Scout and Jonas are similar because they are both coming of age, or maturing into an adult consciousness. They also are both in a position to examine their society as they come to understand how it really operates. They lose their childish innocence and face the reality of unfair societies.
Scout is very young when her story starts. Her first shock is when she starts school. School doesn’t match her idealized view. Her father is also defending a black man, Tom Robinson, in a rape case. His defense of Robinson is very unpopular in Maycomb, and Scout hears some rough language directed at her father. That is a lot of growing up for a little girl to do.
Growing up with a father like Atticus, who treats everyone with respect regardless of race or class, it was somewhat of a shock for Scout to learn what life is really like in Maycomb. It is a town steeped in racial tension. A mob of men even tries to lynch Tom Robinson, but her father stops them.
As she gets older, Scout learns that things are not quite what they seem. Her mysterious neighbor Boo Radley turns out to be a friend, not a monster. Tom Robinson is convicted, even though her brother and father are convinced that he was proven innocent. Bob Ewell, the victim’s father, tries to kill Scout and her brother Jem. Boo Radley saves them, and Scout finally gets to meet him. She learns that he is actually quiet and shy.
Jonas’s community isn’t what it seems either. It is presented as a perfect world. Citizens have to follow strict rules, and as long as they do the community will remain stable. Everyone is the same, so everyone is happy. The community prevents people from having strong emotions, and administers every aspect of their daily lives.
When Jonas becomes Receiver of Memory upon turning Twelve, he learns that Sameness is not what it is meant to be. Instead of sending people somewhere else, known as “Elsewhere,” the community is actually killing members who do not fit their conception of a perfect community. This includes people who break rules, the elderly, and babies who do not meet growth targets. Jonas watches a video of his father, whose job it is to take care of infants, administering a lethal injection to a newborn who happens to have an identical twin.
Jonas and Scout share some personality traits too. They are both inquisitive and precocious. They do not accept the world the way it is, but actually pay attention to the world around them. Jonas and Scout remember what they learn. As different as their two words are (Scout's is racially divided, and Jonas's has no races), they are similar in their realizations that the world is more complex than they thought.
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