Essay On Southern Women In To Kill A Mockingbird

Navigating Traditional Female Gender Roles in To Kill a Mockingbird In To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee explores how forcing traditional gender roles onto young children can cause rebellion, while not forcing those roles gives them the freedom to choose to follow traditional gender roles when they wish to. Through the characterization of Scout’s relationships with three important adults in her life--Aunt Alexandra, Atticus and Boo Radley--we see how a young girl responds to the pressures of traditional gender roles. Aunt Alexandra insists that Scout follows traditional female gender roles, which causes her to rebel. Aunt Alexandra is a very traditional middle aged women who feels Scout needs some guidance, especially about Scout’s appearance and what she wears.

The Theme of Small Town Southern Life When one thinks of the South, several cultural traits come to mind. The South is best known for its agriculture, family pride, and mannerisms, especially when it comes to the female population. In To Kill A Mockingbird, written by Harper Lee, this culture and small town way of life plays a large part in the story, considering that the setting is in 1930’s Maycomb County, Alabama. By enhancing the plot through the use of Southern traditions, the story seems more realistic and makes it historically accurate, due to the forms of racism and hatred, and the code of conduct in the south at the time.

As Scout gets a little older, she soon realizes that she will have to start acting like a lady. She begins to understand why Aunt Alexandra wants her to act the way that she does. She comes to understand her Aunt and believes there is something interesting in learning how to be a lady. She most realizes this when Jem and Dill go swimming and she couldn't go because they are swimming nude. Aunt Alexandra decides to invite the missionary Ladies for a tea party to discuss the current events in the town of Maycomb (their hometown). Aunt Alexandra dresses Scout up in a dress

Instead she follows the social expectations which is hanging out with people of your own social status. A lady would never be with a person like Walter and that was the message Aunt Alexandra was trying to get across. Even though their relationship has been damaged by this incident, Scout still grows closer to being socially expected by the people of Maycomb

It is only Aunt Alexandra's concern about social class that prevents Scout from being a friend of Walter. The Cunningham's may have similar values to the Finches', but their social status in Maycomb is more important. Aunt Alexandra likens coming from a low class to being

Scout does not like the frilly and girly way of life and resists the pressures put on her. When her uncle asks her if she “want[s] to grow up to be a lady,” Scout responds with “not particularly”(Lee 90). Even adults in her own home encourage her attune to the standards of femininity. To Scout, “Aunt Alexandra offers criticism, she is still more

She begins to understand Aunt Alexandra, a motherlike figure who pushes Scout to be more ladylike, as she matures when she “...carefully picked up the tray and watched myself walk toward 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” (Lee 237). Scout appears to be influenced by Aunt Alexandra and notices that her aunt can maintain her composure, which Scout begins to admire and thinks she can learn from. Although Scout aspires to rebel against any teaching to become more feminine, she discerns her aunt’s part in her development as she admits that it takes a woman to do that kind of work.

Scout is immensely boyish and quite a spitfire in the first part of To Kill a Mockingbird. To her Aunt Alexandra’s horror, she runs around in overalls and plays with the boys. Aunt Alexandra insists on Scout acting the part of a little sunbeam at all times. “Aunt Alexandra was fanatical on the subject of my attire. I could not possibly hope to be

Lee also uses narration from Scout to show Aunt Alexandra’s views on her family, in particular, Scout. Alexandra represents the gender stereotypes that women faced in the 30’s while Scout represents the non-conformists. Alexandra was “fanatical on the subject of [Scout’s] attire. [Scout] could not possibly hope to be a lady if [she] wore breeches” (Lee, 90). The struggle between these two characters displays the gender stereotypes and pressures that faced women in the 1930’s as well as the lengths that some women went through to be able to keep their

Gender prejudice, mainly about women, is a common theme seen in To Kill a Mockingbird. The town in which Scout lives in is set in traditional southern values in the 1930s. If you were to differentiate the 1930s to today, you would see how society’s

Aunt Alexandra expresses the entire prejudgments of the local Maycomb society, like the haughtiness over the colored people and also the tough heartedness for the unfortunate white people. Aunt Alexandra, therefore, is easily accepted into the town of Maycomb, but Alexandra irritates Scout by how she is not ladylike like the other girls, and women in Maycomb. The reason why Aunt Alexandra comes to stay with the Finches, is because she comes to straighten the children’s manners, and behaviors, since they’re not family standards. Another reason why Aunt Alexandra comes down to visit, is to make a feminine influence on Scout, since Scout fights

Aunt Alexandra has been misjudged due to our modern views against a woman living up to the standards of the 20th century. According the website, www2ivcc.edu, women were seen as “passive, dependent, [and] domestic”. Thus, Scout’s childlike personality inncently rebels against thesel stereotypes, which angers Aunt Alexandra. Of course, it is completely understandable, since the human nature has the natural urge to be controlling. Although

Harper Lee’s novel is most famous for its antiracist context, however it should also be noted that her writing promoted feminism and change in gender roles. She establishes Scout’s masculinity through her nickname, her unconventional behavior such as fighting, and masculine clothes. Including stereotypical Southern female women in contrast to Scout demonstrated the paradox barrier of femininity and masculinity.

Scout reflects on her relationship her aunt before a christmas dinner, noting how a conversation between Alexandra and Atticus about Scout’s attire was the only point in her life where she had heard her father speak sharply with anyone, “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”. (83) Alexandra has very little knowledge of what Scout enjoys doing, and doesn’t seem to care enough to respect it. One of her missions throughout the novel is to permanently change Scout’s attire from her regular overalls into frilly dresses even if that meant giving up the things she enjoyed doing and substituting them with a life of playing with tiny tea sets and stoves. Through this, Lee is able to show the disconnect between Scout and her aunt’s generations and how sexism can sometimes even originate from other

In To Kill a Mocking Bird by Harper Lee, there are many examples of how women are limited in society. One example of how women are limited in society is when Aunt Alexandra says "We decided that it would be best for you to have some feminine influence" (170). This shows that women are treated differently by the way that they say she needs to act. They really believe that Scout needs to act more like a women which is not fair that women must act different. The novel also states "when I said I could do nothing in a dress, she told me I wasn't supposed to be doing things that require pants." This means that Scouts aunt disagrees with a girl wearing pants. This is because the women in society all wear dresses. This shows that women are limited