Toward the end of chapter 31, Scout says: "As I made my way home, I felt very old" (279). Why does she say this? In what other ways has she become "very old" over the course of the novel?
Hi, its Stef. I think that when Scout says "as I made my way home, I felt very old", she says it because she had just been through a lot, and probably felt very tired. On top of that, though, is that she also had been through so much, that she felt as though she was old, because over the course of the book, she had started as a child with a big imagination. As she progressed through the book, she gained more and more knowledge, as thought she was an adult, and at the end of the book, she finds out all of the questions that she had during the book, and feels as though she knows everything, and is to stuffed with knowledge, as though she is old.
When Scout says: “As I made my way home, I felt very old” she has gone through a lot of drama and complications in her life. She kind of takes all the memories and extra feelings in so her body might feel heavy or tired. After the trial things have started to settle in the Finch family. At the same time there is a whole other world around them that sucks them in. Maycomb is the only place Scout has lived all her life and it is the only place recognizes. She might be tired of living in the same place has certain rules or that she has seen to many times. Scout feels old because everything that has happened to her is finally coming to an end. -Helena
I believe Scout said she felt old because she was feeling very nostalgic. She is standing on Boo Radley’s porch, and in her minds eye, seeing the neighborhood in his point of view. She is, as Atticus said, walking in his shoes. Scout really sees how all the childish antics she and Jem used to try and make him come out were ridiculous. She feels as if she is moving on to a new stage of life, but in the process losing some of her childhood. In the beginning of To Kill a Mocking Bird Scout and Jem were ignorant to a lot of what was going on around them, and Scout was big enough that she could just crawl into Atticus’s lab if she encountered something she couldn’t handle. She only saw what affected them and let the adults worry about the rest. They were almost obsessed with the curiosity that was Boo Radley. As they got older though, Boo was forgotten and they moved on to more “mature” past times. Towards the end of the book, Scout encounters Boo for the last time and sees that he is actually not as scary as they had imagined and just a person after all. I think actually meeting this man, who had seemed almost like a figure of her imagination or a ghost, really was her last childhood endeavor. She realizes that she is not a child anymore and that adulthood snuck up on her and she is to big to play pretend anymore. As she is walking back to her house she feels the weight of the responsibility that comes with the freedom of growing up.
i think when Scout says she felt very old she is saying so much has changed over the last three or four years. i think this quote also relates to when Jem says its like being a caterpillar in a cocoon. i think this because Scout feels that she is growing up and getting out of her cocoon. Scout never thought she would get to meat Boo Radley. not in a million years. i think the million years has come. i think at the beginning of To Kill A Mockingbird Scout was ignorant. she wanted to know so much and believed she knew so much. she wanted to feel like adult and have all this knowledge that she hasn't gained yet because she hasn't been in the world long enough. she wants to grow up faster then time will let her. Scout for example at the trial is defending herself when Jem says to the reverend that Scout doesnt know what is going on. Scout says that she does and she know a lot even if people dont believe her. at the same time Scout wants tot be able to be the little girl again and climb into her fathers lap and know his arms will be her protection. growing up Scout thought she knew everything about Maycomb since she has lived there all her life. she thought the people around her where the best there could be. as Scout became less naive she discovered that the majority of adults surrounding her where sexist, and racist people. Scout came out of her cocoon on a rainy day and her wings got wet.
At the end of chapter 31, Scout says “I felt very old as I made my way home.” I think this is reflecting on everything she has seen, heard and experienced over the past few years/ course of the book. Scout started out as simply a child, ignorant to the realities of the world and young enough to still be inside her “cocoon.” Then slowly, we see her change and change until she is, quite frankly, an adult in a child’s body. Of course, she is still only nine, growing up and unaware, but much less so than she was when we started the book. The novel started with her home life and with her own little world, now she is coming full circle back home but with an extended knowledge and understanding. With Bob Ewell’s death comes the death of era of the Tom Robinson court case, but what is born is the era of her adulthood, the era of her wisdom. This is an end, not just of the book, but of the crisis of the court case and it seems peace has come.
Through the book we see the world around Scout blooming rapidly. She learns of rape, racism and right and wrong. She sees prejudice and injustice before her very eyes, watching as her wall of ignorance breaks as she sees a jury convict an innocent man. She is told relentlessly that she needs to be a lady and that people of certain skin tones are better than others with different skin tones. And while all this surrounds her, she hardly has time to soak it all in, instead she is carried along with it, completely confused. She wants to crawl up in her father’s lap, a quieter, slower place and listen to a story. However, as tie increases the desire to do so lessens. She has grown from the child we saw in the beginning of the book. The events in her life are beyond her years but she adapts and that makes her wise beyond her years.
Scout’s life is very dramatic, and she is just a little girl. But when we see her proudly walk Boo Radley home, we see her address the sheriff calmly even while speaking of an attempt on her life, we see she is responsible. Years ago she might have been in tears, absolutely frightened of Boo Radley. Instead she is polite and quiet and in control. In a way, she is more of an adult than a lot of her elders. Bob Ewell, for example, could not be courteous, quiet and in control if his life depended on it. She is a little grown-up, though she may not know it. She is calmer, smarter than most of the gossips in Maycomb and that is exactly what makes her old, even as a nine-year-old.
Oni K. Fox Final Blog Post Over the course of the book I think that Scout has grown tremendously. From the beginning of the book to the end of the book we have watched Scout grow tremendously. I think that when she said, "As I made my way home, I felt very old" (279). she is expressing that she has grown so much that it makes her feel old such as so mush change in so little time. I think that it shows in the context that if you read in between the lines you can really see the change within Scout's behavior. I think that this book is mainly about the change between the Finch family. I think that the family has grown as a whole. In the course of this novel i think that Scout has become " very old" because she has changed behavior wise, personality wise and jut a family person wise. I think that's also she has stuffed herself with knowledge like Stef said and all that she has experienced throughout the course of this book makes her feel like she is much older than she is because of how she has lived her life and the trials and tribulations throughout this book.
I think that because Jem has always been the older sibling, he has always had a better insight on things. He’s always understood things better then Scout. Because he is older, he has naturally been through a little more than Scout; he’s had more time to live.
Scout finally was able to experience something before Jem did. She was finally able to tell her brother something he didn’t already know. I think she said “as I made my way home, I felt very old” because people who are older in Maycomb are considered very wise because they have gone through so much in their lifetime. Scout, even though she is young, feels this way. She saw Boo Radley before Jem did and she is probably the only kid who will ever see him. She knows Boo Radley, she considers herself apart of his family and him apart of hers. Jem will never feel this way, but can only marvel at the mystery that will never unravel, for him.
