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To Kill A Mockingbird, By Harper Lee

630 Words3 Pages

Man versus man conflicts often drive people apart, but they can result in reconnection and building of new understandings with others. In To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Aunt Alexandra invites herself into the Finch's home to help around the household. Frustration arises between Scout and Aunt Alexandra when she tries to change Scout’s behavior. The tension over whether or not Scout should change her boyish behavior between these two characters represents their opposing views, and this will not only show that Scout believes in being independent, but also that Aunt Alexandra believes in fitting into societal standards—revealing the struggle of defying gender roles. Faced with her aunt’s wish for her to act more like a regular lady, Scout …show more content…

Aunt Alexandra explains to Scout about her presence in Maycomb: “We decided that it would be best for you to have some feminine influence” (170). Aunt Alexandra wants to change Scout’s unwonted boyish nature because she doesn’t fit in among the girly ladies. With a hatred of dresses and a bold brave attitude, Scout is the complete opposite of what society expects for ladies; thus, Aunt Alexandra is only here to influence her with feminine virtues. Her wish reveals Aunt Alexandra’s belief in assimilating into society’s standards of how women should act. To add on, Atticus repeats in front of the children the words that Aunt Alexandra insisted on being said: “...So you’ll have some idea of who you are, so you might be moved to behave accordingly...” (178). The use of diction indirectly depicts her belief in fitting into society. Her words of “behave accordingly” show that she does not accept Scout’s current tomboyish character one bit. She wishes to quell Scout’s boyish personality. At the end of the novel, the conflict between Scout and Aunt Alexandra is resolved. Aunt Alexandra gives Scout new clothes after finding her tarnished costume: “...Aunty brought me my overalls. ‘Put these on, darling,’ she said, handing me the garments she most despised” (354). Throughout the novel, Aunt Alexandra was against Scout’s boyish behavior. Scout’s overalls add to her boyish personality..

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Some readers may debate that Scout's Aunt Alexandra’s influences has a stronger effect on her, but those people might not take into account all of the negative effects she had on Scouts mentality. " 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" (Lee 81). Aunt Alexandra constantly wanted Scout to be something she was not simply to fit into the typical southern woman mold.

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“We decided that it would be best for you to have some feminine influence. It won’t be many years, Jean Louise before you become interested in boys” (Lee 170). In this quote Aunt Alexandra is trying to be the motherly influence when she moves in. She tries to give Scout some feminine influence so that she won’t

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To begin, Aunt Alexandra aggressively imposes her views on how to be a lady. Scout talking about Aunt Alexandra’s idea of her wearing pants “Aunt Alexandra was fanatical on

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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.

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Jack Finney uses Tom Benecke’s epiphany to illustrate that it is not the materialistic things in life that matter, but rather the relationships that are formed, that account for life’s greatest moments in the short story “Contents of the Dead Man’s Pockets”. An epiphany is a sudden realization that occurs in literature. In the story, Tom’s epiphany occurs to him during a near death experience in his attempt to retrieve an important piece of paper from a ledge. Short Stories for Students depicts that “Tom's epiphany occurs when he realizes that he has nothing in his pockets except for the yellow piece of paper filled with his incomprehensible notes. . . . This, in turn, leads him to the larger truth: he has been living a wasted life" (“‘Contents’”

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Influences of Aunt Alexandra and Atticus Finch The main characters in the novel responsible for Scout’s construction/ development would be her Aunt Alexandra and her father Atticus Finch. The Aunt, who tires to manipulate Scout into becoming the conventional lady that society has laid out in front of us; where as Atticus encourages Scout to continuing being who she is. Through out the novel there is a huge focus on Scout 's clothing as it is an important ingredient for her to develop her female sense of self. However her aunt’s pushiness in what she should be wearing, makes Scout hate the idea of being a female even more, as her aunt wishes to mold her into stereotypical southern lady. “Aunt Alexandra was fanatical on the subject of my attire.

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Throughout Harper Lee’s novel To Kill a Mockingbird, Scout Finch intellectually develops from youth into maturity after a specific pivotal moment. Scout is a young tomboy from Maycomb, Alabama living during the Great Depression. Scout, having always punched and reacted violently to those who she does not agree with, develops into a mature lady and learns to thinks before she acts after seeing her Aunt Alexandra’s reaction to the death of Tom Robinson. The pivotal moment in which Scout Finch intellectually matures into a woman comes after seeing her aunt’s reaction to the death of Tom Robinson during a missionary circle meeting between the ladies of Maycomb.

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Their Aunt Alexandra moves in, and she plays a big role in Scouts gender. Aunt Alexandra is an example of a perfect southern woman, and we see this by the way she is dressed when she comes to the Finch house, on page 128, wearing “protective garments that pinched her waist, and suggest that Aunt Alexandra was once an hourglass figure.” An important role of a southern lady is to maintain the families reputation, which she does by telling Scout that she must act more mature and more like a lady. The image of the perfect southern woman goes against what Scout sees herself as, making things hard for

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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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I carefully picked up the tray and watched myself walk to Mrs. Merriweather. With my best company manners, I asked her if she would have some. After all, if Aunty could be a lady at a time like this, so could I.” This quote explains how Aunt Alexandra is telling Scout to copy what she does in order to look more lady-like and so that she can conform in to the society. Prejudice is another kind of conformity that is shown in the book “To Kill a Mockingbird”.

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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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Harper Lee’s examination of gender roles is shown throughout the protagonist Scout. Being a girl, Scout likes to hang out with her brother wearing overalls and short hair. She receives discrimination from none other than family members. Aunt Alexandra states that Scout, having no mother, has no one to look up to and learn girl’s qualities from. Jean Louis, Scout’s, mother passed away due to a heart attack when she was only young.

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In the novel, Lee uses Scout to demonstrate how the expectations of society are pushed onto girls at a young age. One of the characters who forces these expectations onto Scout is Aunt Alexandra. Often times she ridicules Atticus for allowing Scout to wear breeches and be “unladylike.” During the Christmas party at Finch’s landing, Scout and Alexandra have a conversation about what is proper to wear.

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In the book, “To Kill a Mockingbird,” by Harper Lee, the author writes about what happens in the small southern town of Maycomb, in Alabama. Lee uses the influence of belief in traditions such as roles and family bonds to show that they are causes of conflict. Throughout the book, roles such as gender, age, race, and family confines characters to act, look, and even speak certain ways, causing internal, external, and family conflicts. This theme that different types of roles and family bonds are the root of conflict is developed through the use of physical setting, anti stereotype, and historical setting The author shows that Scout faces external conflicts caused by the pressure to fit into the stereotypical gender roles accustomed to girls at this time in history.

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