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Gender Stereotypes In To Kill A Mockingbird By Harper Lee

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To Kill a Mockingbird Gender Roles and Stereotypes
The Oxford English Dictionary defines gender roles as, “The role or behavior learned by a person as appropriate to their gender, determined by prevailing cultural norms.” But what's the problem with that? Singling out one gender to carry responsibilities that the other gender should not. And during the time of poverty, unemployment and hardship known as The Great Depression, is when gender stereotyping established its place as a norm. In To Kill A Mockingbird, Harper Lee’s ideas of gender stereotyping from the 30’s compels Scout to feel pressure from her town.
Women in earlier decades were obligated to follow domestic responsibilities such as, cleaning, cooking, and caring for the home and …show more content…

Throughout her life, Scout has questioned everything she is unfamiliar with. By questioning, Scout revealed the prejudice, barbarity, and hatred that is held secrecy from her. With Calpurnia as her only motherly figure, Scout has nothing to grasp for a taste of femininity. For generations upon generations, women were socialized with household responsibilities while men juggled keeping steady jobs in which they need to regulate a low income and care for their families. Masculinity was shown through how successful a man and his family were. Prevailing cultural norms have pictured men as the individual to be protectors, providers, make decisions, and to be in charge. Inheritance of masculine roles associated with strength, aggression, and dominance over women. Women are attendants and subordinates to men. Because Scout is raised by masculine figures, she is bound to develop certain qualities of a male figure. Scout is blamed for not being a proper girl but, her surroundings influence her to believe that she is doing wrong. Scout is of the age where she realizes she is different than most girls but, she is not to blame for her quirks of who she

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In the 1940’ the people used to think in a “traditional way”, making them intolerant with the people who act different. This is the case of Scout, the protagonist of the book. She is a little girl who does not like to dress up and act like a little boy. The adults in the town say things about her, letting her know that if she does not follow the stereotypes she is not going to be a real woman. finally, after all the comments she starts to believe it

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Scout learns a few things from them, as they are ladylike in a sense but what is important here is that the things that make them ladies isn’t as admirable as a lady would seem. Scout learns that being a lady means gossiping and talking behind people's’ backs and acting like a good person but being hypocritical about it. It easily meant that being a lady was just a pretense and facade about the simplest things. It meant while drinking tea to make polite, fake remarks about the little things. It meant guising in an uncomfortable dress to impress people.

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While using stereotypes in a literary piece of work can be monotonous, it can be very effectual when getting a point across. Harper Lee accomplishes to get her moral condemnation of prejudice in a precise way by using stereotypes within the story. Lee creates the characters to be judged upon without any knowledge of what is really the truth. Arthur “Boo” Radley is a victim of the stereotype in the story. He is believed to be a crazy monster who should be feared yet his only sins are his lack of communication skills and shyness.

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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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This demonstrates that Scout was expected to dress a certain way in order to represent being female. There were mixed signals being given to her, which caused her some confusion about what she should be and how she should

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Atticus’ disregard of gender roles teaches Scout to do the same. Living in the deep South in the 1930s meant expectations for how girls were meant to act were very clearly set, from a very young age. These

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Breaking Away Even though Letty Cottin Pogrebin, an American author and social activist, recently stated, “When men are oppressed, it’s a tragedy. When women are oppressed it’s tradition,” in recent times, women decades ago experienced even greater prejudice (Deborah, Golda, and Me). In Harper Lee’s 1930s novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, Lee discusses the tradition of inequality between men and women. The protagonist and narrator, Jean Louise Finch, also known as Scout, lives in a time when women are expected to be perfect Southern ladies.

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(Chapter 23). Scout also feels pressured to act like a “proper” girl, which she finds frustrating. But even though she faces tough times, Scout’s curiosity and strength help her learn important lessons about fairness and

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Gender Roles, Not Pizza Rolls "Gender roles are a social construct. When we attempt to assign strengths and weaknesses to either gender, we literally cut our potential as the human race in half." In Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird one huge controversial theme is how gender is displayed considering how gender roles played a major part in the time period that the book was written, and how the main character Scout confronts these boundaries.

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Scout’s tomboyism illustrates one of many instances, where Lee characterizes characters who fall in the middle of masculinity and femininity stereotypes, rather than only belonging and taking part of feminineness methods and ways. Another example of gender discrimination was in chapter 11 when Jem bought a “miniature steam engine for himself and a twirling baton” for Scout (Lee, page 134). As they were walking past Mrs. Dubose’s house, she accused them of making trouble and disapproved of Scout’s wardrobe by bellowing and saying“... ‘And you—’ she pointed an arthritic finger at [her]—’what are you doing in those overalls? You should be in a dress and camisole, young lady!’ ”

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These two examples show the conflicts caused by gender stereotypes, and how Scout goes against

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After learning this important lesson she began to see where she fit in. Scout learned that no matter if she were a man or female she had a place in the world and she made a

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To Kill A Mockingbird portrays many types of prejudice such as sexism, lifestyle and racism. Sexism is represented through respect and roles of genders. Women were considered weak, they were expected to be elegant and ladylike. It was expected that women stay home and care for the house and children. Jem would often tease Scout for being a girl.

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Harper Lee’s novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, illustrates how women are restricted by societal expectations. Women and girls are expected to act a certain way, to be feminine and docile. After an argument between Jem and Scout, Jem goes as far to shout, “‘It’s time you started bein’ a girl and acting right!’” (Lee, 153). Jem believes that Scout should be cooperative and malleable to be a typical girl.

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