When Scout says "As I made my way home, I felt very old" she is saying that a lot has happened over the time that she is in Maycomb. She has had a wild, long life, and she feels as though the times she had in Maycomb make her feel very old because she has done so many things. She is just saying that over her course of time she has accomplished a lot, made a difference, and feels like she did something with her life instead of just being a regular person. She was a Tom-boy so that gave her her own character and she stuck out because of that one important characteristic. Isaiah
Scout is bluntly expressing her belief that she has undergone great mental development during these past three summers. Though Scout has matured greatly during the events of “To Kill a Mockingbird” the most significant change in her character is her perceptiveness. Throughout the early chapters of “To Kill a Mockingbird” Scout’s role as a child is emphasized by her ignorance of the world. For instance, in chapter 9 Scout becomes enraged when her cousin Francis calls Atticus a “nigger lover” but Scout acts only on the assumption that a “nigger lover” is a derogatory term . Scout is initially portrayed as a highly intelligent girl who has the ability to see past hypocrisies and irrationalities of the townsfolk of Maycomb. But Scout’s mental capacity is offseted by her lack of worldly experience. This is seen in chapter 2 when Scout gains a negative impression about school due to Mrs. Caroline’s unencouraging behavior . Though Scout has the insight to realize that Mrs. Caroline will not be acceptive of her higher knowledge, she fails to apply her wisdom as Scout succeeds in angering Mrs. Caroline after to explaining why Walter Cunningham does not have lunch. Even though Scout anticipated such a reaction from Mrs. Caroline she foolishly attempted to explain Walter’s situation. Now that Scout has gained a better understanding of life and the good and evil that make up the world, she is portrayed as a more mature individual.
She is in a situation that is including adults and that is serious, so she feels old. She might feel old because, she is walking and talking with Boo radley who she thought was a mystery her whole life. She finnaly actually talked alot with Mr. Arthur Radley. She used to have a big imagination and now she is almost in the real world. In the book she said she felt like she wasn't even alive, so she was confused so she is in real world because she is realizing how the actual world is and she is confused, wich is natural in the beggining. So she is saying she is very old because all of her imaginaion isn't really there anymore, like the Boo Radley thing, she is in the real world.
Scout had just walked Boo Radley home, holding hands. He walked on his porch and closed his door. That was the last time she ever saw him. On her way back home it was raining. It was dreary and Scout was walking back. If I was her age I think I would feel that way too. Scout has gone through so much that night, and not even that whole night, it was all these years. All these years of her life she has been worrying about the myth of Boo Radley, then Mrs. Dubose, then their Father's case. After that there was and issue about Bob Ewell about what he was going to do to Atticus ended up being what he was going to do to Atticus's children to affect Atticus. Old people have been through a lot in their lives. You go to your granparents and they tell you all these stories of their experiences. Throughout this whole book, 3 years later I think,she has had more experiences then most kids do. But now its all over. She never saw Boo Radley again nor was she afraid of him, Mrs. Dubose died, and Atticus's case would've continued if Tom Robinson hadn't been shot. Now their family is safe from threats. Scout has experiened all these events, she feels old. She has been through a lot and now she's tired. Now Jem,Atticus, and Scout is asleep. That is what the book is about.
When Scout says, I felt very old, i think that she meant that the course of time had changed her. In the beginning of the book, she was very childish and looked at the world in very imaginative eyes, eyes that could come up with any conclusion to any story. As we read further into the book, the eyes had become flooded with knowledge from different sequences in her life. Although Scout is not that old, her way of seeing the world has become much older and much more mature. Scout had witnessed injustice in court, the death of a person and much more. Scout had learned the meaning of a true outsider, and how to behave towards one. Scout had made many friends and many stories to tell them. Scout had not only had become closer to Maycomb, and the ways that are taught in the small town, but she had become closer with herself and who she really is. Scout had realized that through the roughest of times, she can always count on her family to help her. And if she might think that they don't want her, she always remembers that they always will want and her and need her. Scout had felt with all of this wisdom, comes responsibility. A mere nine year-old can't hold all of this knowledge, but becoming more mature and more secure in their self, one can hold that much knowledge. I think that is what the quote "As I made my way home, I felt very old" means.
Scout's ideas of becoming old are associated with the idea of awareness, and seeing things that have not been seen before. As she see's Boo, she realizes that he is not the intimidating figure she has thought of him to be, and he is a sensitive, and kind soul. Not only has she opened her eyes about the real Arthur Radley, but she has also experienced Jem going unconcious. This is another piece of her being "very old," and gives us an insight that Scout see's growing older as a chance to be strong when weak, and to embrace what is unknown.
Another moment where we see this idea of age come into play was the moment when she finds Miss Gates' ideas hypocritical. Her ideas about this are not only wise, but they also show how she takes note, and embraces, the Miss Gates' personality that was unexpected. Scout's adulthood is shown through her ideas of what is just and unjust, and tend to be seen as surprises to her.
I believe that Scout is expressing the unveiling of the “cocoon” and the metamorphosis into a butterfly that she has experienced. Over the course of the novel, the three children have represented different phases of life and the mentality of undergoing each stage. Dill represents childhood with his innocence and openness of mind to new experience. Jem represents the bridge to adulthood with understanding of the world and narrower focused mentality. Scout is somewhere in the middle. She has the wisdom and great intellectual and psychological understanding of adulthood, but at the same time has the open mindedness as willing to learn of a child. These traits make her one of the “Mockingbirds” of the story. She has both sides. Yet Scout has shown an unusual development of character. When she was a very young child, she had a mind set to whatever she heard around her and didn’t understand much of it. Now she is experiencing the change of her understanding moving forward in development, but her openness moving in reverse. She has now realized the change in her own character at this moment and feels older because the collision of the traits of goodness of each stage in life give her an understanding of truly all of her surroundings. This full coverage of understanding is what I believe makes her feel older.
What Scout means by that quote is that she has gone through a lot of mental change in these last chapters. She has had to deal with not only issues of the trial but also issues of growing up and becoming a woman. She is trying to understand why there are so many injustices in her community and why the white man's word is held to a greater standard or considered more valid than the black man's word to the point of causing innocent deaths of blacks. While the trial is coming to an end she feels like she has come out of her cocoon and seen the world for what it really, she has seen it like an adult and she is just beginning to understand it. She has gained more mature knowledge and she feels significantly older and wiser.
Atticus says "you never really know a man untill you stand in his shoes and walk around in them." Scout remembers Atticus saying this when she is standing on the Radley porch and looking at her life from the past two summers in the eyes of Boo Radley. When she said she feels so old, she ment that looking back on the most recent, immportant, and exciting couple of years of her life made her feel older. Not only was she phisicly older but she was more mature and knew things now that blew past her before. She knew how cruel the world could be, including what seemed like her safe town of Maycomb. She now knows the unspoken rules of the town, and she knows that some people will do anything, including trying to kill two children, to get revenge- especialy when a black man is involved. Even though we have only known Scout for three years of her life, we see her innocence slip away, and here Scout is looking at those days with a knew sence of maturity.
When Scout says "As I made my way home, I felt very old" she is saying that since the beginning of the book when she was six, she has had a very big imagination, and she didn't know much about life. Now not too later in Scouts life she has suffered alot and has learned alot more in life from being a witness to things like Tom Robinson's case and hearing about her father getting threatened, and now she is walking back from just having dropped Boo Radley, one of the people that she dreamed of meeting, to his house, she realizes that she has gone so far since she was young.
