What Is Harper Lee's Treatment Of Women In To Kill A Mockingbird

Harper Lee wrote To Kill A Mockingbird in 1960. The novel is based on prejudice life in the 30’s, a time when people discriminated others for being different and judged people based on who they are on the outside and not the inside. Many people were unaware of these prejudices at this time, which is why Harper Lee wrote this book: to bring awareness of these unfair injustices. As Scout is exposed to hatred and prejudicial views she matures throughout the novel To Kill A Mockingbird. In Maycomb, Scout is not the average girl. She is a tomboy, who loves overalls, playing with the boys, and fighting. During this time, women were supposed to act proper and wear dresses and not fight others; it was the unwritten code of women. On page 69, Jem declares that Scout is becoming more of a lady everyday. Although Scout denies it, she starts acting and dressing differently throughout the novel. Women in the 30’s tried to look very nice by mainly wearing dresses and skirts with curled long hair. Harper Lee uses Scout’s clothes as a symbol of her growing and maturing throughout the novel. Scout in the beginning chapters did not care how she looked, almost only wore overalls, and she had bangs. On page 156 Scout says, “She made me wear a petticoat”. Scout explains that Cal made her look like a lady to church, even though Scout does not

Scout’s conflict with society is that she did not fit in with the other girls and women in the early chapters. As the book goes on, she does not only start to act and look like a lady; she begins to understand situations like an adult. She realizes that she must act and look like a lady to avoid prejudices, and that what you hear about who someone could be completely wrong. Harper Lee was sending a theme to the people of the 30’s to show that children should not have to grow up in a world with so much prejudice and