To Kill a Mockingbird

To Kill A Mockingbird Question

Dill scares Scout with talk about death. Jem eggs him on with talk about Hot Steams. Scout goes for a tyre ride and winds up at the Radley Place. Jem retrieves the tyre, and damns Scout by telling her that sometimes she acts so much like a girl "It’s mortifyin’." How has Jem seen Scout up to now? How about Dill? How does Scout see herself? (Even after she beats Dill up, twice, after he offers to marry her, she feels a bit out-of-sorts.) How does Dill change the relationships between Scout and Jem?

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Scout is generally seen by Dill and Jem as "one of the boys." As Scout matures she changes like any other young girl, and their friendships have to change because she simply isn't one of the boys. Part of her is the young innocent; the other is the woman she's becoming due to the influence of Atticus and her recent experiences. Scout emerges and transforms more than any other character in the novel, but her changes aren't the subtle changes you'd expect. Happenings in the town accelerate the "differences" we see in her, and Jem isn't quite ready for them. Dill sees the changes first; Scouts discomfiture tells us that even she hasn't been aware of them. Jem then begins to see her through new eyes, as he begins to understand Dill's reaction to her.