At the end of chapter 31 when Scout says that she felt very old, I think that she means, she has grown mentally of the coarse of the book. The book starts out with her as a 6 year old girl, and she is just playing around and trying to find Boo Radley. Then in part two, she goes from messing around with Dill and Jem, to being told that she is dressed inappropriately or she is doing things the wrong way, and watching the court trial. She also goes from being a 6 year old girl, to an 11 year old girl. I think that living in Maycomb and dealing with the racism and the great depression and the social views, it makes you grow up faster, or become a little more independent. In the book I feel there is a theme of growing up for the first time, just like how Jem "grows up" after the court case, and I think that through part one and part two of To Kill a Mockingbird, she grows up a lot more.
When Scout goes home after taking Arthur Radley to his house, she feels older because of what she has endured that night “As I made my way home, I felt very old” (279). She endures pain that most people don’t have to endure even at an older age. Scout has matured a great deal through the book. The last part in the book is the product of all that she has learned. Scout’s interaction with Arthur Radley reflects how much she has grown. In the beginning of the book Scout feared Arthur Radley because of the rumors she heard about him. Arthur Radley becomes the boogieman in Scout’s and other children’s imagination. At the end of the book however Scout realizes that Arthur Radley is a shy man who carries a kind heart. Scout learns from her realization that you can’t assume what a person is really like from rumors. In her changing view of Arthur Radley, Scout shows that she has learned to see behind the rumors of Maycomb.
I think that when Scout says "As I made my way home, I felt very old," she feels this way because she finally had the opportunity to stand in someone's shoes. This "someone," would be Arthur. Scout got to see what life was like for Arthur. Living in darkness and avoiding outside life is what Arthur's like is like.
Overtime, Scout has been getting closer and closer to leaving the cocoon and becoming a butterfly. By going to Tom Robinson's courtcase and by realizing Arthur was not all that everybody rumored he was, she became more aware of the town's prejudice and partiality as she matured. As she becomes more conscious of the town, she feels that she is better then that bad aura and more mature then the people pleading Tom as guilty and gossiping about Arthur. Because Scout has experienced so much, she feels that she has become "very old."
Scout says she feels "very old" at the end of chapter 31 to signify all the adult situations she has already been though. Especially since she is the youngest of everyone around her, (Jem, Atticus, Tom Robinson, etc) she has gone through many things too "old" for her. For example the Tom Robinson trial was shocking to Jem and Scout because of its racist content. Because of Atticus, Scout in particular has had to deal with these adult situations confusingly. After Jem started to understand more about what was going on, Scout was still left dealing with all this not knowing that much. So after all the traumatizing and stressful events like Tom Robinson's death, Mr. Ewells death, and seeing Boo Radley for his real self, she felt very old. In more of a nostalgic way, i think she felt wiser. Especially the idea of finally seeing who Boo Radley was after all her childish fantasies, she felt older, like she had seen everything she needed to. In other ways, she has also become very old in general by being able to deal and go through things that was even stressful for adults. This quote acted as a conclusion to all the events that had gone on in the book, everything she had gone through and everything she had learned.
Over the course of the book, Scout's maturity skyrocketed. From a little mischievous, boy-like girl who believes that adults are all innocent, wise and correct, to learning the dark side of community-its hypocrisy, injustice, and racism. She was surprised, constantly, by the outcome of events, and how adults actually behaved. There were strict unwritten rules, insiders and outsiders. As such an aware and rowdy girl as she is, she is far more knowledgeable and mature than her age level, and being overwhelmed by so much information in such a short time, she felt like she had analyzed human behavior for a lifetime.
At the end of chapter 31, when Scout says that she feels old, she is referring to her life experience not her physical age. This is Scout’s moment of insight and reflection, and the conclusion that she comes to is simply that she feels old. In the beginning of the book, Scout is a typical child: she has friends, goes on adventures and, like all children in Macomb, is curious about and afraid of Boo Radley. Her personality changes so much in the course of a few years that not only is she no longer afraid of Boo but, when she actually sees him for the first time, it is as if she is meeting up with an old friend. Of all the transformations in Scout’s life, her changed conception of Boo Radley is the biggest. Boo’s innocence comes to symbolize her childhood. Scout sees a lot: the innocent attacked and slaughtered, her father endangered, and even the killing of a man who was trying to attack her. Still, Boo is the real wake up call. At first, Scout just saw Boo Radley, a legend. But, eventually she comes to see him as a real person. And, this allows her to realize, for the first time, that not only is the world much bigger than her but that the events in her life (like conflicts with her teacher about reading lessons or conflicts with Atticus about wearing dresses) are much less meaningful then she previously thought. Learning to care about things that are bigger than herself really forces Scout to mature.
Throughout the course of a novel this innocent girl has seen things that have made her question the basis of society something no little girl should ever have to do. As we read about the trial and Boo Radly, and general racism and anger due to class and race, Scout sees patterns that another girl may never see in her life. Scout sees how messed up our world really is. Being a child there is nothing she can do about it. so when she says, "As I made my way home, I felt very old", is because in actuality her awareness of the hostility of this world has come to her giving her the knowledge that is supposedly for adults. being at age ten Scout knows and has seen more than most 20 year-old have. She has developed her perception of the world and how it works, making her 10 going on 30.
Scout said she felt very old, because just then, she looked at things from Arthur Radleys perspective. It was just then, that she realized how Arthur saw the events of the past few years, taking in everything and and only appearing when necessary. Scout starts to feel very nostalgic about the events that came to past. She is thinking about all of the intens moments, when she starts to feel “Very old.” She thinks about the past, when she was obsessed with Boo Radley and making him come out of his house. One of the major moments that made Scout feel old was when the fire took place during the winter. Scout thinks, “Winter, and his children shivered at the front gate, silhouetted against a blazing house.” The level of description in this sentence really emphasizes how nostalgic Scout was feeling. The fire was a very dramatic scene in the book, but was an even greater symbol for a changing point in the lives of both Jem and Scout. Both the fire and the snow represented change because Maycomb had never seen snow for decades. This new sensation brought happiness to the children and remorse to those who lost their houses. Throught the book, Scout has a lot to feel old about.
This novel has a time span of 3 or 4 years. Scout, the younger sibling, is used to following the lead of her older and more "insightful" (agreeing with Sophie) brother Jem. Throughout tue course of the novel, particularly in the beginning and middle of Part II, we see that perhaps Scout has always been the more audacious character as opposed to her brother Jem, who seems to be more responsible. Any reader would believe that Jem is a more responsible character than Scout.
Scout has gone through a lot of hardships throughout tue story, but nevertheless, she has overcome them all. Even though she is of the younger characters of the book, she tackles issues that adults should be facing, such as standing up to teachers and coping with your father's attitude when he has just lost a very important case. Scout now understands the outside world, and after living years on this world, you feel that you know how it works. Maycomb is a secluded town, and after living in this town for a certain amount of time, you feel very wise and you can he almost a mentor to other kids who were your age before. Scout is almost an elder of Maycomb.
Throughout the book Scout has seen adult events. Scout has witnessed the trial, almost had here farther hurt, and almost was killed herself. Only now does scout realize how dangerous, and life changing these events are. Scout says she feels very old, and I think its because she has grown emotionally, and matured emotionally very quickly throughout the book. But I think Scout does not exactly want to grow up this fast. So she feels "very old" instead of feeling a "little more grown up". Not only the events around her have made Scout grow up, but her family members around her have made her age. Jem has matured, therefore making Scout mature. Atticus has grown older, therefore making Scout grow older. In all Scout has indeed grown older because of her suroundings.
