Something as simple as demanding school integration was daunting the white Americans because it threatened their “whiteness”. “Efforts to block integration, they argued, stemmed from natural parental desires and obligations to protect their children and provide them with the rights of childhood.” Having two very contradicting ideals made it the more difficult to integrate southern schools. As Beals disclosed in her memoir, “ after three full days inside Central, I know that integration is a much bigger word than I thought.” Beals felt that through the experience of integrating Central High, all of them, the nine black children, had lost their innocence and youth. In the novel, Scout’s realization that “whiteness” and social status were far
