1. Actions
1.1. she does not always grasp social niceties (she tells her teacher that one of her fellow students is too poor to pay her back for lunch)
1.2. human behavior often baffles her (as when one of her teachers criticizes Hitler´s prejudice against blacks)
1.3. Atticus´s protection of Scout from hypocrisy and social pressure has rendered her open, forthright, and well meaning
1.4. appreciate human goodness without ignoring human evil
1.5. she has a thirst for freedom and always has to live out her creativity
1.6. always acts with the best intentions
1.7. She is intellectually superior to her classmates and sometimes to her teachers, which is why she sees school as a pointless waste of time
2. Author Intention
2.1. With Atticus the author "Harper Lee" has erected a memorial to her father, with Scout she is drawing a self-portrait
2.2. The protagonist swapped her female first name, Jean Louise, for the adventurous nickname Scout
2.3. Scout learns that though humanity has a great capacity for evil, it also has a great capacity for good, and that the evil can often be mitigated if one approaches others with an outlook of sympathy and understanding
2.4. the fictional events of the novel show strong references to the time it was written as well as to the historical background from the 1930s
2.5. The synopsis of these two politically and socially very turbulent periods gave the novel a special meaning
2.6. "To kill a Mockingbird" reflects the suffering of the population during the global economic crisis and also addresses the discrimination against African Americans
3. Motivation
3.1. Scout is who she is because of the way Atticus has raised her
3.2. she is a bright and curious person
3.3. Scout has a combative streak and a basic faith in the goodness of the people in her community
3.4. has a basic faith in the goodness of the people in her community
4. Dialogue
4.1. me-narrator
4.2. Despite the autobiographical features of the novel, the narrator cannot be equated with the author
4.3. Action takes place between Scout's 5th and 9th birthday (over the course of three years)
4.4. The act of narration takes place much later, so that Scout gains distance from the events and can understand their scope ("when enough years had gone by", p.3 ; "many years later" , p.98)
4.5. Scout's naive voice, which describes growing up in a small town in the south of the US, is dominant
4.6. Scout's adult voice describes things that she only experienced from a later time and rather than adding details (compare the description of the courthouse on page 87)
4.7. two-layered first-person narration = there is a temporal distance between the experiencing and narrating self and thus also a difference in terms of the level of knowledge and understanding
4.8. Scout often asks questions that aren´t "politically correct", but she ask these questions because she is a child
5. Character traits
5.1. Tomboy
5.2. good-hearted
5.3. confident
5.4. thoughtful
5.5. innocent
5.6. intelligent
5.7. no experience with the evils of the world
6. Relationships
6.1. lives with Atticus, Jem and Calpurnia in Maycomb
6.2. She feels most comfortable in male company
6.3. She has no girlfriends of the same age and is usually at war with adult women
6.4. the society sees her as a Tomboy and not as a lady
6.5. Influence
6.5.1. Atticus
6.5.1.1. teaches Scout the values of equality and righteousness
6.5.1.2. do not judge Scout or other people
6.5.1.3. Scout learns from him that you never really understand a person until you have climbed into their skin and walked in their shoes
6.5.1.4. Atticus ´s hands-off parenting style is the reason why she wears overalls and learns to climb trees with Jem and Dill
6.5.2. Calpurnia
6.5.2.1. teaches Scout cooking and cleaning skills
6.5.2.2. motherfigure to Scout
6.5.2.3. Scout learns from her about the life of the African Americans
6.5.2.4. teaches her openmindless and that there are two different worlds
6.5.3. Aunt Alexandra
6.5.3.1. wants Scout to be a proper lady
6.5.3.2. takes great offense to Scouts tomboyish nature
6.5.3.3. Scout learns from her to control herself and to be morally good
6.5.4. Ms Maudie
6.5.4.1. thinks that you don´t have to act like a debutante to be considered as fine
6.5.4.2. she is Scout's female caregiver as she is also very unconventional
6.5.5. Mrs Dubose
6.5.5.1. unfriendly to Scout and Jem
6.5.5.2. verbally violent and racist
6.5.5.3. Scout learns from her that people are not always what they appear to be
6.5.6. Jem
6.5.6.1. they often have arguments
6.5.6.2. he is nevertheless the ideal brother for her and she can always rely on him