I think that the quote means that she has seen and learned a lot about Maycomb and that has been what she was doing throughout the book so that’s what I think she means when she says “I felt very old”. For example, Scout met Boo and found out that he is a real person when for her whole life she thought he was a ghost. She has also gone through a lot of drama in Maycomb and she feels like it’s over so she “made her way back home”.
When Scout says, "As I made my way home, I felt very old"(279). I feel this quote, in a way, compares Scout to a sponge with an excess amount of water. This water is the knowledge that Scout has learned throughout the book.
Also, the book started off in the Finch home, where the kids were in their adolescent state. Throughout the book, the kids go on many 'adventures" exploring the idea of growing up. The house, in the end, symbolizes the end of development, whereas the house in the beginning developed the start of development. (maturity/responsibility, in a way, intelligence).
I think that when Scout says that she feels very old is because she is looking back at all of the things she has been through in her life, which is over the course of the book. She has grown a lot over the course of the novel, which is probably why she feels that way. I think she feels old because she has seen so many things happen around, she feels like she has been in Maycomb for so long and has encountered so many things along her adventure in the book, she feels old because she has nearly seen it all. In the beginning of the book, Scout believed in such childish ideas, and now she feels older because her point of view has changed since the beginning of the book. Scout is reflecting on her life and feels as if time has passed her by fast, probably because she has seen everyone grow up, and she has grown up the most, from her opinions to her thoughts to her interests. As Stef said, she feels old because she is so intelligent, and tired as she arrived home, as she was old and had little stamina. Scout now feels like a new person, and now has come out of her cocoon, and now has more freedom, being older and having "wings" that she can use to explore the world and feels the wonderful feeling of growing up, which is something she didn't really expect of herself.
Just before the end of chapter 31, Scout says "As i made my way home, I felt very old." I think that she is implying that she is growing up. The book started off when she was a young girl, playing games with the brother and sneaking around the Radleys house. Now that she is getting older, she realizes that what she did before was stupid and useless. It wasn't necessary to bother the Radleys and stuff like that. Throughout this book, Scout has gone into and out of adult situations. It is unlikely for a 6 or 7 year old girl go view a court case. That's something that a grown up would do. Her life became more serious when Atticus started helping a black man to win a court case. After that, things got more hectic and not average in a kid life. Scout now thinks she is getting old and over those childish things she has done before. - Brianna <3
I think when Scout says this, she means she is finally understanding the meaning of what it is to grow up and what it is to be an adult in Maycomb. I feel Scout has evolved herself as a character throughout this novel. She has undergone a series of changes. And it relates to the last blog post and the notion of being a caterpillar in a cocoon. Scout relizes she's not a child anymore, she can't pretend like she is. She's been through a lot for an average Maycomb child. Over time she has obtained more and more knowledge. Her feelings toward society has shifted immensely. Jem and her have similar feelings about Maycomb. They realize its not a town that believes in equality for all or a neighborhood with a white pick-it fence. It's so much more than meets the eye. It's a town thats made of lies and gossip to 'protect' the children. I think Scout is understanding this is the environment she's living in so this is the environment she'll have to accept and hopefully work towards a better future not only for the children of Maycomb but everyone in Maycomb.
When Scout says that she feels very old, it was right after she had walked Arthur home. Scout probably thought that she’d never see Boo Radley, but she did; she walked him home. She feels old because just the other day, she was playing the Boo Radley game and today, she’s walking Arthur home, and sitting in on a debate between Heck and Atticus.
In general, Scout has grown throughout the course of the book. Scout has become a lady by the end of the book, but she still has that childish and “boyish” instinct about her. It’s almost as if she can switch her personalities at different times to match, ladylike and childish. Scout has also grown and learned through experience. She’s been to church, she’s seen a trial and injustice, she’s seen Boo Radley, and she’s survived an attempted murder. She has experienced all of these things. She knows much more by the end of the book than we, the readers would have ever expected her to know.
I think through out part two but especially in the last three chapters Scout has matured greatly. She is only 8. She is going as a ham as Halloween, but it is hard to keep that in mind as we watch her fight for her life and walk a grown man home. I think being in a near death experience aged her. But I think "walking a mile" in Boo Radley's shoes aged her even more. It is advanced for an eight year old to be able to imagine everything through a stranger's point of view. It is hard for adults to imagine things through their best friend's view. I think the reason Scout is able to do this is that she grew up in an unbiased household. She was always taught to treat every one equal. So imagining how things are for Boo is not that great of a stretch as imagining how things are for someone like Dill. I think the last two chapters are in a way a conclusion for the book. They state the book's main points. I think the end was very well done. It was told through Scout's imagination of Boo Radley. Boo was a huge character in the book and to bring it back to him was smart. Also the end reminded me that this is a book largely about children and innocence. Even though Scout described the past year so intelligently, she is still a kid in a ham costume. Even though the past year was so complicated, it was just summer, fall, winter, spring, and the Finch family will move on. I also loved that the book was almost like a circle starting in the present and talking about Jem's broken arm and then going back to the very beginning and telling the whole story and finally ending up with Jem in bed with a broken arm.
Scouts a big girl now. There is no more fun and games for her, she's grown into herself and she's grown into the real world. When she said, "As I made my way home, I felt very old." I think she felt this way because of what she had just been through. In the time span of her short life, she has seen things that even some people in adulthood haven't been exposed to. I mean that very night, her and Jem were jumped by someone one of their fathers enemy's. As she walked home, she looked back on her life and saw how much she had grown. She went from an innocent child, to a mature girl who had survived near anything.
Jean Louise, is, "very old," because she has matured greatly. This story is about Jean Louise in two ways. The childish, brash Jean Louise who is afraid of Arthur "Boo" Radley. The Jean Louise who hates being a girl. The Jean Louise who is very young. This Jean Louise has always, always, been a person who defies the norms of a society. Jean Louise of late, has matured greatly compared to two years before. In certain parts of the story, I forget that she is eight. that means she was six before. A big difference in her personality. My brother is eight now, and when I ask him to do something, he mocks me, or does something else that is rude. In this relation, Scout has matured in many different ways. Especially after the trial, they have realized the imperfect society of Maycomb. This is only one reason she has matured. Wisdom beyond her years, is one way to decide it.
I believe Scout considers herself old now because she has witnessed a horrific spiraling of events throughout "To Kill A Mockingbird." It began with Atticus' acceptance of the Tom Robinson case and Maycomb's residents, the people they consider family and friends, begin to turn on them. Scout was still considerably ignorant at the time, in terms of Maycomb's racism and other values that could only sustain in small towns. Over the course of the book, Scout continues to grow aware of her surroundings, the threats toward her father, the firm opposition against Tom Robinson, and his accuser, social leech Bob Ewell. She dispels untouched rumours for herself (Arthur "Boo" Radley and Mr. Raymond) and recognizes hypocrisy in peoples words. And after Tom Robinson's unjust death and Bob Ewell's attack, Scout has exhausted her mind in trying to figure out why these events happen.
