Aunt Alexandra on the other hand, is not a good mother figure. First of all she does not get along with Atticus’s side of the Finch’s. This is supported when Aunt Alexandra is very rude and blunt with Scout and Jem, who are still little children. She also likes to tell Atticus that he is parenting wrong, and tries to get Scout to change the way she acts. The second reason I do not think that Aunt Alexandra would be a good mother figure is that she does not let the family be themselves.
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.
(Lee 134)” Calpurnia is a great mother figure, in my opinion Aunt Alexandra is only a good mother figure. She came to live with the Finch’s to help Atticus for when Scout starts growing into a woman. Aunt Alexandra says, “ We decided that it would be best for you to have some feminine influence. (Lee 170)”
Aunt Alexandra is a conservative woman who is conscious of propriety and class. So she wanted Jem and Scout to live in a certain way especially Scout, She was worried Scout was too much of a tomboy. Aunt Alexandra was also concerned that Atticus was too careless in his parenting. He allowed his kids to do whatever they wanted. She was also concerned that Calpurnia had too much say and authority over the lives of the children with the absence of their mother.
In this quote, Scout is talking about how Aunt Alexandra doesn’t ever let a chance to nag people about how pure her family is and how impure their families are. This, however, is just her facade so she could hide her true self. In the following quote, it will show how Aunt Alexandra really is and this is after Atticus tells her, Scout, Calpurnia, and Miss Maudie that Tom died trying to escape jail. “I thought Aunt Alexandra was crying, but when she took her hands away from her face, she was not.
Jem understands that he has to have the humility while Scout would just want to brag. In addition, when Aunt Alexandra shows up to live with Atticus and the kids. She planned to teach Jem and Scout “about the family and what it’s meant to Maycomb country” (Lee, 133). Aunt Alexandra would take a big part in Scout and Jem’s life. She would be teaching them many things like behaving like a gentleman and lady or their family history.
When Aunt Alexandra has her missionary circle over, and Mrs. Merriweather starts to make rude remarks toward the Finches, Miss Maudie reminds Mrs. Merriweather that she is in Atticus’s house. Aunt Alexandra shows her appreciation to her by giving “Miss Maudie a look of pure gratitude” (Lee 312). Aunt Alexandra acts similarly to how Miss Maudie describes the rest of the non-racist people in town. Aunt Alexandra teaches Scout that having someone else stand up to prejudiced people is a great way for her to get her voice heard. She is grateful to Miss Maudie because she wants to change things but she has to keep her image, so she needs Miss Maudie to stand up to Mrs. Merriweather.
’s mother passed away. Aunt Alexandra tries to convert Scout from acting like a boy and tries to make her act like a girl more. Aunt Alexandra influences both Jem and Scout by teaching them basic manners. Ex. She teaches them how they should act when she first comes over.
Scout always saw Aunt Alexandra as a mean, cranky, and strict family member. Scout disliked her a lot because Alexandra would always stop her and Jem from doing what they wanted to do. While Alexandra was venting to Miss Maudie about Atticus, “Aunt Alexandra rose and smoothed the various whalebone belt and wiped her nose. She patted her hair and said, ‘Do I show it?’” (Lee 237).
Scout therefore has no idea of who her mother was and has no memories with her. Aunt Alexandra believes that if she starts to live with Atticus’ family, she can be there to teach Scout the true manners of being girl-like, dressing in dresses and coats and looking pretty. Scouts’ grandma also complains and discriminates
She didn’t approve of how lenient Atticus was on his children, and as one of the few prim and proper ladies in Maycomb, she tried to “fix” the Finch family into being more proper and fitting into their status quo of being one of the more respected families. Aunt Alexandra was really keen on “family breeding” and how everyone in a certain family followed the footsteps of their predecessor and was a certain way. I think it really changed the story that Aunt Alexandra wasn’t part of the movie because the idea of how people from certain families always acted a certain way was like a status quo that someone just made up, and it reminded me of the racism in Maycomb and how it was a big problem. Even in the book, Atticus says African Americans aren’t all bad and want to do harm; it’s a negative stereotype that was just made up and for some reason people just prosecute others because of their differences or because they don’t live as much of an extravagant life as others. By taking this away from the movie, it took a bit away from the unexplained reason for prosecuting African Americans in Maycomb because the ideas were related.
Aunt Alexandra tries to say something to Atticus about the kids and doing something wrong. “Sister, I do the best I can with them! It had something to do with my overalls.”(Lee 108). Aunt Alexandra was trying to tell Atticus to make Scout change into something more lady like.
She does not see everyone on the same level in society which is the opposite of Atticus. She believes in social class and how it separates different families and people from each other. Aunt Alexandra wanted to take over teaching Jem and Scout to turn them into a lady and gentleman, but only for the sake of keeping the Finch family name. “Aunty had a way of declaring What Is Best For The Family…” (Lee 129).
“I had an idea however that Aunt Alexandra’s appearance on the scene was not so much as Atticus’s doing as hers” (Scout 171) What gave impulse to the conflict was Alexandra attempted to change Scout, She would invite her to dress up and have a tea with her cousins. She also felt it was necessary for Jem and Scout to increment family pride “your cousin wrote this said Aunt Alexandra he was a beautiful character” (Alexandra 176) She flaunted the book their cousin had wrote but Jem and Scout were not impressed. The conflict in chapter 13 all grew from Alexandra's
This shows how Scout refuses to mature and ends up seeing her Aunt as the bad guy. Aunt Alexandra is also one-minded and has trouble seeing from other perspectives. Because of this, she is not pleased when she finds out that Calpurnia took Jem and Scout to an all-black church. When Scout asks Atticus if she can go to Calpurnia's house, Aunt Alexandra answers before Atticus can reply, saying no. Because of this Scout whips around and yells, “I didn’t ask you!”
