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To Kill A Mockingbird: A Speck Of Light In The Darkness

765 Words4 Pages

A Speck of Light In the Darkness Love, racism, and gender-inequality are all themes used in the award-winning book, To Kill A Mockingbird, but how are they shown throughout? Essentially, Jem and Scout’s father Atticus Finch is set to defend a black man accused of raping a white woman. Throughout this time, Scout learns about what her tiny town of Maycomb truly is and what she must become. Right after a near-death experience, Scout finally understands that to harm an innocent man is the same as killing a mockingbird, which never does anything wrong. Yet, throughout the movie, directed by Robert Mulligan, there were many changes to story that heavily affected other dominant themes expressed by their corresponding key events. To begin with, …show more content…

“‘After all, if Aunty could be a lady at a time like this, so could I”’ (Lee 318). This quote ascertains the moment that Scout has finally become a “lady”. Through the process of this transformation though, Scout saw how women were expected to always wear dresses, drink tea, and never play rough. Scout saw what life was like for a woman and she tried to fight it, but only stopped for the sake of Atticus. Yet in the movie, Aunt Alexandra never once made an appearance in the entirety of the film. There was also very little talk or scenes that could relate to gender inequality. In the end, this subtraction from the movie completely took away the theme of gender inequality, which was a very stupid on the Robert Mulligan’s part. All in all, the movie To Kill a Mockingbird, had some very drastic differences compared to the book, most being deletions. These scenes, or events, greatly changed the plot and weakened the amount of themes present, or merely took them away. These three main removals enacted by Robert Mulligan were: Jem destroying Mrs. Dubose’s flowers, mainly showing love and some racism, Calpurnia taking Jem and Scout to her church which showed family a great deal of racism and community, and finally, Aunt Alexandra moving in, which showed the viewer about gender

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1074 Words | 5 Pages

Aunt Alexandra, teaches Scout, what a lady is and when it is the appropriate time to be strong and have an opinion and what the family roots are. Aunt alexandra, found out Tom, died while she was attending the missionary circle. “If aunty could be a lady at a time like this,so could I.”(Lee,237)Scout, now understands that sometimes being a lady and understanding the proper etiquette of one at times like that is extremely useful. Alexandra, acting strong proved to Scout, that being a lady is

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To kill a mockingbird was a political statement, yet it was not meant for the public to so widely see. In To Kill a Mockingbird, the award winning novel by Harper Lee, many important topics are touched upon with themes such as family and justice, however, the most prevalent theme is racism and Harper Lee manages to touch upon it many times. Race in Maycomb County helps to determine social class and power, it also creates an unspoken set of rules regarding code of conduct and how many people interact in their relationships, both interracial and not. In Maycomb County race is a major determining factor in a person’s positioning in the social hierarchy.

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479 Words | 2 Pages

In the book “To Kill A Mockingbird”, written by Harper Lee, things can change in the blink of an eye. It can go from a peaceful taciturn summer morning to all hell broken loose. And for Aunt Alexandra, change comes extremely faster then anyone would ever expect. She would be one of the most imprudent and disrespectful person anyone would know to a caring, respected person who wouldn't despise anyone by their skin or gender.

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622 Words | 3 Pages

To Kill a Mockingbird focuses on multiple significant ideas to highlight the main ideas of the novel. One of great magnitude is explained in chapter three of the novel when author Harper Lee simplifies the importance of being able to put yourself in someone else’s shoes to view each different perspective. “First of all,” he said, “if you can learn a simple trick, Scout, you’ll get along a lot better with all kinds of folk. You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view.” Be understanding, realize that honest mistakes happen as in the excerpt with Scout and Walter.

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The author demonstrates the problems in the school systems when Scout enters school she is reprimanded by her teacher, Mrs. Honeycomb for reading proficiently. She is commanded to “tell [her] father not to teach [her] anymore” and stop reading outside of school. Lee’s incongruity of the situation alerts her readers to the flaws within the school system. Lee satirizes the church when Scout and Jem are taken to church by Calpurnia, their black housekeeper, when the children’s father is unavailable. At this Christian church, the children are ridiculed for being white.

