capacity for evil and their prejudice, but also learns about the goodness that can come from