To Kill a Mockingbird: Women and Femininity Harper Lee wrote, “To Kill a Mockingbird” in the 1960's, but based the best-seller on the 1930's. Lee applied that period where most traditional values were still taken used. In the southern parts of the United States, society had made it ’normal’ for men to be gentlemen and ladies are supposedly polite and feminine. Harper Lee decided the book should be needed to be written from the perspective of a young girl who lived in a small town called Maycomb. The book is about Jean Louise Finch, who is called Scout throughout the story. Scout is a tomboy, she isn’t the typical girl in her town, in the way that she doesn’t wear dresses and she often starts fights. Lee shows how Scout grows up using factors such as her attitude, her brother, and the influence the other …show more content…
During a time when Scout is talking to Miss Maudie, who lives across the street, about her beliefs. She talked about herself, a Baptist, and Mr Radley, a foot-washing Baptist. “Thing is, foot-washers think women are a sin by definition. They take the bible literally, you know” (Lee 59). When Miss Maudie was saying this, she was talking about how some people take words that are written in the bible and use them literally. She was referring to Mr Radley, the man that lived across the street when she said ‘foot-washers’. At the very beginning of the book, before anything really was started, Scout was explaining what happened to some boys in Maycomb. They were charged for many things, including “... and using abusive and profane language in the presence and hearing of a female” (Lee 12). This shows the difference in when men are allowed to do and say compared to women. It was considered to a crime to say something crude in the midst of a female during that time, that's how much control they had over women back
Kyla Beil Mrs. Musgrove English Period 4 Jean Lousie, Scout, Finch Harper Lee’s novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, was told from the first person perspective of ScoutJean Louise, better known as Scout Finch and was a unique blend of Scout’s younger and older self. The setting of the story is a small town Maycomb, Alabama, in 1935. This was during the Great Depression, which adds further depth to the novel. Many are too poor to pay for things with money and resort to the product of their labors to pay for things such as a bag of hickory nuts to help pay for legal fees. The air was hot and wet in the first chunk of the book during the end of summer.
However 1 specific quote displays it very clearly. Lee says "He had announced in the schoolyard the day before that Scout Finche's daddy defended niggers. I denied it, but told Jem". In this context, a boy that Scout Finch goes to school with makes fun of Scout because her dad talks to and helps African Americans. Scout gets embarrassed because in the time period it was frowned upon to associate with African Americans.
In the novel “To Kill a Mockingbird” readers see Ms. Maudie, a Baptist, who does not practice foot-washing. Although this is a practice of her religious belief she does not partake. Ms. Maudie tells Scout, “You know old Mr. Radley was a foot-washing Baptist ... My shells not that hard. I’m just a Baptist ...
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.
Characterization of Scout in To Kill a Mockingbird In To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee uses Jean Louise (Scout) Finch as the narrator. Scout is now an adult and reflects on three very crucial summers during her childhood days. When Scout is first described in the novel, she is prone to violence, labels people based on class, denigrates people, uses racist language, and is prejudice (Seidel 1). All of these things show that she is childish at the beginning of the novel.
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.
At school, Scout nearly starts a fight with a classmate named Cecil Jacobs after he declares that her “daddy defends niggers” (Lee, 74). Scout being too young to fully understand this statement automatically denies it. Atticus, who has been asked to defend Tom Robinson, a black man accused of raping a white woman has received many controversial remarks on his take of the case. Although Scout does not initiate the fight with Cecil, her “fists [a]re clenched and [she is] ready to let [them] fly” (Lee, 74). This depicts another one of Scout’s un-ladylike reactions because the ladylike response would be to simply ignore the boy and to remain prim and proper.
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.
“The one thing that doesn’t abide by majority rule is a person’s conscience.” This is a quote from Atticus Finch, a courageous and wise character from Harper Lee 's novel, To Kill A Mockingbird. The story is told through the perspective of a young girl, Jean Louise ¨Scout¨ Finch. She lives with her older brother, Jeremy, and widowed father and prominent lawyer, Atticus, in Maycomb, Alabama during the time of the Great Depression. Throughout the novel, the children experience the injustice and prejudice of society through a tough case that their father was appointed to and are taught to respect and tolerate all people, despite their differences.
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.
Everything she said was sounding good until Scout realized Miss Merriweather felt the total opposite way a Christian should about African-Americans. Scout narrates,” There was something I liked about them, no matter how much they cussed, and drank, and gambled, and chewed...they weren’t-(313). In this quote Scout is talking about how she likes men over women because men aren’t hypocrites. Even though she didn’t know the word, she still knew that something was wrong, and that shows she has lost some
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.
How 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.
“I could not possibly hope to be a lady if I wore breeches; when I said I could do nothing in a dress, [Alexandra] said I wasn’t supposed to be doing things that required pants” (Lee 67). Aunt Alexandra expects Scout to fit into the role of a woman, even at such a young age. Another example of the harsh standards placed on Scout is shown when Alexandra is having tea with her friends in chapter 24. Miss Stephanie says, “well, you won’t get very far until you start wearing dresses more often”
Killing a Mockingbird What would it feel like to be a woman who is undervalued by the other men and women around her? To Kill a Mockingbird is about a family who lives in the South in the 1930’s. It is told by a young girl named Scout Finch. Throughout the book we learn many things about her family and the other people around her. Females in this novel are undervalued and looked down upon because of the roles they are expected to portray.