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Hi, its Stef.
I think that when Scout says "as I made my way home, I felt very old", she says it because she had just been through a lot, and probably felt very tired. On top of that, though, is that she also had been through so much, that she felt as though she was old, because over the course of the book, she had started as a child with a big imagination. As she progressed through the book, she gained more and more knowledge, as thought she was an adult, and at the end of the book, she finds out all of the questions that she had during the book, and feels as though she knows everything, and is to stuffed with knowledge, as though she is old.
When Scout says: “As I made my way home, I felt very old” she has gone through a lot of drama and complications in her life. She kind of takes all the memories and extra feelings in so her body might feel heavy or tired. After the trial things have started to settle in the Finch family. At the same time there is a whole other world around them that sucks them in. Maycomb is the only place Scout has lived all her life and it is the only place recognizes. She might be tired of living in the same place has certain rules or that she has seen to many times. Scout feels old because everything that has happened to her is finally coming to an end. -Helena
I believe Scout said she felt old because she was feeling very nostalgic. She is standing on Boo Radley’s porch, and in her minds eye, seeing the neighborhood in his point of view. She is, as Atticus said, walking in his shoes. Scout really sees how all the childish antics she and Jem used to try and make him come out were ridiculous. She feels as if she is moving on to a new stage of life, but in the process losing some of her childhood. In the beginning of To Kill a Mocking Bird Scout and Jem were ignorant to a lot of what was going on around them, and Scout was big enough that she could just crawl into Atticus’s lab if she encountered something she couldn’t handle. She only saw what affected them and let the adults worry about the rest. They were almost obsessed with the curiosity that was Boo Radley. As they got older though, Boo was forgotten and they moved on to more “mature” past times. Towards the end of the book, Scout encounters Boo for the last time and sees that he is actually not as scary as they had imagined and just a person after all. I think actually meeting this man, who had seemed almost like a figure of her imagination or a ghost, really was her last childhood endeavor. She realizes that she is not a child anymore and that adulthood snuck up on her and she is to big to play pretend anymore. As she is walking back to her house she feels the weight of the responsibility that comes with the freedom of growing up.
i think when Scout says she felt very old she is saying so much has changed over the last three or four years. i think this quote also relates to when Jem says its like being a caterpillar in a cocoon. i think this because Scout feels that she is growing up and getting out of her cocoon. Scout never thought she would get to meat Boo Radley. not in a million years. i think the million years has come. i think at the beginning of To Kill A Mockingbird Scout was ignorant. she wanted to know so much and believed she knew so much. she wanted to feel like adult and have all this knowledge that she hasn't gained yet because she hasn't been in the world long enough. she wants to grow up faster then time will let her. Scout for example at the trial is defending herself when Jem says to the reverend that Scout doesnt know what is going on. Scout says that she does and she know a lot even if people dont believe her. at the same time Scout wants tot be able to be the little girl again and climb into her fathers lap and know his arms will be her protection. growing up Scout thought she knew everything about Maycomb since she has lived there all her life. she thought the people around her where the best there could be. as Scout became less naive she discovered that the majority of adults surrounding her where sexist, and racist people. Scout came out of her cocoon on a rainy day and her wings got wet.
At the end of chapter 31, Scout says “I felt very old as I made my way home.”
I think this is reflecting on everything she has seen, heard and experienced over the past few years/ course of the book. Scout started out as simply a child, ignorant to the realities of the world and young enough to still be inside her “cocoon.” Then slowly, we see her change and change until she is, quite frankly, an adult in a child’s body. Of course, she is still only nine, growing up and unaware, but much less so than she was when we started the book. The novel started with her home life and with her own little world, now she is coming full circle back home but with an extended knowledge and understanding. With Bob Ewell’s death comes the death of era of the Tom Robinson court case, but what is born is the era of her adulthood, the era of her wisdom. This is an end, not just of the book, but of the crisis of the court case and it seems peace has come.
Through the book we see the world around Scout blooming rapidly. She learns of rape, racism and right and wrong. She sees prejudice and injustice before her very eyes, watching as her wall of ignorance breaks as she sees a jury convict an innocent man. She is told relentlessly that she needs to be a lady and that people of certain skin tones are better than others with different skin tones. And while all this surrounds her, she hardly has time to soak it all in, instead she is carried along with it, completely confused. She wants to crawl up in her father’s lap, a quieter, slower place and listen to a story. However, as tie increases the desire to do so lessens. She has grown from the child we saw in the beginning of the book. The events in her life are beyond her years but she adapts and that makes her wise beyond her years.
Scout’s life is very dramatic, and she is just a little girl. But when we see her proudly walk Boo Radley home, we see her address the sheriff calmly even while speaking of an attempt on her life, we see she is responsible. Years ago she might have been in tears, absolutely frightened of Boo Radley. Instead she is polite and quiet and in control. In a way, she is more of an adult than a lot of her elders. Bob Ewell, for example, could not be courteous, quiet and in control if his life depended on it. She is a little grown-up, though she may not know it. She is calmer, smarter than most of the gossips in Maycomb and that is exactly what makes her old, even as a nine-year-old.
Oni K. Fox
Final Blog Post
Over the course of the book I think that Scout has grown tremendously. From the beginning of the book to the end of the book we have watched Scout grow tremendously. I think that when she said, "As I made my way home, I felt very old" (279). she is expressing that she has grown so much that it makes her feel old such as so mush change in so little time. I think that it shows in the context that if you read in between the lines you can really see the change within Scout's behavior. I think that this book is mainly about the change between the Finch family. I think that the family has grown as a whole. In the course of this novel i think that Scout has become " very old" because she has changed behavior wise, personality wise and jut a family person wise. I think that's also she has stuffed herself with knowledge like Stef said and all that she has experienced throughout the course of this book makes her feel like she is much older than she is because of how she has lived her life and the trials and tribulations throughout this book.
I think that because Jem has always been the older sibling, he has always had a better insight on things. He’s always understood things better then Scout. Because he is older, he has naturally been through a little more than Scout; he’s had more time to live.
Scout finally was able to experience something before Jem did. She was finally able to tell her brother something he didn’t already know. I think she said “as I made my way home, I felt very old” because people who are older in Maycomb are considered very wise because they have gone through so much in their lifetime. Scout, even though she is young, feels this way. She saw Boo Radley before Jem did and she is probably the only kid who will ever see him. She knows Boo Radley, she considers herself apart of his family and him apart of hers. Jem will never feel this way, but can only marvel at the mystery that will never unravel, for him.
When Scout says "As I made my way home, I felt very old" she is saying that a lot has happened over the time that she is in Maycomb. She has had a wild, long life, and she feels as though the times she had in Maycomb make her feel very old because she has done so many things. She is just saying that over her course of time she has accomplished a lot, made a difference, and feels like she did something with her life instead of just being a regular person. She was a Tom-boy so that gave her her own character and she stuck out because of that one important characteristic.
