For this reason, Scout is seen as very peculiar, but instead of being accepted she begins being impelled by her Uncle Jack, Jem, and Aunt Alexandra to become a Southern lady. When Uncle Jack comes to visit the Finch residency, he is appalled by Scout's foul language. He sternly says to her, ". I'll be here a week, and I don't want to hear any words like that while I'm here. You want to grow up to be a lady, don't you?" (90). This clearly shows the attitude the general public had towards the way a lady was supposed to speak. I agree completely with Uncle Jack scolding Scout over swearing since she is still a child, but why does the comment have to be directed towards being a lady instead of being polite? Jem also joins in on scolding Scout for not being ladylike. As he is maturing, he sees the abundant difference between his sister, Scout, and the way he perceives other women. Jem yelled at her after a fight, "It's time you started bein' a girl and acting right!" (131). It is interesting to see how Jem is falling for the structural way of thinking possessed by the rest of the town. Girls had to be playing "gentle" things, such as with dolls, or knitting fancy quilts. On the other hand, Scout is into playing with dirt and rolling around in wheels, which was not seen as "acting like a girl." Aunt Alexandra also implied this when she said, "I wasn't supposed to be doing things that required pants" (92). Aunt Alexandra's version of "being a girl" is "playing with small stoves, tea sets, and wearing the Add-A-Pearl necklace" (93). For Scout this is not fair, being a lady meant substituting the activities she grew up doing with what others expected her to do. Comparable to Scout is Boo Radley, the more obvious example, Boo was ostracized by society for simply being different. For a while, the Maycomb population has looked down upon Boo, with unfounded rumors about him.
