Harper 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.
To Kill A Mockingbird is a literary fascination about two siblings named Scout and Jem accompanied by their friend Dill, who are in bewilderment as to who and what Boo Radley appears to be. As Scout and Jem grow and mature throughout the story, they start to realize how the world contains people who discriminate and insult others for petty reasons. The story portrays the view of Scout and the reader soon sees how she develops from childish kid to mature teenager. This story is a coming of age novel for many readers, for one of the characters, whose name is Scout, grows up and is shown the world’s true colors. The reader can notice Scout’s mindset alters in Chapters seventeen to twenty-two when stricken with the realization of how unfair it
In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee presents a life of Jean Louis Finch, also known as Scout, growing up in a small town. The setting of the story takes place in Maycomb, Alabama in the 1960’s. Life for Scout growing up appears difficult because of the Great Depression, racial inequality, white supremacy, and peoples’ prejudiced mindset. In the beginning of the book, Scout’s character shows her innocence, her tomboyish side, her adventurous personality, and her ability to question and observe the goodness and evilness of society. By the end of the novel, Scout learns fighting does not fix everything, possessing lady-like characteristics obtain value and holding prejudiced thoughts reflects in every person’s life.
Scout demonstrates the idea that adversity does strengthen an individual by learning how to take her life situations, furthermore turn them into positive outcomes, resulting in her building an emotional wall in order to prevent her past from breaking her down, leading her to show the world that she is transitioning into a mature, young woman. In Harper Lee’s novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, Jean Louise Finch (Scout Finch) becomes exhibited to adversity in her early childhood. Scout begins by having an arduous time trying to be herself without facing the wrath of people narking on her about the way she dresses as well as the way she acts. Without a mother figure present in her life, the only way she feels like herself is by doing what she knows best, acting as well as dressing like a boy.
In 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.
Scout learns a few things from them, as they are ladylike in a sense but what is important here is that the things that make them ladies isn’t as admirable as a lady would seem. Scout learns that being a lady means gossiping and talking behind people's’ backs and acting like a good person but being hypocritical about it. It easily meant that being a lady was just a pretense and facade about the simplest things. It meant while drinking tea to make polite, fake remarks about the little things. It meant guising in an uncomfortable dress to impress people.
Throughout her life, Scout has questioned everything she is unfamiliar with. By questioning, Scout revealed the prejudice, barbarity, and hatred that is held secrecy from her. With Calpurnia as her only motherly figure, Scout has nothing to grasp for a taste of femininity. For generations upon generations, women were socialized with household responsibilities while men juggled keeping steady jobs in which they need to regulate a low income and care for their families. Masculinity was shown through how successful a man and his family were.
Scout wanted to act like a girl, but her friends wanted her to act like the old Scout. This instance is where Scout had to make the decision that acting like a girl was not worth loosing her friends. Scout Finch made her own choices, she made them the way that she wanted them, n\ ot caring about what time it was, who she was with, and what people thought of her. She did things for her.
On the surface Maycomb County might seem like quiet, nice place to live, but deeper into the town hidden identities are discovered, courage is needed, and the maturation of characters is crucial to unearthing the truth about life in the 1930s. In Harper Lee’s novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, readers learn about a small town named Maycomb County and the struggles that occur within it. During the Great Depression and a peak of Southern racism, readers met the main character Scout. Scout, a girl ages six to nine, narrates this story for years and the happenings in the town. Years pass and different incidents arise including a court case about rape, a mean old neighbor, and the mysterious man next door.
To Kill a Mockingbird, a novel by Harper Lee, describes the events and trials surrounding a window of Jean-Louise “Scout” Finch’s childhood growing up in the small southern town of Maycomb. In doing so, Lee reveals young Scout’s internal conflict in relation to her views on topics such as racism, discrimination, and societal rank. Her impressionability as a child causes her to be bombarded with opinions wherever she turns, and must therefore sort through the confusion around her to discover her own personal set of morals. Lee accurately conveys this through characterization, the irony and even hypocrisy of the stances of others, and through a range of motifs.
A Ripple of Innocence in a Sea of Intolerance No child is born racist, and the children of Maycomb County are no exception. Set in the town of Maycomb, Alabama, Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird is a heart-wrenching story about growing up surrounded by poverty, ignorance, and discrimination. Lee uses Scout Finch, the six-year-old daughter of controversial lawyer Atticus Finch, to showcase the belief that innocence is crucial in a world corrupted by prejudice.
You should be in a dress and camisole, young lady!” This scares Scout as a young girl and she struggles with the thought that girls need to dress a certain way and this plays an important role in her individual identity especially since she is so young and she may feel that she needs to change the ways she dresses to follow the implicit gender
“You have to make choices even when there is nothing to choose from” – Péter Zilahy. Every day brings new choices and we either learn to make them, or let someone else make them for us. Maturity plays a part in the decisions we make and whether we take the role of the maker or the follower. Being afraid, but acting anyways is a true sign of courage and maturity, a topic which both Scout and I faced in our younger years. Scout goes through a journey to bravery from carelessness, while I go through the same journey through the context of kindergarten. Through the character of Scout, in the text To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee suggests that everybody goes through their own unique journey to maturity, and with that courage comes in different
Influences of Aunt Alexandra and Atticus Finch The main characters in the novel responsible for Scout’s construction/ development would be her Aunt Alexandra and her father Atticus Finch. The Aunt, who tires to manipulate Scout into becoming the conventional lady that society has laid out in front of us; where as Atticus encourages Scout to continuing being who she is. Through out the novel there is a huge focus on Scout 's clothing as it is an important ingredient for her to develop her female sense of self. However her aunt’s pushiness in what she should be wearing, makes Scout hate the idea of being a female even more, as her aunt wishes to mold her into stereotypical southern lady. “Aunt Alexandra was fanatical on the subject of my attire.
In Harper Lee’s novel To Kill a Mockingbird, Lee presents a large social atmosphere that includes many different cultures and extremes. The story takes place in the southern town of Maycomb, Alabama during the Great Depression. This novel illustrates how the southerners perceived different ideas about each other and social norms. It is told through the eyes of a young girl, Scout Finch, as she is growing up and becoming influenced by societal attitudes. Throughout the course of this book Scout learns many lessons including: how a society functions, why there is conflict between different cultures, and what makes cultures different from each other. Harper Lee utilizes functionalism, conflict theory, and symbolic interactionism to convey how