Scout Finch

The story of To Kill A Mockingbird is told from Scout's point of view and therefore her ideas and innocence is brought to the forefront throughout the entire text.
So who is Scout?
The narrator of the novel, Scout tells the story of her childhood, giving us her perspective on the Tom Robinson trial and other events.

Scouts descriptions:

Quotation	Means?
She discovered that I was literate and looked at me with more than faint distaste.	Scout’s teacher does not approve of Scout’s advanced reading skills, but Scout, a bright, unconventional child, has grown up in a household full of newspapers and books
You’re also growing out of your pants a little	Uncle Jack is referring both to Scout’s cheeky behaviour and to her tomboy nature.  She rarely wears dresses, which she learns will get in the way of her becoming a “lady”
When you…are grown, maybe you’ll look back on this with some compassion and some feeling that I didn’t let you down.	Through the two perspectives of the child and adult Scout, we see that the narrator supports, and even idealises Atticus, despite his limitations
There wasn’t much else left for us to learn, except possibly algebra	Scout’s words are an indication of her precociousness and also of how much she’s been through.  Her character has been strengthened, rather than altered, by her recent experiences

Scout’s development

In the opening chapters Scout torments and gossips about Boo	--------->	In the final chapter, Scout learns to see things from Boo’s point of view
In chapter 3, Scout thinks it’s OK to be rude to Walter Cunningham because “he’s just a Cunningham”	--------->	At the end of the novel, Scout respects Walter’s family because one of them thought Tom Robinson was innocent
Scout uses words like “nigger” without thought – she doesn’t think it’s offensive to use those kinds of words	--------->	The older Scout uses more respectful word ‘Negro’ instead
She’s childlike – she wants to play with her big brother and gets cross when he doesn’t want to play with her	--------->	She addresses some adult issues – she asks Atticus what rape is and she’s curious about how the legal system works

Although Scout is still a child at the end of the novel and keeps a lot of her innocence, the events of the book have forced her to grow up fast.  She’s more perceptive and empathic at the end of the book because of what she’s learnt.