Isaiah
Scout is bluntly expressing her belief that she has undergone great mental development during these past three summers. Though Scout has matured greatly during the events of “To Kill a Mockingbird” the most significant change in her character is her perceptiveness. Throughout the early chapters of “To Kill a Mockingbird” Scout’s role as a child is emphasized by her ignorance of the world. For instance, in chapter 9 Scout becomes enraged when her cousin Francis calls Atticus a “nigger lover” but Scout acts only on the assumption that a “nigger lover” is a derogatory term . Scout is initially portrayed as a highly intelligent girl who has the ability to see past hypocrisies and irrationalities of the townsfolk of Maycomb. But Scout’s mental capacity is offseted by her lack of worldly experience. This is seen in chapter 2 when Scout gains a negative impression about school due to Mrs. Caroline’s unencouraging behavior . Though Scout has the insight to realize that Mrs. Caroline will not be acceptive of her higher knowledge, she fails to apply her wisdom as Scout succeeds in angering Mrs. Caroline after to explaining why Walter Cunningham does not have lunch. Even though Scout anticipated such a reaction from Mrs. Caroline she foolishly attempted to explain Walter’s situation. Now that Scout has gained a better understanding of life and the good and evil that make up the world, she is portrayed as a more mature individual.
She is in a situation that is including adults and that is serious, so she feels old. She might feel old because, she is walking and talking with Boo radley who she thought was a mystery her whole life. She finnaly actually talked alot with Mr. Arthur Radley. She used to have a big imagination and now she is almost in the real world. In the book she said she felt like she wasn't even alive, so she was confused so she is in real world because she is realizing how the actual world is and she is confused, wich is natural in the beggining. So she is saying she is very old because all of her imaginaion isn't really there anymore, like the Boo Radley thing, she is in the real world.
Scout had just walked Boo Radley home, holding hands. He walked on his porch and closed his door. That was the last time she ever saw him. On her way back home it was raining. It was dreary and Scout was walking back. If I was her age I think I would feel that way too. Scout has gone through so much that night, and not even that whole night, it was all these years. All these years of her life she has been worrying about the myth of Boo Radley, then Mrs. Dubose, then their Father's case. After that there was and issue about Bob Ewell about what he was going to do to Atticus ended up being what he was going to do to Atticus's children to affect Atticus. Old people have been through a lot in their lives. You go to your granparents and they tell you all these stories of their experiences. Throughout this whole book, 3 years later I think,she has had more experiences then most kids do. But now its all over. She never saw Boo Radley again nor was she afraid of him, Mrs. Dubose died, and Atticus's case would've continued if Tom Robinson hadn't been shot. Now their family is safe from threats. Scout has experiened all these events, she feels old. She has been through a lot and now she's tired. Now Jem,Atticus, and Scout is asleep. That is what the book is about.
When Scout says, I felt very old, i think that she meant that the course of time had changed her. In the beginning of the book, she was very childish and looked at the world in very imaginative eyes, eyes that could come up with any conclusion to any story. As we read further into the book, the eyes had become flooded with knowledge from different sequences in her life. Although Scout is not that old, her way of seeing the world has become much older and much more mature. Scout had witnessed injustice in court, the death of a person and much more. Scout had learned the meaning of a true outsider, and how to behave towards one. Scout had made many friends and many stories to tell them. Scout had not only had become closer to Maycomb, and the ways that are taught in the small town, but she had become closer with herself and who she really is. Scout had realized that through the roughest of times, she can always count on her family to help her. And if she might think that they don't want her, she always remembers that they always will want and her and need her. Scout had felt with all of this wisdom, comes responsibility. A mere nine year-old can't hold all of this knowledge, but becoming more mature and more secure in their self, one can hold that much knowledge. I think that is what the quote "As I made my way home, I felt very old" means.
Scout's ideas of becoming old are associated with the idea of awareness, and seeing things that have not been seen before. As she see's Boo, she realizes that he is not the intimidating figure she has thought of him to be, and he is a sensitive, and kind soul. Not only has she opened her eyes about the real Arthur Radley, but she has also experienced Jem going unconcious. This is another piece of her being "very old," and gives us an insight that Scout see's growing older as a chance to be strong when weak, and to embrace what is unknown.
Another moment where we see this idea of age come into play was the moment when she finds Miss Gates' ideas hypocritical. Her ideas about this are not only wise, but they also show how she takes note, and embraces, the Miss Gates' personality that was unexpected. Scout's adulthood is shown through her ideas of what is just and unjust, and tend to be seen as surprises to her.
I believe that Scout is expressing the unveiling of the “cocoon” and the metamorphosis into a butterfly that she has experienced. Over the course of the novel, the three children have represented different phases of life and the mentality of undergoing each stage. Dill represents childhood with his innocence and openness of mind to new experience. Jem represents the bridge to adulthood with understanding of the world and narrower focused mentality. Scout is somewhere in the middle. She has the wisdom and great intellectual and psychological understanding of adulthood, but at the same time has the open mindedness as willing to learn of a child. These traits make her one of the “Mockingbirds” of the story. She has both sides. Yet Scout has shown an unusual development of character. When she was a very young child, she had a mind set to whatever she heard around her and didn’t understand much of it. Now she is experiencing the change of her understanding moving forward in development, but her openness moving in reverse. She has now realized the change in her own character at this moment and feels older because the collision of the traits of goodness of each stage in life give her an understanding of truly all of her surroundings. This full coverage of understanding is what I believe makes her feel older.
What Scout means by that quote is that she has gone through a lot of mental change in these last chapters. She has had to deal with not only issues of the trial but also issues of growing up and becoming a woman. She is trying to understand why there are so many injustices in her community and why the white man's word is held to a greater standard or considered more valid than the black man's word to the point of causing innocent deaths of blacks. While the trial is coming to an end she feels like she has come out of her cocoon and seen the world for what it really, she has seen it like an adult and she is just beginning to understand it. She has gained more mature knowledge and she feels significantly older and wiser.
Atticus says "you never really know a man untill you stand in his shoes and walk around in them." Scout remembers Atticus saying this when she is standing on the Radley porch and looking at her life from the past two summers in the eyes of Boo Radley. When she said she feels so old, she ment that looking back on the most recent, immportant, and exciting couple of years of her life made her feel older. Not only was she phisicly older but she was more mature and knew things now that blew past her before. She knew how cruel the world could be, including what seemed like her safe town of Maycomb. She now knows the unspoken rules of the town, and she knows that some people will do anything, including trying to kill two children, to get revenge- especialy when a black man is involved. Even though we have only known Scout for three years of her life, we see her innocence slip away, and here Scout is looking at those days with a knew sence of maturity.
When Scout says "As I made my way home, I felt very old" she is saying that since the beginning of the book when she was six, she has had a very big imagination, and she didn't know much about life. Now not too later in Scouts life she has suffered alot and has learned alot more in life from being a witness to things like Tom Robinson's case and hearing about her father getting threatened, and now she is walking back from just having dropped Boo Radley, one of the people that she dreamed of meeting, to his house, she realizes that she has gone so far since she was young.
