Examples Of Gender Inequality In To Kill A Mockingbird

The Man’s World: Gender and Race in To Kill a Mockingbird

Americans have always engaged in the quest for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Men and women of every race and ethnicity have sought freedom. At times, the struggle was mighty, for just as Americans claim freedom, all too often this country’s history has included grave injustice. American literature has often exposed this struggle, illuminating the plight of those groups who had to wait patiently for full acceptance. Author Harper Lee ranks highly among those authors whose work has served a greater social purpose. Her novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, confirms the injustices of the male-dominated, racist culture of the pre-Civil Rights American South. Lee presents her protagonist,

Following the Emancipation Proclamation, slavery ceased to exist, but institutionalized racism persisted in the form of Jim Crow laws and practices. In 1930s Alabama, officially sanctioned racism meant that an African American needed to have two personas -- the real self and the false self presented to white society (Davis). Calpurnia, the Finch’s housekeeper, exemplifies this historical reality. When Cal takes the children to church with her, Scout is struck by the way that Calpurnia speaks to her fellow church-goers. She drops the dialect that she uses with the Finch family, and adopts the grammatical structures and vocabulary of her cultural roots. Scout notes, “I thought her voice strange: she was talking like the rest of them” (Lee 158). The youthful Scout is only beginning to realize that in a society characterized by Jim Crow aggression, the best defense for many African Americans was to draw as little attention as possible when among white society. The Calpurnia she sees at the First Purchase African M.E. Church is the real Calpurnia, and Scout becomes aware of the oppression that requires her beloved caretaker to navigate two very different worlds. Given that the adaptation is thrust upon the black society only, it seems clear that Lee is sympathetic to their plight and critical of racist

The book reflects historical accuracy: black men and women were not permitted to serve on juries. Facing all-white juries in Jim Crow South, black defendants were convicted easily and without much evidence (“To Kill,” Novels 296). Likewise, justice was rare for African Americans who had suffered at the hands of white citizens. One notable case from American history involves Emmett Till, a 14-year-old African American boy accused of flirting with a white woman. Two white men brutally beat and murdered him, and yet the jury deliberated for only one hour and then acquitted both men (“To Kill,” Novels 296-97). Harper Lee captures the reality of this racially-motivated judicial injustice in her novel. Atticus defends Tom Robinson with significant evidence. He proves that his defendant, a crippled man, could not have possibly choked Mayella Ewell; he further destroys her credibility and draws attention to the greater possibility that she actually suffered violence at the hands of her father (Lee 248-51). Nevertheless, the all-white jury delivers a guilty verdict (282). Scout and Jem are stunned at the outcome, and they learn the difficult lesson that while Americans are promised blind justice, this guarantee does not extend to African Americans in Alabama of the