Jean Louise ‘Scout’ Finch Quotes

“For one thing, Miss Maudie can’t serve on a jury because she’s a woman – ”
“You mean women in Alabama can’t?” I was indignant.
“I do. I guess it’s to protect our frail ladies from sordid cases like Tom’s. Besides, I doubt if we’d ever get a complete case tried – the ladies be interrupting to ask questions.”

– Harper Lee

To Kill a Mockingbird, Chapter 23. Atticus rather sarcastically explains to Scout why women aren’t allowed to serve on juries. Scout is against any form of inequality or gender prejudice and cannot see why women should not hold the same positions as men.

Jem and I laughed. Miss Maudie on a jury would be impressive. I thought of old Mrs. Dubose in her wheelchair – “Stop that rapping, John Taylor, I want to ask this man something.” Perhaps our forefathers were wise.

– Harper Lee

To Kill a Mockingbird, Chapter 23. Jem and Scout laugh as they picture Mrs. Dubose on a jury and barking orders at the judge, were women allowed to sit on them. Then Scout remembers how mean Mrs. Dubose was and thinks their forefathers might have been wise in excluding women.

“What if he was kin to us, Aunty?”
“The fact is that he is not kin to us, but if he were, my answer would be the same.”
“Aunty,” Jem spoke up, “Atticus says you can choose your friends but you sho’ can’t choose your family, an’ they’re still kin to you no matter whether you acknowledge ’em or not, and it makes you look right silly when you don’t.”
“That’s your father all over again,” said Aunt Alexandra, “and I still say that Jean Louise will not invite Walter Cunningham to this house. If he were her double first cousin once removed he would still not be received in this house unless he comes to see Atticus on business. Now that is that.”

– Harper Lee

To Kill a Mockingbird, Chapter 23. Aunt Alexandra is challenged by Scout and Jem when she refuses to let Walter Cunningham Jr. come to lunch. Their aunt displays her prejudicial and judgemental nature, looking down her nose on the family of poor farmer Walter Cunningham. But the children show decency and respect for other people – something they learned from their father Atticus. One of the great appeals of the novel is that, despite the absense of Scout’s mother, the Finch family demonstrates family life at its best.

“That Walter’s as smart as he can be, he just gets held back sometimes because he has to stay out and help his daddy. Nothin’s wrong with him. Naw, Jem, I think there’s just one kind of folks. Folks.”

– Harper Lee

To Kill a Mockingbird, Chapter 23. Scout is referring to her schoolmate Walter Cunningham Jr., who is intelligent but can’t always get to school because he has to help his father Walter on the farm. She then applies this simple, child’s view that people should be treated as equals and not divided into classes and segregated like is done in Maycomb. She shows a growing ability to think independently and be compassionate.

The ladies were cool in fragile pastel prints: most of them were heavily powdered but unrouged; the only lipstick in the room was Tangee Natural. Cutex Natural sparkled on their fingernails, but some of the younger ladies wore Rose. They smelled heavenly. I sat quietly, having conquered my hands by tightly gripping the arms of the chair, and waited for someone to speak to me.

– Harper Lee

To Kill a Mockingbird, Chapter 24. Scout describes the ladies at her aunt’s missionary tea meeting. To the tomboy who is at home in a man’s world, she finds that ladies are still a mystery to her. But a fascinating one, judging by the great details with which she describes their appearance.

I was more at home in my father’s world. People like Mr. Heck Tate did not trap you with innocent questions to make fun of you; even Jem was not highly critical unless you said something stupid. Ladies seemed to live in faint horror of men, seemed unwilling to approve wholeheartedly of them. But I liked them. There was something about them, no matter how much they cussed and drank and gambled and chewed; no matter how undelectable they were, there was something about them that I instinctively liked.

– Harper Lee

To Kill a Mockingbird, Chapter 24. Scout’s reaction to the world of men vs women. She is searching for where she fits in. She is more at home in the world of men and more comfortable acting as a tomboy. But at the same time she is curious about the world of women.

After all, if Aunty could be a lady at a time like this, so could I.

– Harper Lee

To Kill a Mockingbird, Chapter 24. Scout sees her Aunt Alexandra’s strength of character after Atticus tells her of the death of wrongly accused Tom Robinson. She is upset and angry at some of the women at her missionary circle tea who could have given support to Tom. But she composes herself and graciously serves them, repaying their selfishness with her kindness. The normally hotheaded Scout sees that having the courage and strength of a lady like her aunt has real value.

My hand was going down on him when Jem spoke.
Jem was scowling. It was probably a part of the stage he was going through, and I wished he would hurry up and get through it. He was certainly never cruel to animals, but I had never known his charity to embrace the insect world.
“Why couldn’t I mash him?” I asked.
“Because they don’t bother you,” Jem answered in the darkness. He had turned out his reading light.

– Harper Lee

To Kill a Mockingbird, Chapter 25. Scout is about to squish a roly poly that found its way inside the house and Jem stops her. He equates the innocence of the bug with that of Tom Robinson and doesn’t want to see another innocent creature perish.

To Maycomb, Tom’s death was typical. Typical of a n***** to cut and run. Typical of a n*****’s mentality to have no plan, no thought for the future, just run blind first chance he saw. Funny thing, Atticus Finch might’ve got him off scot free, but wait – ? Hell no. You know how they are. Easy come, easy go. Just shows you, that Robinson boy was legally married, they say he kept himself clean, went to church and all that, but when it comes down to the line the veneer’s mighty thin. N***** always comes out in ’em.

– Harper Lee

To Kill a Mockingbird, Chapter 25. This quote underlines the hypocrisy of people in Maycomb, who paint a stereotypical picture of Tom Robinson as the black man who typically ran first chance he got. They are merely trying to relieve their consciences for responsibility for his wrongful conviction and death.

