Scout Finch

Outer characterization

Jean Louise ‘Scout’ Finch is the main character and narrator of To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. At the beginning of the novel, she is a six-year-old girl, and by the end of the story, she reaches the age of nine. She lives in Maycomb, Alabama, with her family: “We lived on the main residential street in town – Atticus, Jem and I, plus Calpurnia our cook” (p. 6). Her mother is dead.

She is a tomboy who usually wears trousers or overalls and dislikes wearing dresses. The doll Boo Radley carves to look like Scout shows that she wears bangs (p. 66).

Inner characterization

Scout is intelligent 

Throughout the novel, Scout shows that she is very clever for a young child. She knows how to read even before she starts school, and she dislikes school because she feels held back to match the level of her grade when she wishes she could learn more (p. 36). 

She is perceptive and realizes when people’s words do not match their actions. For example, when her teacher discusses Hitler in class, Scout notices that while her teacher criticizes the dis...