Scout’s relationships with the adults she’s sorrounded by all differ in different ways.
Whether those relationships are positive or negative, depends on how long Scout has known them, what kind of people those adults are, and their background. Beside her father, the adult that Scout probably respects and likes the most is Miss Maudie. The two of them have a beautiful relationship and they both love each other very dearly. When Scout first introduces us to Miss Maudie (in chapter 5), she tells us all the nicest things about her. She talks about how much she and Jem trusted Miss Maudie and what a good friend she was.
They trusted her because “she never told on them, never played cat-and-mouse with them, and because she was not at all interested in their private lives”, (chp. 5, pg. 44-45) unlike most Maycomb residents. This is also why Scout respected Miss Maudie so much and why she told her: “Miss Maudie, you are the best lady I know” (pg.
45). Miss Maudie always made cakes for Scout, Jem and Dill, and she invited them over to eat them and also to play in her backyard. One summer, Scout spent the whole second half of the summer with Miss Maudie. They sat in the front porch, watched the sunset, talked, took care of Miss Maudie’s garden. .
. That’s when Scout became very close to Miss Maudie. Basically, Scout admired Miss Maudie. She was her hero. Calpurnia is a very important character in the novel.
Scout has known her her whole life and has basically lived with her, but they weren’t that close. Scout never liked Calpurnia very much, mostly because she always complained about her behaviour. “She was always ordering her out of the kitchen, asking her why she couldn’t behave as well as Jem when she knew he was older, and calling her home when she wasn’t ready to come. Their battles were epic and one-sided. Calpurina always won, mainly because Atticus always took her side.
” (pg. 6). One more reason why Scout didn’t like Calpurnia is because she made her practice writing. Then, when Scout’s teacher in grade one found out that Scout can read and when Scout got in trouble for that, she blamed Calpurnia. At that time, she was too young to realize that Calpurnia only tried to help her and teach her so she would be literate and know more useful things. Even though this seems like a negative relationship and seems as if though it can never get better, the relationship between Scout and Calpurnia changes through the novel.
As Scout grows and becomes more mature, she realizes that Calpurnia is nice and that she always means good when Scout thinks the opposite. On page 29, Scout tells us about her and Cal’s conversation one day when Scout came back from school. Calpurnia said that she had missed Scout that day while she and Jem were at school. All of a sudden, Calpurnia was really nice to Scout.
She let Scout watch her fix supper, she made crackling bread for her, and she even kissed her. Scout describes how she feels after all this behaviour: “I ran along, wondering what had come over her. She had wanted to make up wth me, that was it. She had always been too hard on me, she had at last seen the error of her fractious ways, she was sorry and too stubborn to say so. ” (pg.
29). This proves that Scout always thought that Calpurnia never liked her and that she didn’t care about her, and that she deserves Cal’s apology. Scout is deeply hurt when Calpurnia tells her that picking on Walter Cunningham while he eats at their place is rude and that Scout should stop that and never do it again. Here, Scout thinks that Calpurnia is being mean to her again, but when she grows up a little, she will be thankful to Calpurnia because she taught her about being polite and respectful to her guests. Despite all this, there is, however, a positive side to this relationship. Scout does respect Calpurnia, partly because she has to – she is her nanny and she takes care of her; and partly because she simply likes some of Cal’s characteristics.
Scout likes Calpurnia because “she has more education than most colored folks” (pg. 24) and to Scout (and the whole Finch family) literacy and education are very important. She also likes her because Cal is not a racist and she is very protective of her and Jem. That’s why Scout feels safe around Calpurnia. Even though Mrs. Alexandra Finch is Atticus’s sister and Scout’s aunt, Scout doesn’t like her at all.
This is because Aunt Alexandra disapproves of Scout’s behaviour – she doesn’t like Scout acting like a boy, and the thing that Scout hates more than anything is being and behaving like a girl. She has always worn pants, played boys’ games, fought physically, and when someone calles her a girl, she takes this as an insult and gets mad afterward. However, Aunt Alexandra’s phylosphy is that every boy should act like a male, and that every girl should act like a female. No girls are aloud to wear pants and play with boys’ toys, according to Aunt Alexandra.
When Aunt Alexandra comes to Maycomb for a “visit”, Scout feels as if she has been struck by lightning. Alexandra’s reason for coming to Maycomb is getting some feminine influence on Scout and teaching her how to be a girl. Scout knows that she won’t be able to have all the freedom and fun that she’s had up until now and this is why she feels so depressed when she sees her aunt sitting in the front porch. She also knows that Aunt Alexandra may have some bad influence on Scout’s and Atticus’s relationship because Atticus has a lot of respect for his sister and he never confronted her about anything. Scout fears that because Atticus always takes his sister’s side, it could effect the relationship Scout has with her father and that all this could bring them apart.
The lady that Scout probably dislikes the most is her grade one teacher, Miss Caroline Fisher. Miss Caroline doesn’t like Scout either, and it’s because Scout can read and write. She thinks it’s inappropriate for a first grader to be literate, so she orders Scout to tell her father to stop teaching her because “it would interfere with her reading” (pg. 17).
Then Scout tells her teacher that Atticus hasn’t taught her anything, that he has no time to teach her. When Miss Caroline doesn’t believe her, Scout tries to prove it to her, but it doesn’t work. Then, Scout argues with Miss Caroline for the third time – this time it is about Walter Cunningham. Scout tell her that she is shaming Walter because he doesn’t have any money for lunch. That upsets Miss Caroline so she gives Scout some quick little pats on her hand with a ruler and tells her to stand in the corner.
Scout feels embarrassed and she hates Miss Caroline for all the hard time she has given her that morning. However, later Scout realizes that Miss Caroline did not know Maycomb, and could not just learn it in one day. Scout then comes to terms that it was wrong to become upset with Miss Caroline. After all, it was Miss Caroline’s first day of teaching and she has come all the way from Winston County to teach in Maycomb, so Scout feels a bit sorry for her teacher for having to get used to such a strange little town and all the people living in it.
