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Why does Scout decide to keep her costume on while walking home?

In Harper Lee’s novel To Kill a Mockingbird, the school puts on a play for the community.  All of the children are dressed as the county’s agricultural products.  The children were dressed as things such as butterbeans, a cow, a peanut, and Scout was dressed as a ham. 


Scout was quite uncomfortable in her costume, but soon realized that she could tuck her feet underneath it to sit down to rest.  She did this while Mrs. Merriweather was droning on and on about Colonel Maycomb’s accomplishments and exploits.  Unfortunately for Scout, she became bored and too comfortable while this was going on, and fell asleep.  As a result, she missed her cue:



“I must have heard her in my sleep, or the band playing Dixie woke me, but it was when Mrs. Merriweather triumphantly mounted the stage with the state flag that I chose to make my entrance. Chose is incorrect: I thought I’d better catch up with the rest of them.”



Mrs. Merriweather even went so far as to tell Scout backstage that she ruined the performance.  Scout was so embarrassed that she didn’t want to leave until most of the people had left so she wouldn’t have to face them.  Jem asked her if she wanted to remove the costume, to which Scout replied “Naw, I’ll just keep it on.”  She followed up that statement with the observation that “I could hide my mortification under it.”


So to summarize, Scout was embarrassed that she had missed her cue in front of the whole town, and allegedly ruined the production for Mrs. Merriweather.  She kept her costume on so she could hide her mortification underneath it.

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