Stereotyped Characters In To Kill A Mockingbird By Harper Lee
When stereotyped characters are employed successfully in a novel, they can be very beneficial in achieving the author’s purpose. In the book To Kill A Mockingbird, the author’s main purpose is to convey the societal norms of racism, ignorance depending on class, how innocence can be destroyed due to prejudice, and even sexism in the 1930s. Rhetorical devices can be used to create a connection to the reader and improve the flow of paragraphs. Harper Lee uses metaphor, ethos, logos, and the stereotyped characters of Tom Robinson, Scout Finch, Atticus Finch and the jury to help portray the societal normalities of the 1930s town of Maycomb, Alabama.
One of the characters that Harper Lee uses is Tom Robinson to show the reader the abundance of
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Scout Finch has been stereotyped to be a tomboy who prefers pants and overalls over dresses and male friends as opposed to being friends with other girls. The women of Maycomb wanted her to be more like a “proper Southern Belle.” Her family wanted her to wear dresses even though she had said she “felt the starched walls of a pink cotton penitentiary, and for the second time in [her] life, [she] felt like running away. Immediately.” Harper Lee used this metaphor to give the reader a better idea of how Scout felt trapped in that piece of clothing due to the girlyness it resembled. Scout compared it to a penitentiary because of the oppression she had to endure when she was made wear it. This is how Lee portrays the expected behavior of young women in the early 1900s. In contrast, from when she was a young girl, she wanted to be fully accepted by her brother, but to acquire his approval, she had to be less like a stereotypical girl. “I was not so sure, but Jem told me I was being a girl, that girls always imagined things, that’s why other people hated them so, and if I started behaving like one I could just go off and find some to play with,” is a thought Scout had after Jeremy had told her that she was overthinking things like a girl and she should not act like one. Harper Lee demonstrated the oppression Scout felt when told to act like a stereotypical lady in the
To Kill A Mockingbird Woman Quotes
550 Words | 3 PagesPeople shouldn’t wear certain clothes or act a certain way just because they are female or male. Scout proves people don’t need to wear more feminine things to be counted as a woman. While Aunt Alexandra is telling Scout to act more proper and lady-like, she tells Scout to be a ray of sunshine in her fathers lonely life, in a dress and heels. Scout doesn’t like it lightly and says she can “be a ray of sunshine in pants just as well.”
Causes Of Tom Robinson Trial In To Kill A Mockingbird
1053 Words | 5 PagesMia Ruan #14230 Mrs. Willshire English 9, Period 5 17 February 2023 Scout began as a young, playful, and innocent girl who was then pushed to fit into societal expectations and go through harsh events such as the Tom Robinson trial which caused her to have the need to blend into Maycomb society and learn to live maturely. Harper Lee in the novel To Kill A Mockingbird through the character of Scout shows how growing up in a problematic community and having to go through rough events at a young age causes children to grow up too fast and lose the innocence of their childhood. Scout is initially reckless, a tomboy, emotionally driven, and spends most of her time playing with boys which to most of the people in Maycomb is not normal behavior
Does M. E. Thomas Have To Do When You Grow Up As A Girl
1217 Words | 5 PagesM.E. Thomas, the author of Confession of a Sociopath states, “When you grow up as a girl, it is like there are faint chalk lines traced approximately three inches around your entire body at all times, drawn by society and often religion and family and particularly other women, who somehow feel invested in how you behave, as if your actions reflect directly on all womanhood.” M.E. Thomas idea means a girl is born with rules, the pressure from society causes many grow up women to hide in their own bodies, they’re afraid of judgment, how they will never be accepted for being different than others. Like M.E. Thomas, Harper Lee’s novel addresses the same concern because Scout’s family, especially her aunt and women in Maycomb, put a heavy weight on Scout’s shoulder on . In To Kill A Mockingbird, to fit with the rest of the world, Scout transformed from a girl to a young lady due to gender roles because of the society's
Societal Expectations Of Women In To Kill A Mockingbird
106 Words | 1 PagesHarper Lee’s novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, illustrates how women are restricted by societal expectations. Women and girls are expected to act a certain way, to be feminine and docile. After an argument between Jem and Scout, Jem goes as far to shout, “‘It’s time you started bein’ a girl and acting right!’” (Lee, 153). Jem believes that Scout should be cooperative and malleable to be a typical girl.
Breaking Social Norms In To Kill A Mockingbird
766 Words | 4 PagesIn spite of Scout’s inability to fully comprehend the significance of what Atticus is doing for Tom, she readies herself to defend Atticus, which ultimately portrays that she does not regard society’s expectations on how she should
To Kill A Mockingbird Conflict Analysis
1099 Words | 5 PagesIn the book, “To Kill a Mockingbird,” by Harper Lee, the author writes about what happens in the small southern town of Maycomb, in Alabama. Lee uses the influence of belief in traditions such as roles and family bonds to show that they are causes of conflict. Throughout the book, roles such as gender, age, race, and family confines characters to act, look, and even speak certain ways, causing internal, external, and family conflicts. This theme that different types of roles and family bonds are the root of conflict is developed through the use of physical setting, anti stereotype, and historical setting The author shows that Scout faces external conflicts caused by the pressure to fit into the stereotypical gender roles accustomed to girls at this time in history.