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1177 Words | 5 Pages

She must to be charming, submissive to the men around her, and always in need of a man’s protection. Scout’s Aunt Alexandra is unable to separate herself from society’s traditions, leaving her dependent on

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457 Words | 2 Pages

In the past years women have been fighting for equal rights, however in the year 1933 it was pushed on to young girls to be a “proper lady” meaning to serve the husband and have a woman’s first interest in the well being of men. The novel To Kill a Mockingbird is about childhood and growing up with Scout. The narrator, Scout has been taught like an adult by her father for her whole life and gender was never a problem with Atticus, he taught her and her brother Jem the same way, yet as she grows up she is pressured to become a proper lady by her peers. We can gather that gender roles are a major part in Scout’s life by the several symbols of women, such as flowers, that show, the theme of gender roles that Harper Lee weaves into To Kill a Mockingbird.

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737 Words | 3 Pages

“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”

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1249 Words | 5 Pages

In the book To Kill A Mocking Bird by Harper lee, Aunt Alexandria visits the finch’s house for a while. In her visit Aunt Alexandra feels like Atticus isn’t racing his children properly and because of this Aunt Alexandria pursues Scout to be more lady like since she’s a girl even though scout disagrees. “I could not possibly hope to be a lady if I wore breeches; when I said I could possibly do nothing in a dress, she said I shouldn’t be doing things that required pants. Aunt Alexandria’s vision of my deportment involved playing with small stoves, tea sets and wearing Add-A-Pearl necklace she gave me when I was born; furthermore I should be a ray of sunshine in my fathers lonely life. ”pg,Lee

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To Kill A Mockingbird Values And Knowledge Essay

1205 Words | 5 Pages

Unlike Atticus, his sister Alexandra’s use of traditional knowledge segregates the duties, attire, and lifestyle of both men and women. She is a firm believer in perpetuating sexism where women should only be seen in modest dresses, cooking, and tending to the children. For instance, she pesters Scout to follow societal roles such as, wearing dresses instead of breeches and behaving like a proper lady. On page 92, the author states, “Aunt Alexandra was fanatical on the subject of my attire. I could not possibly hope to be a lady if I wore breeches; when I said I could do nothing in a dress, she said I wasn’t supposed to be doing things that require pants” (92).

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To Kill A Mockingbird Conflict Analysis

1099 Words | 5 Pages

Scout said, “"Aunt Alexandra was fanatical on the subject of my attire. I could not possibly hope to be a lady if I wore breeches; when I said I could do nothing in a dress, she said I wasn’t supposed to be doing things that required pants. Aunt Alexandra’s vision of my deportment involved playing with small stoves, tea sets, and wearing the Add-A-Pearl necklace she gave me when I was born; furthermore, I should be a ray of sunshine in my father’s lonely life. I suggested that one could be a ray of sunshine in pants just as well, but Aunty said that one had to behave like a sunbeam, that I was born good but had grown progressively worse every year...." (108). This quote illustrates how Scout pushes against gender stereotypes, and this is the root of conflicts between her and Aunt Alexandra.

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The Literary Context Of To Kill A Mockingbird

4088 Words | 17 Pages

This essay aims to investigate the literary context of Harper Lee 's To Kill A Mockingbird (1960) from four different perspectives. The scope of this essay does not only include the context from historical, cultural and social points of views, but also the significance of Lee 's early life is considered. The essay explores deeply the novel 's events, characters and main themes, which can all be related to the literary context. This is why the research question of this essay is “A Study of Literary Context in Harper Lee 's To Kill A Mockingbird”. To Kill A Mockingbird never fails to amaze a reader because of its audacity, as it brings out many controversial issues from 1930s America.

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1076 Words | 5 Pages

Aunt Alexandra thinks that Scout needs to “have some feminine influence” (170). Being a typical southerner woman, she's the ideal person for this role. Therefore, she decides to come live with the family for a while. Aunt Alexandra represents the old-fashioned southern person.

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106 Words | 1 Pages

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.

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730 Words | 3 Pages

Fairly early on in the book, Scout tells us about how Jem told her to go find girls to hangout with, “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”(54). In this example, Scout had just finished trying to convince Jem that Atticus knew they were making fun of Boo Radley. The quote shows how Scout is expected to act like a girl and hangout with girls, because girls shouldn’t play rough with the boys. In another example, Aunt Alexandra tries to change the way Scout acts,

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