Scout A Tomboy Analysis

Imagine a perfect summer day where you are with your friends in the warm and breezy climate. As a kid, life was always fun, games, and curiosity. Money was never something a kid would waste time thinking of doing. The only thing that mattered is what a kid wants to do now, not what they want to do in the future. Curiosity was one of the few shields that blinded kids and made them focus on the present. Their curiosity would always remain persistent until they find the answer they are looking for. In Lee’s brilliant novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, two kids live their childhood by simply keeping everything simple. Scout, a sassy tomboy, lives her life in the 1900s with no regard for the great depression or her gender. Upon his own volition,
Jem forgets about stereotypes between gender and treats his female sister as his younger brother. “I swear, Scout, sometimes you act so much like a girl it’s mortifyin’” (Lee 50). Scout wants to be treated like a boy and her brother and father comply with her request. Being called a girl is one of the worst insults Scout can possibly receive. It is enough to get her very emotional and either get very violent or cry. When Jem calls Scout a tomboy it indicates he has feels no shame in having a younger sister be a boy. Instead, he would feel shameful if Scout would act like a girl. It would mean that she was weak, highly dependent on him, and sensitive which are a lot of weak spots in many people. Scout doesn’t understand women like other people not because she is young but a tomboy. “I wondered at the world of women” (Lee 312). Scout’s mother died when she was very young. As a result, Scout never had a female influence on her life. Her elder brother and her father are the people that have had the biggest influences on her which would shape her to be able to fit in with them. Her family members are males and she will also act like a male. There is no one in her town who opposes her choice. Therefore, there is no one to flip her over and make her a woman or at least act like a girl. There is one person in Scout’s family who believes that she is a weird child. “After all, if Aunty could be a lady at a time like this, so could I” (Lee 318). Aunt Alexandra was the only person who didn’t approve of Scout’s lifestyle. Her aunt feels she is disgracing the family name by being who she wants to be instead of what she should be, a girl. Scout feels that her life is fairly simple and easy. In Aunt Alexandra’s eyes though Scout is a messed up child. A messed up child who either isn’t being brought up properly or is being brought up by the wrong influences. Not acting like