How Does Harper Lee Use Stereotypes In To Kill A Mockingbird
897 Words | 4 PagesHarper Lee used prejudice and stereotyping in the novel to make an image for the reader to let them comprehend how time was in the 1930s during The Great Depression. Racial, social, and gender are all the types of prejudice and stereotyping in the novel. The novel is based on a
Social Inequality In To Kill A Mockingbird Analysis
1108 Words | 5 PagesInstead, she is a tomboy and enjoys playing outside, getting dirty and sports. But according to her aunt she “wasn’t supposed to be doing things that required pants” The pants represent her independent thinking and ability to express herself, something many girls were not doing at the time. Additionally, it is this way of thinking that allows Scout to see beyond the color of someone’s skin and accept the social outcasts.
Stereotypes In To Kill A Mockingbird
757 Words | 4 PagesTo Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee is the story of a small town named Maycomb Located in Alabama, highlighting the adventures of the finch children and many other people in the small town. The people in this town are very judgemental and of each other and it often leads to people being labeled with stereotypes and people think they know everything about that person however that is not reality. It is not possible to know the reality of a person 's life by placing a stereotype without seeing it through their own eyes and experiencing the things they experience. This happens often throughout the story with many people in the town. People are labeled as many things such a “monster” a “nigger” and many other things that seem to put them in their
Examples Of Racism In To Kill A Mockingbird
1914 Words | 8 PagesHow is the racial problem of the southern states of USA in the 1930s portrayed in To Kill a Mockingbird? INTRO In the 1930s the Southern states of America suffered from a strong discrimination and racial hatred towards colored people. They had no rights, no respect and were not allowed to go places white people went. In other words they were segregated from the rest of the society.
Social Inequality In To Kill A Mockingbird
1067 Words | 5 PagesLee contrasts the reality of 1930s, stained by racism, prejudice, and social inequality, to the innocent view of the narrator through various characters such as Boo Radley, Tom Robinson, and Mayella Ewell. Harper Lee skillfully crafts the victims of racism and social prejudice by the use of descriptive language devices. Firstly, Harper Lee portrays Boo Radley as a victim of prejudice through strong adjectives. The appearance that children imagined Boo Radley was like an inhumane monster. The phrase, ‘Long jagged scar that ran across his face’ incites a threatening and violent image of Boo Radley to the reader.
Scout Finch Character Analysis Essay
864 Words | 4 PagesJean Louise Finch ‘Scout’ is a headstrong young girl who narrates the novel ‘To Kill A Mockingbird’, set in the fictitious County Maycomb over the span of three years. She is often found sporting dirty overalls or breeches and possesses a rather tomboyish personality, much to her aunt’s dismay. It says, “Aunt Alexandra was fanatical on the subject of my attire... When I said I could do nothing in a dress, she said I wasn’t supposed to be doing things that required pants. ”(Page 90)
Social Issues In To Kill A Mockingbird Essay
535 Words | 3 PagesHarper Lee touches upon many social issues in To Kill a Mockingbird. Among these issues is the matter of racism in America during the 1930s. This novel focused on the issue of racism through the case of Tom Robinson which conveyed the strong hostility towards African-Americans in Maycomb, Alabama. Other various occasions in the novel exhibit racism’s potential and influence in this country including Aunt Alexandra's disapproval of Calpurnia, and Mr. Dolphus Raymond’s hidden life. Through the results of these instances, Harper Lee shed a new light on racism and how it will always persist in America.
To Kill A Mockingbird Style Analysis
469 Words | 2 PagesLee’s use of elements of style in To Kill a Mockingbird to convey and support the classic’s theme is what makes both the novel and the author so distinguishable. Using the literary devices of setting, symbolization, and characterization, Lee is consistently referencing the theme of racism and inequality in society. Throughout the first chapter of To Kill a Mockingbird, Lee frequently references age and appearance when discussing the town of Maycomb. ” Maycomb was an old town, but it was a tired old town when I first knew it” (Lee 9). The deeper meaning that Lee is successfully conveying through this description of an old and tired town can be used to represent the old and outdated morals and view of Maycomb’s inhabitants.
Character Analysis Of Scout In To Kill A Mockingbird By Harper Lee
725 Words | 3 PagesFor instance, Scout expresses, “Ladies in bunches always filled me with vague apprehension and a firm desire to be elsewhere, but this feeling was what Aunt Alexandra called being 'spoiled. '” (307) In conclusion, Scout owns naive, dogma-filled, Tomboy qualities which make her an
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