To kill a mockingbird novel by Harper Lee shows us an American society of the early 90s. A society with prejudice, racism and social classes. Scout have seen the society changing and developing as she grew up, as this essay will go on it will explore more about to what extent things have been changed?
The novel to kill a mockingbird, in this book the theme of prejudice, has been displayed in many situations throughout the whole story. starting with gender prejudice, women were expected to behave in differently than men. They should be more lady-like and behave in a very feminine way.
Likewise, Scout was also expected to be lady-like but she wasn’t. She does not even had many female friends and she act more like a boy which created a trouble between her and aunt Alexandra. Aunt Alexandra wants her to wear a dress, have appropriate manners and play with girl toys.
“Aunt Alexandra was fanatical on the subject of my attire. 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.”(pg 90)
“Aunt Alexandra's vision of my
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When Calpurnia took Jem and Scout to the niggers church, Lula said, "You ain’t got no business bringin‘ white chillun here—they got their church, we got our’s” (pg 131). This quote clarifies to us that there was a separate church for white and black people's. Overall we can justify Lula’s reaction because that way nothing else, but hatred against white people that has been developed in her due to their prejudice against niggers but in the end she let them in. “When they saw Jem and me with Calpurnia, the men stepped back and took off their hats; the women crossed their arms at their waists, weekday gestures of respectful attention. They parted and made a small pathway to the church door for us.” (pg 131). After all majority welcomed white’s with
Out of the Normal Society has a set of actions as what they see as “normal” and socially acceptable. They define this set of unspoken rules as social norms. In Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, a reader will often find many characters breaking the social norms of Maycomb County, Alabama. The defiance of these social norms help the young protagonist, Scout, learn valuable life lessons of equality.
Scout’s conflict with society is that she did not fit in with the other girls and women in the early chapters. As the book goes on, she does not only start to act and look like a lady; she begins to understand situations like an adult. She realizes that she must act and look like a lady to avoid prejudices, and that what you hear about who someone could be completely wrong. Harper Lee was sending a theme to the people of the 30’s to show that children should not have to grow up in a world with so much prejudice and
In July of 1960 a lady named Harper Lee decided to publish a book that would affect society in ways that she never even imagined. To Kill a Mockingbird, released at the height of the civil rights movement, changed the way people saw each other and themselves. Back then a lot of people did not completely understand life in the South, and they looked down upon it. However, her novel delivered a point of view that people had never seen from before, and opened their eyes to the discrimination and mistreatment that African Americans were being put through. The book takes place in 1930's Alabama, in the midst of the Great Depression.
The novel To Kill a Mockingbird takes place in the segregated South of the 1930’s. The book is told in the eyes of an eight year old girl, Scout Finch. Her father, Atticus Finch, is an attorney who is struggling to prove the innocence of a black man incorrectly accused of rape. The historical context of the book lets one see the social status of different groups during the civil rights era. The story explores who fits into certain societies, who is respected in the community, written and unwritten rules concerning family, gender, age, and race, expectations of certain people, and what conflicts arise out of tension.
Ultimately, Scout overcomes the social norms placed upon women when she punches Francis in the face, picks a fight with Cecil Jacobs and chooses to spend most of her time playing with Jem and Dill. First and foremost, Scout escapes the restrictions imposed upon women by continuing to play with Jem and Dill instead of indulging herself in learning how to cook or drinking tea with other women. Although she will sometimes sit with Calpurnia in the kitchen and drink tea with her aunt
Scout said, “"Aunt Alexandra was fanatical on the subject of my attire. 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. Aunt Alexandra’s vision of my deportment involved playing with small stoves, tea sets, and wearing the Add-A-Pearl necklace she gave me when I was born; furthermore, I should be a ray of sunshine in my father’s lonely life. I suggested that one could be a ray of sunshine in pants just as well, but Aunty said that one had to behave like a sunbeam, that I was born good but had grown progressively worse every year...." (108). This quote illustrates how Scout pushes against gender stereotypes, and this is the root of conflicts between her and Aunt Alexandra.
