To Kill A Mockingbird Eugenia Character Analysis

Growing up in Jackson, Mississippi in the 1960s, Eugenia Phelan was expected to conform to the values of southern women in order to maintain the status quo. Of these unwritten but well known sets of rules included women marrying young to demonstrate their value and keeping the social conditions as they were. Due to having different values, Eugenia finds herself ostracized by the people who at one point she considered close loved ones.
Although surrounded by numerous opposing forces Eugenia chooses independence over conformity by being ambitious and gaining strength by educating herself. Stockett highlights Eugenia various times throughout the book by constantly calling attention to Eugenia’s atypical appearance; in fact Eugenia receives

She describes the emotions that she felt by comparing herself to Boo Radley from To Kill a Mockingbird (Stockett 414). This comparison is likely to be made because people are afraid of what is unknown, so they create false stories or spread comments of hate thus adding to the ignorance which is being passed down as if it were a family tradition. Eugenia had also been avoiding these people as though she was frightened by their way of rejecting people and being unaccepting to change. Eugenia uses this hatred as motivation and perseveres through meeting with the help and working on her book. The only way the lives of others will change for the better is if Eugenia seeks self-improvement and others follow in her footsteps of

Through the situations that both Eugenia and Mae Mobley have endured it can be foreshadowed that Mae Mobley will grow up to carry on and expand Eugenia’s legacy. The experiences that Eugenia had are exemplified by Mae Mobley. Eugenia accredits Constantine to raising her and Mae Mobley considers Aibileen to be her real mother (Stockett 336). Mae Mobley is also considered to be lacking in physical beauty, but similarly to Eugenia is made up for in their inner beauty. Constantine’s disappearance was a mystery to Eugenia as Aibileen’s is to Mae Mobley. It can be inferred that when Mae Mobley grows up she will investigate on what happened to Aibileen and also continue to help colored people. Eugenia and Mae Mobley can see that there are not any differences between people of different skin tones; it is just simply the misleading belief that is carried among people to obtain power over