At the end of chapter 31 when Scout says that she felt very old, I think that she means, she has grown mentally of the coarse of the book. The book starts out with her as a 6 year old girl, and she is just playing around and trying to find Boo Radley. Then in part two, she goes from messing around with Dill and Jem, to being told that she is dressed inappropriately or she is doing things the wrong way, and watching the court trial. She also goes from being a 6 year old girl, to an 11 year old girl. I think that living in Maycomb and dealing with the racism and the great depression and the social views, it makes you grow up faster, or become a little more independent. In the book I feel there is a theme of growing up for the first time, just like how Jem "grows up" after the court case, and I think that through part one and part two of To Kill a Mockingbird, she grows up a lot more.
When Scout goes home after taking Arthur Radley to his house, she feels older because of what she has endured that night “As I made my way home, I felt very old” (279). She endures pain that most people don’t have to endure even at an older age. Scout has matured a great deal through the book. The last part in the book is the product of all that she has learned. Scout’s interaction with Arthur Radley reflects how much she has grown. In the beginning of the book Scout feared Arthur Radley because of the rumors she heard about him. Arthur Radley becomes the boogieman in Scout’s and other children’s imagination. At the end of the book however Scout realizes that Arthur Radley is a shy man who carries a kind heart. Scout learns from her realization that you can’t assume what a person is really like from rumors. In her changing view of Arthur Radley, Scout shows that she has learned to see behind the rumors of Maycomb.
I think that when Scout says "As I made my way home, I felt very old," she feels this way because she finally had the opportunity to stand in someone's shoes. This "someone," would be Arthur. Scout got to see what life was like for Arthur. Living in darkness and avoiding outside life is what Arthur's like is like.
Overtime, Scout has been getting closer and closer to leaving the cocoon and becoming a butterfly. By going to Tom Robinson's courtcase and by realizing Arthur was not all that everybody rumored he was, she became more aware of the town's prejudice and partiality as she matured. As she becomes more conscious of the town, she feels that she is better then that bad aura and more mature then the people pleading Tom as guilty and gossiping about Arthur. Because Scout has experienced so much, she feels that she has become "very old."
Scout says she feels "very old" at the end of chapter 31 to signify all the adult situations she has already been though. Especially since she is the youngest of everyone around her, (Jem, Atticus, Tom Robinson, etc) she has gone through many things too "old" for her. For example the Tom Robinson trial was shocking to Jem and Scout because of its racist content. Because of Atticus, Scout in particular has had to deal with these adult situations confusingly. After Jem started to understand more about what was going on, Scout was still left dealing with all this not knowing that much. So after all the traumatizing and stressful events like Tom Robinson's death, Mr. Ewells death, and seeing Boo Radley for his real self, she felt very old. In more of a nostalgic way, i think she felt wiser. Especially the idea of finally seeing who Boo Radley was after all her childish fantasies, she felt older, like she had seen everything she needed to. In other ways, she has also become very old in general by being able to deal and go through things that was even stressful for adults. This quote acted as a conclusion to all the events that had gone on in the book, everything she had gone through and everything she had learned.
Over the course of the book, Scout's maturity skyrocketed. From a little mischievous, boy-like girl who believes that adults are all innocent, wise and correct, to learning the dark side of community-its hypocrisy, injustice, and racism. She was surprised, constantly, by the outcome of events, and how adults actually behaved. There were strict unwritten rules, insiders and outsiders. As such an aware and rowdy girl as she is, she is far more knowledgeable and mature than her age level, and being overwhelmed by so much information in such a short time, she felt like she had analyzed human behavior for a lifetime.
At the end of chapter 31, when Scout says that she feels old, she is referring to her life experience not her physical age. This is Scout’s moment of insight and reflection, and the conclusion that she comes to is simply that she feels old.
In the beginning of the book, Scout is a typical child: she has friends, goes on adventures and, like all children in Macomb, is curious about and afraid of Boo Radley. Her personality changes so much in the course of a few years that not only is she no longer afraid of Boo but, when she actually sees him for the first time, it is as if she is meeting up with an old friend.
Of all the transformations in Scout’s life, her changed conception of Boo Radley is the biggest. Boo’s innocence comes to symbolize her childhood. Scout sees a lot: the innocent attacked and slaughtered, her father endangered, and even the killing of a man who was trying to attack her. Still, Boo is the real wake up call. At first, Scout just saw Boo Radley, a legend. But, eventually she comes to see him as a real person. And, this allows her to realize, for the first time, that not only is the world much bigger than her but that the events in her life (like conflicts with her teacher about reading lessons or conflicts with Atticus about wearing dresses) are much less meaningful then she previously thought. Learning to care about things that are bigger than herself really forces Scout to mature.
Throughout the course of a novel this innocent girl has seen things that have made her question the basis of society something no little girl should ever have to do. As we read about the trial and Boo Radly, and general racism and anger due to class and race, Scout sees patterns that another girl may never see in her life. Scout sees how messed up our world really is. Being a child there is nothing she can do about it. so when she says, "As I made my way home, I felt very old", is because in actuality her awareness of the hostility of this world has come to her giving her the knowledge that is supposedly for adults. being at age ten Scout knows and has seen more than most 20 year-old have. She has developed her perception of the world and how it works, making her 10 going on 30.
Scout said she felt very old, because just then, she looked at things from Arthur Radleys perspective. It was just then, that she realized how Arthur saw the events of the past few years, taking in everything and and only appearing when necessary. Scout starts to feel very nostalgic about the events that came to past. She is thinking about all of the intens moments, when she starts to feel “Very old.” She thinks about the past, when she was obsessed with Boo Radley and making him come out of his house. One of the major moments that made Scout feel old was when the fire took place during the winter. Scout thinks, “Winter, and his children shivered at the front gate, silhouetted against a blazing house.” The level of description in this sentence really emphasizes how nostalgic Scout was feeling. The fire was a very dramatic scene in the book, but was an even greater symbol for a changing point in the lives of both Jem and Scout. Both the fire and the snow represented change because Maycomb had never seen snow for decades. This new sensation brought happiness to the children and remorse to those who lost their houses. Throught the book, Scout has a lot to feel old about.
This novel has a time span of 3 or 4 years. Scout, the younger sibling, is used to following the lead of her older and more "insightful" (agreeing with Sophie) brother Jem. Throughout tue course of the novel, particularly in the beginning and middle of Part II, we see that perhaps Scout has always been the more audacious character as opposed to her brother Jem, who seems to be more responsible. Any reader would believe that Jem is a more responsible character than Scout.
Scout has gone through a lot of hardships throughout tue story, but nevertheless, she has overcome them all. Even though she is of the younger characters of the book, she tackles issues that adults should be facing, such as standing up to teachers and coping with your father's attitude when he has just lost a very important case. Scout now understands the outside world, and after living years on this world, you feel that you know how it works. Maycomb is a secluded town, and after living in this town for a certain amount of time, you feel very wise and you can he almost a mentor to other kids who were your age before. Scout is almost an elder of Maycomb.
Throughout the book Scout has seen adult events. Scout has witnessed the trial, almost had here farther hurt, and almost was killed herself. Only now does scout realize how dangerous, and life changing these events are. Scout says she feels very old, and I think its because she has grown emotionally, and matured emotionally very quickly throughout the book. But I think Scout does not exactly want to grow up this fast. So she feels "very old" instead of feeling a "little more grown up". Not only the events around her have made Scout grow up, but her family members around her have made her age. Jem has matured, therefore making Scout mature. Atticus has grown older, therefore making Scout grow older. In all Scout has indeed grown older because of her suroundings.