Scout’s Aunt Alexandra want her to be more like a girl and start dressing like one. " Women were treated as delicate, fragile creatures, and they were expected to act with that treatment. Scout was anything but delicate and fragile, and a good deal of the story focuses on her attempts to fit into a world that expects tomboys to wear frilly dresses and maintain a dainty disposition. Scout always like hanging with the boys and she really didn’t like wearing girl clothes.
The novel “To Kill A Mockingbird” was written in 1960 by Harper Lee in the point of view of a young innocent girl named Scout. One of the main messages that Lee has (need a new word than – indicated or set out) is racism, it plays an important role which strongly impacts many character’s lives unfairly and changes the relationship between two. Harper Lee’s “To Kill A Mockingbird” shows that it is wrong to hurt someone who does no harm to you, for example, black people are innocent but no way did they have as many rights as white people did. Black people lived hard lives because society was judgemental, irrational and most importantly, racist. As Scout and Jem grow older they learn to cope, take responsibility and are introduced to new aspects of life, one of which is racism.
“We decided that it would be best for you to have some feminine influence. It won’t be many years, Jean Louise before you become interested in boys” (Lee 170). In this quote Aunt Alexandra is trying to be the motherly influence when she moves in. She tries to give Scout some feminine influence so that she won’t
Scout was more of a tomboy than a girly girl. Aunt Alexandra didn’t like how she didn’t act like a proper lady, and would ask Scout to act more ladylike. As she grew up, she was able to understand things a lot better. She began acting more grown up in situations like Aunt Alexandra’s dinner party.
The book "To Kill a Mockingbird" describes different classes of people as been rich and poor. People classify themselves differently because some people are in poverty, while some are wealthy. Most wealthy people help the poor, but the main people they help are the Cunningham 's family. They help the Cunningham 's family because they are willing to work and they are hard working. People never help the Ewell 's family because they are rude, lazy, and they waste their money on alcohol.
The name of the novel being explored is 'To Kill a Mockingbird' by Harper Lee. To Kill a Mockingbird is set in the 1950's in Alabama Maycomb during the racist times towards the blacks. Throughout this topic the focus is on the main character/narrator Scout (Jan Louise Finch). This essay will explore Scout's character and the negative and or positive influence she has on other characters at the start, throughout and at the end of the text. At the beginning of the novel 'To kill a Mockingbird' Scout is a naïve, has a very tomboy like personality, is a judgmental five year-old girl who was oblivious to the cruelty's of the outside world.
Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird is a novel that show the life of a southern state od Alabama during the “black racism” time period, where majority of the people had the mentality that (quote) with the exception of a few. To chosen to portray it from the eyes of Scout Finch, from a child’s point of view. Living in Maycomb, in the midst of a conservative society of the 1930’s and 20’s Southern America Scout Finch is an extra ordinary child.
How does Harper Lee vividly capture the effects of racism and social inequality on the citizens of Maycomb county in ‘To kill a mockingbird’? In the novel, ‘To kill a mockingbird’, Harper Lee conveys the theme of racism and social inequality by setting up the story in Maycomb, a small community in Alabama, the U.S back in 1930s. Lee presents some of the social issues of 1930s such as segregation and poverty in the novel. These issues are observed and examined through the innocent eyes of a young girl, Scout, the narrator.
“I could not possibly hope to be a lady if I wore breeches; when I said I could do nothing in a dress, [Alexandra] said I wasn’t supposed to be doing things that required pants” (Lee 67). Aunt Alexandra expects Scout to fit into the role of a woman, even at such a young age. Another example of the harsh standards placed on Scout is shown when Alexandra is having tea with her friends in chapter 24. Miss Stephanie says, “well, you won’t get very far until you start wearing dresses more often”