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Stereotypes In To Kill A Mockingbird By Harper Lee

486 Words2 Pages

To Kill a Mockingbird has a wide variety of characters. However, it’s diverse cast often holds not so diverse personalities -- many of them bear conventional dispositions with little development. The stagnant personalities of many of the characters creates a large supporting cast. However, that doesn’t detract from the overall themes of the novel. One of the first stereotypes in To Kill a Mockingbird involves Boo Radley. He is seen as a harmful person despite no one in town knowing anything concrete about him. This is exemplified whenever Jem speaks of him in chapter 1: "Boo was about six-and-a-half feet tall, judging from his tracks... that’s why his hands were bloodstained—if you ate an animal raw, you could never wash the blood off. There was a long jagged scar that ran across his face; what teeth he had were yellow and rotten; his eyes popped, and he drooled most of the time." [Lee, 16] Despite having never laid eyes on Boo, he sees him as a fearsome …show more content…

However, her role is quite unique. She does not progress as a character, but has a large influence on our protagonist, Scout Finch. Alexandra is fundamentally different from her two siblings, Atticus and Jack. While they are easygoing, much to the love of Scout, she is strict and overbearing. This leads to much dissension between Scout and Alexandra. This is brought to light in many anecdotal conversations from Alexandra, such as in Chapter 13, where Scout recalls being called “sluggish.” However, Alexandra and her hard personality are key to Scout’s development. In chapter 24, shortly after discovering the death of Tom Robinson, Scout finds herself not only admiring Alexandra, but taking after her. “After all, if Aunty could be a lady at a time like this, so could I.” [Lee, 318] In that moment, Alexandra’s stereotype did it’s work -- the strict, religious women had finally succeeded in controlling Scout, without Scout’s

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748 Words | 3 Pages

In the fiction novel To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, a young girl learns about her racist community as she grows up and past her childhood and witnessing cruelty due to race. Some characters in the novel represent a mockingbird like Arthur Radley who stays inside all day and is rarely seen by anyone. There is also Tom Robinson who is a laborer and did many kind acts just out of pity, both of these characters made the community better and haven’t disrupted or hurt anyone. They all have moments where it is clear that they represent a mockingbird as their actions show kindness even with no reward. One instance in which Tom Robinson is a mockingbird is when he commonly helps out Mayella Ewell even with no pay and a crippled arm.

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479 Words | 2 Pages

Alexandra would then make her wear and do things that she didn't want to do and this greatly upset Scout. But it wasn't to long before Alexandra realized that everyone is different and Scout didn't want to live like a lady. Alexandra accepted that idea and backed off of Scout. She would even bring her a pair of overalls to mark her forgiveness.

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747 Words | 3 Pages

In Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, one of the themes is that people should not be quick to judge others based on the labels given by society. During the story, the children judge Boo Radley based on what other people have gossiped about him and what comes from their imagination. “Jem gave a reasonable description of Boo: Boo was about six-and-a-half feet tall, judging from his tracks; he dined on raw squirrels and any cats he could catch, that’s why his hands were bloodstained-if you ate an animal raw, you could never wash the blood off. There was a long jagged scar that ran across his face; what teeth he had were yellow and rotten; his eyes popped and he drooled most of the time.”

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889 Words | 4 Pages

Atticus attributes his sister’s behavior to the fact that she’s never had a girl of her own to care for. Aunt Alexandra is a grandmother and it makes sense that she would be stuck in her old ways, Scout even says, Aunt Alexandra fitted into the world of Maycomb like a hand into a glove, but never into the world of Jem and me. (13. 131). However, as we see through the book she grows and changes eventually becoming a mother to

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183 Words | 1 Pages

Dennis Radar spend his whole life committing heinous acts. As most serial killers, they begin with minor, abnormal acts until they gain more confident and secure with themselves to commit more daring acts. With the influences of killing small animals, violent pornographic and homicidal materials, Dennis developed a sadistic nature towards women and a superiority complex towards others. People were views as interior beings as women were viewed as objects that are to be used for his own sexual pleasure which was to bound them, torture them and kill them. However, the BTK killer wasn’t limited to attacking just women.

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She challenged Aunt Alexandra by stating that she can “be a ray of sunshine in pants just as well” (89). This often got her into trouble throughout the story. However, toward the end of the story one can see the significant change in her personality. She tends to be more thoughtful. Along with that, Scout would try to steer clear of fighting if it was possible.

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1005 Words | 5 Pages

For instance, Scouts relationship with Jem shows that she turns to him for comfort. Scout looks up to Jem and wants to be like him. This explains her the way she dresses and acts, she is known to behave like a tomboy, probably because she has grown up with males surrounding her. That is why, Atticus's’ sister, Alexandra, came to stay with the family. However, Aunt Alexandra is a fighting lady who wants to turn Scout into an ideal women, which Scout does not agree with.

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757 Words | 4 Pages

To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee is the story of a small town named Maycomb Located in Alabama, highlighting the adventures of the finch children and many other people in the small town. The people in this town are very judgemental and of each other and it often leads to people being labeled with stereotypes and people think they know everything about that person however that is not reality. It is not possible to know the reality of a person 's life by placing a stereotype without seeing it through their own eyes and experiencing the things they experience. This happens often throughout the story with many people in the town. People are labeled as many things such a “monster” a “nigger” and many other things that seem to put them in their

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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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947 Words | 4 Pages

Boo Radley is the most subsident example of a mockingbird found in this story. When he saves Scout from being killed by Mr. Ewell, the narrator, Scout, directly meets Boo for the first time. He is a man most comfortable in the shadows and unaccustomed to attention. To put it simply, he is a hermit. Despite the obvious evidence pointing to the heroism Boo displays by rescuing Scout, Sheriff Heck Tate refuses to acknowledge the incident as anything more than Bob Ewell simply stabbing himself.

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1253 Words | 6 Pages

Cultural norms are what make and shape a society. They are the guidelines, and or patterns, that are to be followed, in order to be considered a normal, typical, everyday citizen. As such, it does not matter if the norms are right or wrong. As long as the citizen is still a part of their society, right and wrong does not matter, as far as they are concerned. In the case of To Kill A Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, the cultural norm, of Maycomb County, embraces the wrong, in the form of extreme prejudice behavior.

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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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941 Words | 4 Pages

In the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee uses the symbol of the mockingbird to show that prejudice can affect even the most selfless people. The mockingbird symbol is seen through three specific characters which include: Boo Radley, Tom Robinson and, Atticus Finch. In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, Boo Radley is one of the first characters to be seen as a mockingbird. He is an outcast and he is judged by all the gossip that speaks differently of him, he is a mockingbird in the midst of evil.

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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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531 Words | 3 Pages

Scout was more of a tomboy than a girly girl. Aunt Alexandra didn’t like how she didn’t act like a proper lady, and would ask Scout to act more ladylike. As she grew up, she was able to understand things a lot better. She began acting more grown up in situations like Aunt Alexandra’s dinner party.

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