Mary Badham as Scout Finch in the 1964 film of To Kill A Mockingbird
I only read TKAM last year, after having had it on my “must read” list for yonks. I thought Scout was utterly fabulous, totally relating to her wish to stick to clothes she could climb a tree in, and there’s a gazillion other aspects of the book I love. The movie was one of those rare marrying of narrative forms where nearly everyone was happy with the adaptation, largely due to the perfect casting of Gregory Peck and Mary Badham in the pivotal roles of Atticus and Scout.
Moviediva has an excellent essay about the film and book, sparking off a poll that discovered that America’s No.1 hero was Atticus Finch (he also regularly tops the polls of Best Movie Parents). Gregory Peck was my first classic Hollywood star crush, although I fell for him in Hornblower rather than TKAM, and one of the reasons he wanted to do the film was the chance to play the principled father so wonderfully drawn in the character of Atticus Finch. Mary Badham certainly felt, like many others, that Peck’s Atticus was an ideal father, and was always hanging around him on the set, as the photos below show.
Of course, there are many other fictional hoydens for whom I still have a soft spot, even when the hoyden I adored from early books/films ended up, much to my chagrin, undermined as the series progressed *cough*Leia*cough*.
So, who’s your favourite fictional hoyden?
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{ 11 comments }
I did TKAM for Year 10 English and it still holds up today.
Scout is probably the most famous tomboy in written fiction (Jo March doesn’t count as Little Women is not read as widely today as Mockingbird).
It’s easy to forget how rare a real Scout from the ’30s would have been – many people looking back at history concentrate on the tiny percentage that were “modernish” or “bucked the trend” rather than the 90 percent that stuck to satin and lace etc.
Just a curious question as a guy – what prompted the heavy attacks on dresses/skirts and traditional femininity etc in the ’70s and a lesser degree to the present?
That last photo is just wonderful.
Wow! Only read TKAM last year? What a treat to have saved up. You’re one of those annoying people who always had easter eggs in May, aren’t you? AREN’t YOU?!
Paul W, does “clothes she can climb a tree in” ring any bells? The boy and I had the displeasure of accidentally catching an episode of Bratz (the cartoon) the other day. These girls, who are aimed at primary age girls, stalk the school corridors in four inch heels. Can you imagine the impact that would have on their ability to do, well, practically anything? The feminine clothes of the 50s may not have had 4 inch heels for children, but they were still constricting and made of materials that wouldn’t stand up to real play.
I’ll go for Kate in Kate (heh) Seredy’s The Good Master, who I’ve mentioned before here. That girl was wick-ed.
I’m surprised Hollywood hasn’t tried a remake of TKAM – but then again I doubt it would have the same impact in colour… and without Peck and Badham.
Dora Chance from Angela Carter’s _Wise Children_. By the end of the book our heroine is 70 years old, and grabbing a sneaky shag on top of her spoilt half-sister’s fur coat, after a lifetime of treading the boards in theatre both legitimate and not so.
Also, Anita in West Side Story.
This post gave me the biggest smile. I still love To Kill A Mockingbird – many years after Year 10 English – mostly because Scout rings so true to me.
Another children’s fiction hoyden I remember liking is Ramona Quimby, from Beverly Cleary’s series. I loved her brashness and her resistance to being treated like a little girl.
Recently I’ve been rather taken with Luna Lovegood and the way she happily marches to the beat of her own drum.
In today’s world of Bratz and mini-adult marketing towards children treating them like the little girls they are would be an improvement.
Anne of Green Gables, Scout and Ramona are far better for children than Bratz and beauty pageants.
Definitely, Paul W., but treating children like “little girls” these days is part of the problem – clothes that are too delicate to withstand vigorous play and shoes that girls can’t run around in.
How about just treating little girls like energetic kids instead of the compulsory femininity stuff which inhibits exciting play and forces girls into modelling domestic submission? They can still wear dresses to dress-up occasions (I always loved my party frocks) but why not stout trousers and a t-shirt the rest of the time?
tigtog you are right on the practicality issue. Not knowing the reality i just thought it was sad in its’ own way that dresses and skirts had gotten so much flak. I didn’t know or understand and humbly admit so.
They’ve got their place, Paul W. A floaty cotton dress on a hot summer’s day is comfort squared, and dressing up is fun.
But it’s not surprising that the practicality issue hadn’t struck you. Practicality is the default for men’s clothes.
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