Mr. Underwood’s meaning became clear: Atticus had used every tool available to free men to save Tom Robinson, but in the secret courts of men’s hearts Atticus had no case. Tom was a dead man the minute Mayella Ewell opened her mouth and screamed.

– Harper Lee

To Kill a Mockingbird, Chapter 25. Scout comes to an understanding of what The Maycomb Tribune editor Mr. Underwood meant in his editorial on the tragic Tom Robinson. Even though due process appeared to have been carried out, something else was at work here that condemned this man – racism.

So many things had happened to us, Boo Radley was the least of our fears. Atticus said he didn’t see how anything else could happen, that things had a way of settling down, and after enough time had passed people would forget that Tom Robinson’s existence was ever brought to their attention.

– Harper Lee

To Kill a Mockingbird, Chapter 26. Scout feels older and wiser after the Tom Robinson trial and the discrimination he faced, and is remorseful about the way she treated Boo Radley. The quote also foreshadows Boo Radley’s eventual reappearance and the night Scout and Jem are attacked by Bob Ewell.

“Coming out of the courthouse that night Miss Gates was – she was goin’ down the steps in front of us, you musta not seen her – she was talking with Miss Stephanie Crawford. I heard her say it’s time somebody taught ’em a lesson, they were gettin’ way above themselves, an’ the next thing they think they can do is marry us. Jem, how can you hate Hitler so bad an’ then turn around and be ugly about folks right at home – “

– Harper Lee

To Kill a Mockingbird, Chapter 26. Scout overhears a conversation her teacher Miss Gates has with town gossip Stephanie Crawford. She recognizes the hypocrisy of Miss Gates, who condemns Hitler for his treatment of the jews yet treats black people in her own community with contempt.

I learned more about the poor Mrunas’ social life from listening to Mrs. Merriweather: they had so little sense of family that the whole tribe was one big family. A child had as many fathers as there were men in the community, as many mothers as there were women. J. Grimes Everett was doing his utmost to change this state of affairs, and desperately needed our prayers.

– Harper Lee

To Kill a Mockingbird, Chapter 27. Scout reveals what she has learned about African Mruna family life from listening to the white middleclass ladies at their missionary tea meeting. Doesn’t paint a pretty picture. But they’re rather judgemental ladies full of small southern town prejudices.

Mrs. Crenshaw thoughtfully left two peepholes for me. She did a fine job; Jem said I looked exactly like a ham with legs. There were several discomforts, though: it was hot, it was a close fit; if my nose itched I couldn’t scratch, and once inside I could not get out of it alone.

– Harper Lee

To Kill a Mockingbird, Chapter 27. Scout goes to the Halloween pageant dressed as a ham. Her costume is a symbol of childhood innocence, while halloween is the holiday where childhood innocence meets evil.

It is a scary place though, ain’t it?” I said. “Boo doesn’t mean anybody any harm, but I’m right glad you’re along.”
…”Ain’t you scared of haints?”
We laughed. Haints, Hot Steams, incantations, secret signs, had vanished with our years as mist with sunrise.

– Harper Lee

To Kill a Mockingbird, Chapter 28. The playful discussion by Scout and Jem about childhood fears foreshadows some not-so-childish, real-life, scary things about to happen. The children are about to be attacked and Bob Ewell’s body is about to be found. Also foreshadowed is Boo Radley’s transformation from the fearful ghostly figure of the children’s imagination to a real person that they respect.

High above us in the darkness a solitary mocker poured out his repertoire in blissful unawareness of whose tree he sat in, plunging from the shrill kee, kee of the sunflower bird to the irascible qua-ack of a bluejay, to the sad lament of Poor Will, Poor Will, Poor Will.

– Harper Lee

To Kill a Mockingbird, Chapter 28. The mocker is a mockingbird, standing for innocence and defenseless beings. The bluejay represents malevolent creatures that harm others. Boo Radley is a symbolic mockingbird and Bob Ewell a bluejay. The closeness of both birds in the same tree foreshadows Ewell’s attack on the children and Boo defending them.

Shuffle foot had not stopped with us this time. His trousers swished softly and steadily. Then they stopped. He was running, running toward us with no child’s steps.
“Run, Scout! Run! Run!” Jem screamed.
I took one giant step and found myself reeling: my arms useless, in the dark, I could not keep my balance.
“Jem, Jem, help me, Jem!”

– Harper Lee

To Kill a Mockingbird, Chapter 28. This passage is full of suspense and heightened tension, as the author through hints and clues rather than direct statements, tells about Bob Ewell’s pursuit of and attack on Scout and Jem.

I made my way along in what I thought was the direction of the road. I was not sure, because I had been turned around so many times. But I found it and looked down to the street light. A man was passing under it. The man was walking with the staccato steps of someone carrying a load too heavy for him. He was going around the corner. He was carrying Jem. Jem’s arm was dangling crazily in front of him.

– Harper Lee

To Kill a Mockingbird, Chapter 28. Scout describes how a man was carrying Jem away from the scene of the attack by Bob Ewell. The man, unknown to Scout then, turns out to be Boo Radley.

I looked from his hands to his sand-stained khaki pants; my eyes traveled up his thin frame to his torn denim shirt. His face was as white as his hands, but for a shadow on his jutting chin. His cheeks were thin to hollowness; his mouth was wide; there were shallow, almost delicate indentations at his temples, and his gray eyes were so colorless I thought he was blind. His hair was dead and thin, almost feathery on top of his head.

– Harper Lee

To Kill a Mockingbird, Chapter 29. Scout, in describing Boo Radley, uses words that convey a very nontheatening person, in contrast to the monster figure of the children’s imagination earlier in the story.
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