To Kill A Mockingbird Family Structure Research Paper

Family Structure Around the World

In the world today there are very different ways a family can work. Family's now aren't so black and white with just a mother and a father. In To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee Jem and Scout only have their father and their maid. In A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry the Younger family is big and discombobulated. In Gunnar Myrdal’s American Denial, a documentary, he spends so much time away from his family it makes it seem like he isn't there. In all of these pieces of work there is one theme, family structure.

Family structure is first represented in a documentary about Gunnar Myrdal’s life and the process of him writing his manuscript, The American Dilemma, it focuses on his personal life too. In

Atticus is their father and Calpurnia is their maid, but she acts as a mother like figure. While Atticus does spend time away from his kids when he has to work he does the most of the things a father would do. He finds time to teach them life lessons that they can remember forever, “ ‘I'd rather you shot at tin cans in the backyard, but I know you'll go after birds. Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit 'em, but remember it's a sin to kill a mockingbird.’ That was the only time I ever heard Atticus say it was a sin to do something, and I asked Miss Maudie about it.”(107). Atticus is the only parent they have left and they don't even address him as their father because they are so close to him they see him more as a brother than a father. While Calpurnia isn't technically their mother, she does act like a motherly figure. " ‘It's right hard to say,’ she said. ‘Suppose you and Scout talked colored-folks' talk at home it'd be out of place, wouldn't it? Now what if I talked white-folks' talk at church, and with my neighbors? They'd think I was puttin' on airs to beat Moses."(138). Calpurnia teaches the kids life lessons and looks after them when Atticus is working late. She teaches them how to talk and how to act. While their family isn't the most orthodox it is does work for

The Youngers don't have a normal family life. They have this little two bedroom apartment with five people in it. Mama and Beneatha sleep in one room while Walter and Ruth sleep in another while Travis sleeps on the couch. When Mr. Lindner came from Clybourne park and basically asked if the Youngers would not move in. “But you've got to admit that a man, right or wrong, has the right to want to have a neighborhood he lives in a certain kind of way” (117). After Mr. Lindner told the Youngers his whole speech they sent him away in a fury. In the third act of the play Walter Younger called Mr. Lindner to tell him he needed to talk and need the money he offered them early. Mama tells Walter that his father would not do this because he and his family would find a way to get more money. Walter then chooses to tell Mr. Lindner to leave again because they will come to the house. “And we have decided to move into our house because my father -my father- he earned it for us brick by brick.”(148). Walters mother convinced him to change his mind and do the right thing for their family. His family structure was very different from most but it worked for their