In the county of Maycomb, children were usually not taken seriously by adults, but Miss Maudie was different than the rest of Maycomb in this aspect. Through indirect characterization, Harper Lee illustrates that Miss Maudie treated Jem, Dill, and Scout in a positive way. She achieved this through the way she acted and how she treated the three children. She was compassionate towards them and was always welcoming. She was extremely considerate towards them. Miss Maudie held the children in high regard.
Miss Maudie allowed Jem, Dill, and Scout on her property at all times. They would often go to her house to talk or play in her yard. According to To KIll A Mockingbird, “We could play on her lawn, eat her scuppernongs if we didn’t jump on the arbor, and explore her vast backlot,” (page 56). This shows that she enjoyed the three kids and appreciated having them around her house. Most of the adults in Maycomb would have told them to leave, but she understood that they wanted to make the most of their childhood. Since she understood why they would spend their days running around the neighborhood, she allowed them to do that. She treated them positively by letting them into her daily life whenever they wanted to be around her.
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“Miss maudie’s benevolence extended to Jem and Dill,” (To Kill A Mockingbird, page 57). This demonstrates that Miss Maudie’s actions affected the children. Her actions set an example to be cordial whenever possible and to do the right thing. Because she was a nice person, the children saw that and strived to be more like her when they were not busy playing. Many of the people in Maycomb county could have potentially led them to be more judgemental towards
Throughout the novel, Scout gets advice from one of her neighbors, Miss Maudie. Miss Maudie has known Scout’s family for years, and the young girl really looks up to her. Miss Maudie is a role model for Scout that is necessary in To Kill a Mockingbird. Miss Maudie teaches Scout to respect others. Scout and Jem, and their friend Dill, often go to the older woman’s house to
Throughout the book there are many different sins that the people of Maycomb show. The whole town is full of everything wrong with society many of the characters represent how we are failing in life while a few others show what we are doing right. From racism to being rude to people who are different this book outs everything that we have done wrong with history and all the mockingbirds that we have killed. Racism is a misdeed that keeps on showing up in the book, Calpurnia keeps on showing Jem and Scout about how the African American society is treated.
They had no idea just how unfair it was. “'It ain't right, Atticus.... How could they do it, how could they?” (134). Dill doesn’t understand why this happened, blindsided by the racism that was going on. When the people of Maycomb that did support Tom Robinson was mourning, or were angry, the children were loss.
"She was a widow, a chameleon lady who worked in her flower beds in an old straw hat and men's coveralls, but after her five o'clock bath she would appear on the porch and reign over the street in magisterial beauty." (Lee, Harper Page 56) Maudie is also like a second parent to Jem and Scout. When they don’t understand something they’ve been told or that they’ve heard, they go to Miss Maudie for help. “I simply wanted to tell you that there are some men in this world who were born to do our unpleasant jobs for us. Your father's one of them.”
She teaches her to live life to the fullest and the ways of Maycomb. There are many interactions between Scout and Miss Maudie and all of them are positive. Scout is guided by Miss Maudie’s manner and looks up to her. When she is first introduced, Miss Maudie is described as, “a widow, a chameleon lady who worked in her flower beds in an old straw hat and men’s coveralls, but after her five o 'clock bath she would appear on the porch and reign over the street in magisterial beauty,”(Lee 56). Scout loves that Maudie is able to get her hands dirty during the day and become ladylike at night, and nobody judges her for it.
Friend to both Jem and Scout, Miss Maudie always proves that she possesses exceptional characteristics. On a daily basis Scout and Jem witness Miss Maudie’s abilities to know more about life and their father than they. She shows her kindness to Jem, Scout and Dill when she invites them to have a piece of cake. Jem and Scout always view Miss Maudie as being kind, wise, and loyal.
It is at this moment that Jem and Scout realize that as much as they want the world to be fair, it is never going to be in favor of them. The morals in Maycomb, no matter how unfair and biased they may be, will not change as the racism and prejudice present in the novel have been in Maycomb for as long as the people living there can remember. This incident is another example of a lesson learned for both Jem and Scout as they see that life is not always perfect, but they have to make out of it what they
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.
Miss. Maudie is referring to the fact that Scout is too young to understand what is occurring or that she is not old enough to understand the ordeal with Mr. Arthur. Scout is still a young girl, who is still trying to comprehend the world. Nevertheless, Scout is misjudged by Miss. Maudie based on her age.
but she still stands out when compared to other individuals in Maycomb because of her loving and compassionate character. For instance, the day after the trial, Jem and Scout are provided with Miss Maudie’s famous cake, “There was a big cake and two little ones on Miss Maudie’s kitchen table. There should have been three little ones. It was not like Miss Maudie to forget Dill, and we must have shown it. We understood when she cut from the big cake and gave the slice to Jem” (Lee 214).
Harper Lee’s purpose in describing Atticus the way he does in To Kill A Mockingbird is directly used to convey the theme in the story. As Atticus is described as being one who does not judge or think differently about people based on their race, gender, or religious beliefs it is used by the author to establish the theme of innocence. This comes as Atticus is just so kind to everyone around him, no matter their background, it even has Miss Maudie even talking about him as being just so consistent and holding no grudges and due to the author making Atticus be seen this way it shows off the theme of innocence as when Atticus will defend a black man in court and Scout gets picked on at school she does not understand why due to her innocence. She
Persecution comes from people who are prejudiced” (Lee 329). While this may seem like a useful life lesson, Scout realizes the clear hypocrisy in her lesson. Like every other citizen of Maycomb, she is prejudiced against black people. Even though she is teaching her students that prejudice and persecution is wrong, she is participating in those very activities at home. She heard her third grade teacher after Tom Robinson’s trial, she thought “it’s time somebody taught ‘em a lesson, they were gettin’ way above themselves, an’ the next thing they think they can do is marry us” (Lee 331).
In Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird, Miss Maudie Atkinson is depicted as a very influential character and guide in the children’s lives, but above all, she is a strong role model. Initially, Miss Maudie reveals her resilience as she is commonly known to recover from setbacks quickly and effectively. Specifically, when Scout questions Miss Maudie for not grieving after her house being on fire, Miss Maudie replies, “Don’t you worry about me, Jean Louise Finch. There are ways of doing things you don’t know about.
Moreover, Scout provides a more in-depth analysis of Maycomb because she lived through that struggling time period and still understands it as an adult later in life. Her obvious and and strong connection with Maycomb assists in developing the setting and allows readers to acknowledge the adversities she faced
Though most of the town Maycomb feels negatively and discriminates the African-Americans, characters like Atticus show us how one person can impact his surroundings if he has high morals. Although he couldn’t change the mindset of the other town residents , he made sure that his own children didn’t discriminate people, purely on the basis of their skin colour. Racism can be seen even in the first few chapters of the book. These racist comments by nonracist children typify the culture in which they were growing up.