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Individuality In To Kill A Mockingbird

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In “To Kill A Mockingbird” Harper Lee displays how characters struggle to conform to society’s expectations revealing that people cannot conform to society and remain an individual. Aunt Alexandra willingly conforms to society’s expectations and yet in doing so, she loses her individuality. Aunt Alexandra is constantly telling Scout to act like a woman and if Aunt Alexandra is not instructing her to then she is at least nudging her in that direction. She believes that people should act a particular way “‘Stay with us, Jean Louise,’ she said. This was part of her campaign to direct me to be a lady.”(307) Aunt Alexandra and some other Ladies from around Maycomb get together and converse about different subjects. As part of teaching Scout to become a lady, she invited …show more content…

Aunt Alexandra because of her idea that everybody is supposed to be a precise way she is trying to fit Scout into the role of a lady. This role Aunt Alexandra is seeking to fit Scout into is the role that she fits into and the other women in Maycomb fit into. When she does this she loses her individuality and becomes part of the bigger mindset that is Maycomb.Aunt Alexandra is focused on Scout throughout the book. Scout was thinking about Francis at this time. She was deliberating about how she considered him the most boring child she had ever met. Scout thought back to the unique time that Atticus spoke sharply. Atticus was talking with Aunt Alexandra about Scout because Aunt Alexandra did not think that it was fitting for Scout to wear overalls:”Aunt Alexandra was fanatical on the subject of my attire. I could not possibly hope to be a lady if I wore breeches”(108) Aunt Alexandra conforms to society and always has. Scout is Aunt Alexandra’s opposite. Scout wears overalls and does not conform to society’s expectations. Aunt Alexandra conforms to society just like most of Maycomb does. She acts how everybody thinks she should act. When Scout is not

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The citizens viewed Aunt Alexandra as a real prim, proper lady as she had the characteristics the ladies were taught to have but could never master had they had no role model who exhibited these traits. Aunt Alexandra became the vision of a “perfect” lady, which goes to show how Maycomb lived when compared to Aunt Alexandra. Without this glimpse of perspective, the film lost an interesting take on how the ladies in Maycomb were expected to be. While Aunt Alexandra gave the reader a feeling of how Maycomb viewed ‘outsiders’, Aunt Alexandra also gave the reader insight as to how ‘outsiders’ viewed Maycomb. This is illustrated when Aunt Alexandra is discussing with Scout the ways of different citizens of Maycomb.

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In the book To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, you can see the character of Aunt Alexandra developing throughout the whole of the book from being presented as cold and harsh to more caring and showing how she has a softer feel. It may not be evident at first, but as you read and look closely at her character's actions you may just understand how evident these changes may be. In this essay, we will discuss this along with how her character compares and interacts with Scout and Jem along with how they react to her doing these things and how it affects them, from when she's first introduced to the end of the story when she's last mentioned. When you first meet her character, it’s at Finch’s Landing for Christmas (which takes place in chapter

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Anything Scout wants to do that she feels should not be “done by Finches” is immediately followed by a firm no. She believes that the Finches were destined to be superior than everyone else and uses that to help her beat Scout into line although whether it worked or not can be decided by us. Lee uses the contrast between Atticus and Aunt Alexandra to further show the topic of tolerance throughout the book. Aunt Alexandra is very poised and the ideal representation of southern women at that time and if we had such a bad perception of her, imagine living in a society of people filled with people like her.

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