The novel To Kill A Mockingbird written by Harper Lee, portraying literary lenses within her book one example being gender lens, through a main character by the name Jean Louise Finch also known as Scout. Living in a small home in Maycomb County with her brother, Jemermy Atticus and her widowed father, Atticus Finch. In Harper Lee’s, To Kill A Mockingbird, the division of roles and social expectations between both male and female is negatively illustrated. Furthermore, Scout is told to wear proper clothes such as dresses, the language used, and her actions with others within Maycomb county. Scout is a tomboy, or at least that's what she was called by her family, friends, and neighbors.
Scout lives in a rural Southern town, during the Great Depression. Because of this type of setting, society strictly dictates gender stereotypes, and crossing the barrier between masculinity and femininity is practically unheard of. Lee stated that in Maycomb “ladies bathed before noon, after their 3 o’clock
In the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, the portrayal of gender roles and femininity challenges the social norms and shows a subtle perspective on the complexities in the novel. While the novel is known for its exploration of racism and moral integrity, it also provides a critical examination of gender roles and the expectations of femininity. Through characters like Scout Finch and her aunt Alexandra, Harper Lee challenges traditional norms of what it means to be a woman in a patriarchal society. Throughout the book To Kill a Mockingbird, the reader can see the biased treatment against women and men. In chapter 14, the imbalance between genders is evident.
In To Kill A Mockingbird, Harper Lee reveals the true impact that gender roles have on a community. She uses characterization and irony in her novel. It is apparent that Harper Lee acknowledges the impact of gender roles on a community. In addition to Scout's ironic late realization, the town and Miss Stephanie’s rude remark to Scout characterizes her as a tomboy. In To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee uses characterization and irony to propose that if society enforces gender roles, it can restrict people's abilities and limit their potential.
In Harper Lee’s “To Kill A Mockingbird,” Scout, a young girl, is majorly influenced by her community and the people around her. The reader learns about characters, settings, social dynamics, and more throughout chapters one to eleven. Scout balances being in an identity crisis, doing well in school, and learning to be a woman all simultaneously. In the early chapters of the narrative, Scout struggles with figuring out who she wants to become. She was told numerous times to “stop acting like a girl,” by her older brother, Jem, and his friend, Dill.
In Harper Lee’s “To Kill A Mockingbird,” Scout, who is the protagonist, is six years old and lives in Maycomb County, Alabama. She has the talent of reading when most people her age still can't and that is thanks to her father, Atticus who is a lawyer and her cook who In addition, the historical novel has a lot of gender inequality, injustice, and racial discrimination. Scout is a young girl, who is not like other girls, for she is like a tomboy who likes to play outside, play with her brother, and get dirty. Furthermore, she knows the laws that only a lawyer would know because of her father Atticus. On the other hand, she lost her mother, and her father is hardly around, so she doesn't have a parental figure around.
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.
“Our Mother died when I was two, so I never felt her absences.” In the beginning of Harper Lee’s Novel To Kill a Mockingbird a young girl named Scout portrays a character like no other. Scout plays a cheery, imaginative, curious, tough, and a bit of a tomboy at the same time sort of character. She lives in the small town of Maycomb, Alabama with her older brother and father, but no mother. Having no major female influence in her life, other than their housekeeper/caregiver Scout had a close relationship with her brother and preferred to run around on the dirt roads, climb trees and do just about anything that the average little boy enjoyed doing instead or acting more like a girl.
As a young girl, the narrator Scout Finch is beginning to realize that there are strict expectations for her because of her gender and limitations to what she
Harper Lee masterfully wove strong traits into these women, making the book so much more meaningful. A real and serious theme lies behind the lighthearted tone and jokes of women, sexism persists to linger even in Scout’s world and today’s. Starting out with feeling uncomfortable in her own skin because of her gender, Scout went to acknowledging and valuing the strengths of women by the end of the book. She witnessed men and boys alike talking inconsiderately and being sexist in general, yet she stayed true to herself in the end. Albeit hard times troubled her family and threatened her life and those of her loved ones, Scout herself acts like a determined, strong-willed girl in similarity to the women around her.
In the beginning of the novel, Scout’s view of gender is abstract and she is not yet concretely aware of the societal role she is expected to fulfill. She plays rough, and isn’t concerned with femininity. Her Aunt Alexandra insists on staying with the Finch family in order to teach Scout to
Scout is starting to learn boundaries and what she can and cannot do as she grows up and gathers more knowledge, which is changing her own identity. Scout’s identity is also changed through characterization as Alexandra tells her she needs to dress more like a real woman. “Aunt Alexandra was fanatical on the subject of my attire.
Maya Angelou once said, “Prejudice is a burden that confuses the past, threatens the future and renders the present inaccessible.” Prejudice is a dark stain on our society. Just like the spider, it makes everywhere its home. Its specialty is creeping into a person’s mind and teaching them how to insult, criticize, and condemn. During the 1960s, in southern society, discrimination was stronger than ever.
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.
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!”
