At the end of the novel, Scout make observations about what she and Jem learned over the course of these two summers.

Atticus was right. One time he said you never really know a man until you stand in his shoes and walk around in them. Just standing on the Radley porch was enough.

The street lights were fuzzy from the fine rain that was falling. As I made my way home, I felt very old, but when I looked at the tip of my nose I could see fine misty beads, but looking cross-eyed made me dizzy so I quit. As I made my way home, I thought what a thing to tell Jem tomorrow. He’d be so mad he missed it he wouldn’t speak to me for days. As I made my way home, I thought Jem and I would get grown but there wasn’t much else left for us to learn, except possibly algebra.

In Chapter 31, Scout finally acts the part of the hospitable Southern lady in assisting Boo around the house and seeing him home. She interacts with him in a serious and grown-up fashion. Though she runs to tell Jem when she first discovers Boo is in their house, she reacts against this childish reflex and tactfully gives Boo his privacy. Scout has learned how to be a guide for others, as shown by her symbolic act of leading Boo to safety. She can visualize things from his perspective now, as Atticus once advised her to do, and from his front porch, she imagines how he has seen the years pass, and watched herself, Jem and Dill grow up. In this reflective moment, Scout also neatly summarizes the events of the book, reminding the reader of all that passed for her and her family to reach this point.

Scout shows that even though she has discovered that people (Mr. Ewell) can be evil in unfathomable ways, she still upholds her faith in humankind and can face anything with courage. Unlike Dill, she finds that the real world does follow patterns, and once one knows them, the world of fantasy and books is the only place where real fear can exist. Despite her growth and maturation, Scout is still a child at only eight years old, and we last see her as she falls asleep in her father's arms. The author very carefully avoids giving the reader any information about Scout's future. Instead, we are left with an image of Scout when she is discovering fundamental truths about the world. She understands that the world carries both good and evil, and she has an unshakeable faith in the inherent goodness of "folks."