Editor's Choice
What mixed feelings do Scout and Jem have about Christmas and why?
Quick answer:
Scout and Jem have mixed feelings about Christmas due to their contrasting experiences with family members. They enjoy spending time with Uncle Jack, who is fun and loving, but dislike being with Aunt Alexandra, who is cold and strict, and her son Francis, whom Scout finds boring and disagreeable. These relationships make Christmas both anticipated and dreaded.
Scout says that it is the company that keeps her from thoroughly enjoying Christmas. They go to Finch's landing, where "the fact that Aunty was a good cook was some compensation for being forced to spend a religious holiday with Francis Hancock...[who] enjoyed everything I disapproved of, and disliked my ingenuous diversons." Scout dislikes Francis so much that she says "he was the most boring child I ever met." So, that makes Christmas a bit of a bummer to her. And, that Christmas, Francis and Scout end up getting in a fight, with Scout getting in trouble for it. So her foreboding regarding Francis, this year at least, was justified.
Scout and Jem have mixed feelings about Christmas for exactly the same reason that many kids/people have mixed feelings about Christmas (including myself). Scout and Jem love the holiday. That "Christmas spirit" is working...
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within them. Presents are exciting, food is good, the tree is pretty, etc. Scout and Jem like all of that.
Unfortunately, that is about it regarding the Christmas in the book. Scout and Jem must spend Christmas at Finch's Landing with their Aunt Alexandra and Uncle Jimmy. They are not excited about that.
"No amount of sighing could induce Atticus to let us spend Christmas day at home."
Scout doesn't particularly like spending time with anybody from that family. Aunt Alexandra disapproves of the way Scout behaves; Scout is too much of a tomboy in her opinion. Scout should be acting much more like a lady. Uncle Jimmy isn't disapproving, he just doesn't talk . . . to anybody.
For Scout, the worst part of Christmas at Finch's Landing is having to spend time with her cousin Francis. He's a brat and a tattle-tale, and he couldn't be more of a polar opposite from Scout if he tried. His favorite Christmas presents are things like a book bag, bow ties, and shirts—all pointless in Scout's opinion. Scout summarizes Francis like this:
"Talking to Francis gave me the sensation of setting slowly to the bottom of the ocean. He was the most boring child I ever met."
Scout and Jem love the holiday, just not the family they have to spend it with. I'm sure many people have felt that before.
Jem and Scout love seeing their Uncle Jack, the Christmas tree, and eating Aunt Alexandra's cooking, but that's about it when it came time to spend the holiday at Finch's Landing.
No amount of sighing could induce Atticus to let us spend Christmas day at home.
Scout dreaded the thought of dealing with her aunt and uncle and, particularly, her cousin, Francis. Uncle Jimmy never had a thing to say to Scout; in fact, he had only spoken to her once, telling her to "Get off the fence." Jimmy rarely spoke to Alexandra, either, and he preferred fishing to talking or working. As for Aunt Alexandra, Scout often wondered if she had been "swapped at birth." She was like Mount Everest:
... she was cold and there.
Cousin Francis, Alexandra's grandson, was the worst of all. A precocious brat, Francis was a bit of a dandy: Two years older than Scout, he was smaller, and he was excited about the Christmas presents he had asked for and received: knee-pants, a book bag, a bow tie and five shirts. They were quite a contrast to the air rifles and chemistry set that Jem and Scout received.
Talking to Francis gave me the sensation of setting slowly to the bottom of the ocean. He was the most boring child I ever met.
He proved to be a tattletale and a sneak, and when he deliberately insulted Atticus and angered Scout by calling them both a "nigger-lover," Scout promptly
... split my knuckle to the bone on his front teeth.