She must to be charming, submissive to the men around her, and always in need of a man’s protection. Scout’s Aunt Alexandra is unable to separate herself from society’s traditions, leaving her dependent on
She notices that Scout isn’t acting like a girl so she went to Atticus and Alexandra and Atticus talked about why she is not acting like a girl. Alexandra thinks Calpurnia is a bad example to Scout becoming a lady. Alexandra is saying this because she found out Calpurnia brought Scout to her church and when they were walking home Scout asked Calpurnia what does ‘rape’ mean. Then Calpurnia told Scout to ask Atticus. So she did.
First example of this is when Scout is at their family 's Christmas celebration when her Aunt Alexandra comments on what Scout is wearing. “Aunt Alexandra was fanatical on the subject of my attire. I could not possibly hope to be a lady if i wore breeches…”(Lee 108).
Although To Kill A Mockingbird was written in the 1960s, Harper Lee incorporated her views on women and created characters that depicted different views on femininity in the 1930s, like Alexandra who believed in society’s view of a woman, and Miss Maudie, who managed to find a balance between her true self and society’s ideas and images.
This is brought to light in many anecdotal conversations from Alexandra, such as in Chapter 13, where Scout recalls being called “sluggish.” However, Alexandra and her hard personality are key to Scout’s development. In chapter 24, shortly after discovering the death of Tom Robinson, Scout finds herself not only admiring Alexandra, but taking after her. “After all, if Aunty could be a lady at a time like this, so could I.” [Lee, 318]
This was a part of her campaign to teach… [her] to be a lady” (Lee 229). At the parties Scout wears a dress and sits with the ladies while listening to them gossip (Lee 228, 229-234). The ways Aunt Alexandra tries to eliminate the improper lady in Scout and tries to make her more like a proper Southern lady points to the motivation of Lee to write her novel involving similar events that she may have experienced herself. During this period, women were thought to be very weak and fragile. They suffered from lower paying jobs and people thought they needed to stay at home and not work.
In the novel, Scout’s Aunt Alexandra has high expectations for her. She has very southern opinion on women’s apparel. Aunt Alexandra does not approve of Scout’s attire and tries to improve it. This is proven when the novel states, “Aunt Alexandra was fanatical on the subject of my attire. I could not possibly hope to be a lady if I wore breeches” (Lee 108).
In the title of the book To Kill a Mockingbird, gender roles play a big part in the time that the book was written. There are many examples of people being told what they could and couldn’t do based on their gender, and insults thrown around that are gender-based. One example of gender roles in the book are Jem’s comments on Scout’s behavior, especially when Jem and Dill are about to break into the radley’s. As they are discussing it, and Scout comes up and starts pestering them about what they are doing, Jem remarks that Scout is “gettin’ more like a girl every day!” pg.
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.
Alexandra would then make her wear and do things that she didn't want to do and this greatly upset Scout. But it wasn't to long before Alexandra realized that everyone is different and Scout didn't want to live like a lady. Alexandra accepted that idea and backed off of Scout. She would even bring her a pair of overalls to mark her forgiveness.
In chapter nine Scout recalls that for much of her early life her Aunt was just there. As Scout grows older Aunt Alexandra starts to critiques her attire and behavior. Scout quotes her aunt as having said, “I could not possibly hope to be a lady if I wore breeches…she said I wasn’t supposed to be doing things that required pants” (9.108). Aunt Alexandra turns against her brother as well; she refused to support him during his court case, betraying her brother and family. She’s in a way teaching Scout how not to act.
In Harper Lee’s “To Kill A Mockingbird”, the issue of Southern Womanhood is brought up many times throughout the novel. Lee uses many different characters to help show how she viewed Southern Womanhood. Specifically she uses, Scout, Mayella Ewell, and Scout’s Aunt Alexandra. In "To Kill A Mockingbird", Harper Lee uses specific characters to show how negative of an impact Southern Womanhood used to have. Harper Lee uses Scout in many cases to show how she thought Southern Womanhood used to have a negative impact.
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.
This displeased many Maycomb women, especially Aunt Alexandra. Scout commented once that, "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” (Lee 92). In this time in society women were viewed as needing to stay in their place. If you weren’t dressing like a lady it was disgraceful.
Throughout the book, it shows how Aunt Alexandra was trying to raise Scout properly, trying to make her act more like a lady which shows the conformity of the time. ‘“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.”’ (Lee 108 ). all things considered, Aunt Alexandra was a big help to Atticus raising the children, in the film, Aunt Alexandra was not present. Without aunt Alexandra, the movie lost the important lesson of how back then, all girls act with the “lady-like” attitude.
