What is the quote about lying in chapters 12-14 of To Kill A Mockingbird and how does it show that Scout has grown?

Scout says that sometimes it is best to lie when you are in a circumstance you can’t control.

This quote demonstrates that Scout is growing up because she is beginning to manage her interactions with others.  It is really part of what her father told her earlier about empathy, when he suggested that she needed to learn to look at things from another person’s perspective.  Scout was younger then, and had less world experience. 

“First...

Scout says that sometimes it is best to lie when you are in a circumstance you can’t control.

This quote demonstrates that Scout is growing up because she is beginning to manage her interactions with others.  It is really part of what her father told her earlier about empathy, when he suggested that she needed to learn to look at things from another person’s perspective.  Scout was younger then, and had less world experience. 

“First of all,” he said, “if you can learn a simple trick, Scout, you’ll get along a lot better with all kinds of folks. You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view-”

“Sir?”

“-until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.” (Ch. 3) 

The trial is difficult for Scout.  She has to get used to the idea that people think differently than her.  She also has to learn how to get along with people.  Sometimes this means telling them what they want to hear.  Atticus asks Scout if he would like Aunt Alexandra to live with them, and she says yes.  She does not mean it. 

I said I would like it very much, which was a lie, but one must lie under certain circumstances and at all times when one can’t do anything about them. (Ch. 13)

The reason Scout lies is that she knows that Alexandra is staying one way or another. She really doesn’t like her aunt, and the two butt heads all of the time.  However, Scout is realizing as she matures that she needs to learn to see things from her aunt’s point of view.  She actually does succeed in doing this, to a certain extent.  She even realizes that her aunt has admirable qualities once she gets to know her better.