I think that the quote means that she has seen and learned a lot about Maycomb and that has been what she was doing throughout the book so that’s what I think she means when she says “I felt very old”. For example, Scout met Boo and found out that he is a real person when for her whole life she thought he was a ghost. She has also gone through a lot of drama in Maycomb and she feels like it’s over so she “made her way back home”.
When Scout says, "As I made my way home, I felt very old"(279). I feel this quote, in a way, compares Scout to a sponge with an excess amount of water. This water is the knowledge that Scout has learned throughout the book.
Also, the book started off in the Finch home, where the kids were in their adolescent state. Throughout the book, the kids go on many 'adventures" exploring the idea of growing up. The house, in the end, symbolizes the end of development, whereas the house in the beginning developed the start of development. (maturity/responsibility, in a way, intelligence).
I think that when Scout says that she feels very old is because she is looking back at all of the things she has been through in her life, which is over the course of the book. She has grown a lot over the course of the novel, which is probably why she feels that way. I think she feels old because she has seen so many things happen around, she feels like she has been in Maycomb for so long and has encountered so many things along her adventure in the book, she feels old because she has nearly seen it all. In the beginning of the book, Scout believed in such childish ideas, and now she feels older because her point of view has changed since the beginning of the book. Scout is reflecting on her life and feels as if time has passed her by fast, probably because she has seen everyone grow up, and she has grown up the most, from her opinions to her thoughts to her interests. As Stef said, she feels old because she is so intelligent, and tired as she arrived home, as she was old and had little stamina. Scout now feels like a new person, and now has come out of her cocoon, and now has more freedom, being older and having "wings" that she can use to explore the world and feels the wonderful feeling of growing up, which is something she didn't really expect of herself.
I am Cara
Just before the end of chapter 31, Scout says "As i made my way home, I felt very old." I think that she is implying that she is growing up. The book started off when she was a young girl, playing games with the brother and sneaking around the Radleys house. Now that she is getting older, she realizes that what she did before was stupid and useless. It wasn't necessary to bother the Radleys and stuff like that.
Throughout this book, Scout has gone into and out of adult situations. It is unlikely for a 6 or 7 year old girl go view a court case. That's something that a grown up would do. Her life became more serious when Atticus started helping a black man to win a court case. After that, things got more hectic and not average in a kid life. Scout now thinks she is getting old and over those childish things she has done before.
- Brianna <3
I think when Scout says this, she means she is finally understanding the meaning of what it is to grow up and what it is to be an adult in Maycomb.
I feel Scout has evolved herself as a character throughout this novel. She has undergone a series of changes. And it relates to the last blog post and the notion of being a caterpillar in a cocoon. Scout relizes she's not a child anymore, she can't pretend like she is. She's been through a lot for an average Maycomb child. Over time she has obtained more and more knowledge.
Her feelings toward society has shifted immensely. Jem and her have similar feelings about Maycomb. They realize its not a town that believes in equality for all or a neighborhood with a white pick-it fence. It's so much more than meets the eye. It's a town thats made of lies and gossip to 'protect' the children. I think Scout is understanding this is the environment she's living in so this is the environment she'll have to accept and hopefully work towards a better future not only for the children of Maycomb but everyone in Maycomb.
When Scout says that she feels very old, it was right after she had walked Arthur home. Scout probably thought that she’d never see Boo Radley, but she did; she walked him home. She feels old because just the other day, she was playing the Boo Radley game and today, she’s walking Arthur home, and sitting in on a debate between Heck and Atticus.
In general, Scout has grown throughout the course of the book. Scout has become a lady by the end of the book, but she still has that childish and “boyish” instinct about her. It’s almost as if she can switch her personalities at different times to match, ladylike and childish. Scout has also grown and learned through experience. She’s been to church, she’s seen a trial and injustice, she’s seen Boo Radley, and she’s survived an attempted murder. She has experienced all of these things. She knows much more by the end of the book than we, the readers would have ever expected her to know.
-Kai Marcel
I think through out part two but especially in the last three chapters Scout has matured greatly. She is only 8. She is going as a ham as Halloween, but it is hard to keep that in mind as we watch her fight for her life and walk a grown man home. I think being in a near death experience aged her. But I think "walking a mile" in Boo Radley's shoes aged her even more.
It is advanced for an eight year old to be able to imagine everything through a stranger's point of view. It is hard for adults to imagine things through their best friend's view. I think the reason Scout is able to do this is that she grew up in an unbiased household. She was always taught to treat every one equal. So imagining how things are for Boo is not that great of a stretch as imagining how things are for someone like Dill.
I think the last two chapters are in a way a conclusion for the book. They state the book's main points. I think the end was very well done. It was told through Scout's imagination of Boo Radley. Boo was a huge character in the book and to bring it back to him was smart. Also the end reminded me that this is a book largely about children and innocence. Even though Scout described the past year so intelligently, she is still a kid in a ham costume. Even though the past year was so complicated, it was just summer, fall, winter, spring, and the Finch family will move on. I also loved that the book was almost like a circle starting in the present and talking about Jem's broken arm and then going back to the very beginning and telling the whole story and finally ending up with Jem in bed with a broken arm.
Scouts a big girl now. There is no more fun and games for her, she's grown into herself and she's grown into the real world.
When she said, "As I made my way home, I felt very old." I think she felt this way because of what she had just been through. In the time span of her short life, she has seen things that even some people in adulthood haven't been exposed to. I mean that very night, her and Jem were jumped by someone one of their fathers enemy's.
As she walked home, she looked back on her life and saw how much she had grown. She went from an innocent child, to a mature girl who had survived near anything.
Jean Louise, is, "very old," because she has matured greatly. This story is about Jean Louise in two ways. The childish, brash Jean Louise who is afraid of Arthur "Boo" Radley. The Jean Louise who hates being a girl. The Jean Louise who is very young. This Jean Louise has always, always, been a person who defies the norms of a society.
Jean Louise of late, has matured greatly compared to two years before. In certain parts of the story, I forget that she is eight. that means she was six before. A big difference in her personality. My brother is eight now, and when I ask him to do something, he mocks me, or does something else that is rude. In this relation, Scout has matured in many different ways. Especially after the trial, they have realized the imperfect society of Maycomb. This is only one reason she has matured. Wisdom beyond her years, is one way to decide it.
I believe Scout considers herself old now because she has witnessed a horrific spiraling of events throughout "To Kill A Mockingbird." It began with Atticus' acceptance of the Tom Robinson case and Maycomb's residents, the people they consider family and friends, begin to turn on them. Scout was still considerably ignorant at the time, in terms of Maycomb's racism and other values that could only sustain in small towns. Over the course of the book, Scout continues to grow aware of her surroundings, the threats toward her father, the firm opposition against Tom Robinson, and his accuser, social leech Bob Ewell. She dispels untouched rumours for herself (Arthur "Boo" Radley and Mr. Raymond) and recognizes hypocrisy in peoples words. And after Tom Robinson's unjust death and Bob Ewell's attack, Scout has exhausted her mind in trying to figure out why these events happen.
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