To Kill A Mockingbird Word Analysis

Mrs. Dubose begins to yell at Scout about not wearing a dress, saying “You’ll grow up waiting on tables if somebody doesn’t change your ways” (116). Mrs. Dubose is implying that if Scout continues to act unlady like she’ll never find a man and instead have to go to work. Scout then becomes terrified of this outcome, as if it was one of the worst things that could ever happen. I have had a similar situation happen to me in my life. As an only child with loving parents, each of them would spend lots of time with me. My dad enjoys things like video games (more so when I was younger), hunting, and cars. Since we’d spend time together these things began to rub off on me. The whole would go down to my great grandma's house for almost every holiday

She defends herself by explaining how it is common to say the word and that “everybody at school” uses it. Scout tries to use this to her advantage to get out of school, showing she doesn’t necessarily care what the word means but also showing that people in her world use the word often. The people she's around most likely don’t understand the full definition of the word and obviously are just copying their parents who say the word often. Adults in the book know the word is highly offensive against blacks and use it to antagonize them. Nowadays, racism is not as common and is looked down upon. The “N” word is a derogatory word against blacks and recently there's been a large push to end the common usage of the word to fight against racism. However, some people still choose to use the word. Like Scout, some people don’t fully understand what they are saying when they use the term and are just using it to their advantage. On the other hand, there are still people who know full well what the word means and what it represents that continue to use it. In To Kill a Mockingbird racist beliefs dictated the many decisions made by the people in that community. Today, racist beliefs still influence our society whether we like it or not. (247