Honors English Miss Caroline is not only an inexperienced teacher, she is also a foreigner to Maycomb County, and her inexperience causes her to become defensive when she disc overs that Scout is the only student in her class that can read and write in print, ” … and after making me read most of My First Reader and the stockmarket quotations from The Mobile Register alo ud, she discovered that was literate and looked at me with more than faint distaste. pg 17)
After a small argument with Scout, Miss Caroline orders Scout to tell Atticus to stop eaching her because he has taught her incorrectly, “Now you tell your father not to teach you any more. It’s best to begin reading with a fresh mind. You tell him I’ll take over from here a nd try to undo the damage . “(PDF pg 1 7) believe that this shows how narrow minded Miss Caroline is towards Scout, she refuses to listen to her and what she has to say about her false stat ement. Another thing is, whenever she sees Scout writing in print or disrespects by talking bac k to her she decides to humiliate and punish her in front of the other students, ” Miss Caroline picked up her uler, gave me half a dozen quick little pats, then told me to stand in the corn er.
A storm of laughter broke loose when it finally occurred to the class that Miss Caroline h ad whipped me.. (PDF pg 22) This conflict that starts to stir up in chapter 2 is one example of comingofage because as Scouts continues to get older, and more mature about her surroundings, she starts to realize how prejudice and ignorant people can be in the real world.
For example, when M iss Caroline tries to offer to Walter Cunningham, Scout stands up in class and says, You’re shaming him, Miss Caroline. pg 21 ) and instead oftrying to understand Scout’s explanation, Miss Ca roline gets frustrated with her, ‘ “Jean Louise, I’ve had about enough of you this morning,” she said. You’re starting off on the wrong foot in every way, my dear. Hold out your ha nd. “. (PDF pg 22) think that it affects her terribly because no matter how many she tries to pro ve Miss Caroline wrong, she just won’t listen to her and also it affects her love for read ing because when she fakes being “sick”, Atticus asks her what’s wrong and why she doesn’t wan tto go to school, and she replies with, and she said you taught me all wrong, so we can’t ever read any more, ever. Please don’t send me back, please sir. (PDF pg 30)
As Atticus and Scout talk about Miss Caroline and the conflict, another comingofage pops, Atticus gives Scout som e good advice about understand people and looking at things from their perspective, “You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view’ think that’s a perfect advice for someone as young as Scout, because there are alwa ys going to be people that do things for unknown reason and to only understand that is it to rawl into their skin, and see things from their perspective.
Even though Scout still hates Miss Caroline’s attitude and how she treats her s tudents, “As I was the last to leave, I saw her sink down into her chair and bury her hea d in her arms. Had her conduct been more friendly toward me, would have felt sorry for he r” (PDF-pg22) during her long meaningful talk with Atticus, they both find a solution for Sco ut’s conflict with her teacher. “They agree to still continue read late at night as long as she cont inues going to school, ” you’ll concede the necessity of going to school, we’ll go on reading every nig ht just as we always have.
Is ita bargain? (PDF pg 32) Also, Atticus tells Scout to not mention their argument to Miss Caroline, because he doesnt want her coming after him an d turning the conflict into something that’s bigger and irrelevant, ” By the way, Scout, you’d better not say anything at school about our agreement. ” (PDF pg32) In all honesty, even though Miss Caroline appears to look rude, I think that Scout just needs to give her a little t ime to settle in Maycomb County and get used to everyone and her surroundings.
