To Kill a Mockingbird: Scout’s Journal
As you read To Kill a Mockingbird, you will write a series of journal entries in which you write
from Scout’s perspective. As Scout, you will record your observations, experiences,
and insights into or reflections on those experiences as you develop. More specifically,
you’ll want to focus on the lessons you learn about yourself, other human beings, and how the
world works, and on those experiences which cause you to learn those lessons.
Remember, you are Scout – try to “step into her skin and walk around in it,” as her father
challenges her to do with others; see things through her eyes and speak with her voice.
Some of Scout’s lessons concern seeing things from another’s perspective, the nature
of prejudice, courage, respect, loneliness, democracy, and fairness.
Each journal entry should address:
a) an experience that you (Scout) have or observe
b) your reflections on how that experience influences and teaches you
c) a greater awareness that you arrive at because of your experiences and
reflection
Sample Journal:
Dear Diary,
Life just hasn’t been the same after Dill left us, but one thing happened the other day that
made up for his being gone: I started school! I’ve ever been so excited about anything in my life.
Now, instead of watching the kids play in the school yard from the tree house, which gets awfully
cold in the winter, I finally get to go myself. Jem walked me there, which he wasn’t very happy
about; he was probably embarrassed to be seen with his kid sister. He told me I couldn’t speak
to him or bother him while we were at school.
I ain’t sure what to make of my new teacher, Miss Caroline. She’s young and wears bright
red finger nail polish, and she smells like peppermint candy. She’s from a different part of the
state than we are, and even we kids know that outsiders can mean trouble. She spent the whole
first morning reading us a book about cats, and didn’t seem to notice that most of the kids, who
were repeating the first grade because they failed it last year, weren’t paying her a bit of
attention. Then she scolded me because I already knew how to read so well. She said Atticus
weren’t to teach me to read anymore at home; it seems like she thinks she won’t have any use if
she can’t teach me how to read. I can’t see what I’ve done wrong.
Then Miss Caroline didn’t understand that the reason Walter Cunningham didn’t have any
lunch is because he’s too poor to bring any to school, and it seemed like she didn’t know how to
talk to him. I tried to tell her that she was making him ashamed of himself by asking him about it
but she got angry at me. I decided to ask Walter home to lunch one day, which I did. Except
when Walter poured syrup all over his food and I commented on it, Calpurnia got angry at me
and made me go eat in the back by myself. She said that Walter was a guest in our home even
though he was poorer than us. When I thought about it a little bit, I realized what she meant.
Walter ain’t so bad as a person, he’s just filthy because his family can’t afford to take care of him
so well. Just because he’s different than us doesn’t mean he’s not just as good a person. His
family loves him as best they can, just like mine does, and they teach him, just like mine does,
but maybe they teach him in a different way. I wonder why Miss Caroline couldn’t see that
enough not to make him ashamed of himself. Then again, Miss Caroline is different from us too.
Sometimes I don’t understand her at all, but I suppose she’s trying, like we all are, and I need to
be patient with her.