Becoming a lady is not one of Scout's foremost goals in Harper Lee's novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, but there is plenty of pressure for her to become one. Below are six examples.
Although Dill never pressures Scout to become more ladylike, he professes his desire to eventually marry her in Chapter 5, and then ignores her, so
... on pain of being called a girl, I spent most of the remaining twilights that summer sitting with Miss Maudie Atkinson on her front porch.
In Chapter 9, Scout's Uncle Jack lectures her on cursing and other unladylike things.
"... I'll be here a week, and I don't want to hear any words like that while I'm here... You want to grow up to be a lady, don't you?"
I said not particularly.
While still visiting the other side of the Finch family, Aunt Alexandra pressures Scout to begin acting more like a lady.
... I could not possibly hope to be a lady if I wore breeches; when I said I could do nothing in a dress, she said I wasn't supposed to be doing things that required pants.
At the beginning of Part Two, the now older, wiser and more irritable Jem remarks that
"... It's time you started bein' a girl and acting right!" I burst into tears and fled to Calpurnia.
In Chapter 23, Jem declares that Scout should try to get along better with Aunt Alexandra.
"You know she's not used to girls," said Jem, "leastways, not girls like you. She's trying to make you a lady. Can't you take up sewin' or somethin'?"
But Aunt Alexandra finally gets through to Scout in Chapter 24, when she regains her calm following Atticus's news of the death of Tom Robinson.
Aunt Alexandra rose and smoothed the various whalebone ridges along her hips. She took her handkerchief... wiped her nose... patted her hair, and said, "Do I show it?"
"Not a sign," said Miss Maudie. "Are you together again, Jean Louise?"
"Yes, ma'am"...
After all, if Aunty could be a lady at a time like this, so could I.
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