To Kill a Mockingbird Literary Analysis
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee is a pivotal piece of literature when looking at women and their rights during the 1930s and how innocence of a child can be striped away by the harsh realities of life. In our novel, we meet the protagonist and first person narrator Jean Louise (Scout) Finch. Scout, being raised by a single father, is allowed to grow up “wild” during the first years of her life. When she reaches school age, however, she begins to have outside influences in her life trying to force her into societies mold of what a woman “should be.” One of the major themes in To Kill a Mockingbird is that of youth and innocence. Growing up and learning societies ways are both confusing and rough
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To her, a person is a person and who a person is isn’t necessarily right or wrong. It just is what it is. Once she begins school and her father takes on Tom Robinson’s case, her world starts crashing down around her. People begin to use the word nigger or nigger lover towards her father or their family. This bothers her and she doesn’t understand this kind of ugliness. She fights because she knows that it is an insult, even if she doesn’t understand the insult yet. She finally asks her father about it and Atticus always seems to know how to explain things so that Scout …show more content…
Whether or not being raised by a single father and an older brother had anything to do with it, Scout grows up believing that being a girl meant that she couldn’t have any fun. Girls have to be proper by wearing dresses. They can’t run around and play outside or swear. Women also don’t always say what they mean and can be catty with each other. Scout would rather hang out with the men who are blunt and say straight up what they think or how they feel about something. Eventually, Scout discovers that women can be just as courageous as men, even if she has to wear a
Her determination allows her to continue to swear, which is not fitting for the kind of woman that society expects. In addition, she continues to participate in similar activities that involve Jem and Dill. She is also able to avoid acting like a lady in front of Dill, who she aspires to marry, in the future. She is unwilling to change her decision to become ladylike. Also, even though he father reminds her to use her head instead of her fist, she still reckons to fight against her family instead of publicly. This shows us that she is willing to continue to fight, if it concerns her father and anything that holds great value to her. Scout does not let go of her ability to fight, even though, she knows it is not the right choice for a lady, and she keeps her head held high like her brother, like a man. In all, Scout’s determination aids her in resisting the attempts that society inflicts upon her towards becoming a befitting
To Kill a Mockingbird is the story of the trial of a black man, Tom Robinson for the raping of a white woman, Mayella Ewell, in racist Alabama in the 1990’s.
Scout however, always seems to follow her own decisions on what to wear and how to act even though everyone she knows seem to want to change her into what a woman should be like. Even if traditional femininity isn't weakness scout continues to stick to her own personality and style instead of what her aunt wants for her because her gender does not have to define
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 feels like she must “deny” and “refuse” her family because they expect so little of her and see her as nothing but a financial gain. In another light, as time has gone by in Scout’s life she has found that she feels more drawn to men than to women, which is most likely the reason she is more masculine. She says herself that men do “not trap you with innocent questions to make fun of you”, meaning that she finds women to be more manipulative, sinister beings, even calling them “‘hypocrites’” (Lee 313). Despite her more negative outlook on women, she still finds solace in the men in her life, saying that she is “more at home in [her] father's world” (Lee
Because of this there is much pressure on Scout by her Aunt Alexandra to become more lady like. Obviously becoming a lady is not one of her foremost goals. In fact, it often seems like Scout would rather be a boy because they seemed to have more leeway. For example, “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.” (108) As Scout gets older despite what she used to think she realizes being a girl isn’t all sitting around and sewing
In the book To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Scout battles her femininity. Scout is a little girl who loves to play, but in the world, she is living in, a girl should always be respectful and have a dress on. She plays with her brother Jem and their friend Dill and likes being one of the boys. Her Aunt Alexandra is trying to make her into a “real” lady. Scout battles her femininity when people tell her what to do when she hangs out with guys, and when Aunt Alexandra tells her what to do.
With the standard that men were above women, Scout must decide how to encounter this problem. Scout and other women are faced by sexist statements from men, which show men were viewed as the greater gender during this time. Whenever Scout upsets Jem, Jem seems to use Scout’s gender as an insult to persuade her into changing her mind. Scout appears to be offended when referred to as a girl, meaning she just wants to fit in and be seen equal to her brother and Jem.
Her struggles stem from her aversion to femininity and her lack of masculinity. Throughout the novel, Scout tries to repress her femininity. “I was not sure, but Jem told me I was being a girl, that girls always imagined
Scout is viewed as a tom boy. Scout isn't your typical teenage girl who wear lipgloss and girly clothes to fit in, another stereotype girls have. She is intelligent and will get into a fight with a boy if she has to. Women weren't always seen as people ¨He staked me out, marked as his property, said I was the only girl he would ever love, then he neglected
First, throughout the course of the novel, Scout refuses to act like ladylike and she is unwilling to let go of masculinity. This decision is influenced by the usual company of Jem, her elder brother, and Dill. Since, she spends most of her time with Jem and Dill, she has developed an interest in activities that don’t usually involve ladies. Throughout her life, Scout looks up to her brother because she has no on else, this causes her to follow in his footsteps. In addition, Jem and Dill begin to avoid her because they feel she is acting like a lady. This statement encourages her to become more like them, so she can be a part of their group. From her surroundings, Scout develops a ‘tom-boyish’ attitude towards the things around her. The effect of Scout’s
In Harper Lee’s novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, she writes about what it’s like to live in a small town around the 1930s. Lee tells the story of life in the town of Maycomb through the eyes of an innocent girl named Scout. Scout and her brother, Jem, go through many events together over the three years that the book takes place such as meeting Dill, getting presents from Boo Radley, learning about the people in their neighborhood, and going to school, just to name a few. By using a child as the narrator, Lee is able to introduce the many characters with details that only an innocent kid could think of. Harper Lee uses characterization to show that people are both good and bad.
As the novel proceeds, Scout continues struggling with being “ladylike”. She grew up without a female presence in her life which lead to her picking up on her dad and brothers actions therefor
If Scout were to have more feminine
The response she receives is “you won’t get very far until you start wearing dresses more often” (Lee 263), which is a clear criticism and warning for Scout, explained by the notion that Scout would never be accepted as a lady if she did not conform to the gender norms of the 1930s. As she is growing up, Scout is faced with conflicting views of who she wants to be and what she is supposed to do as a woman. Scout repeatedly challenges the traditional view of women by wearing pants, being covered in dirt, and by acting in ways that are considered unladylike. This reflects the same conflicts women were facing during the 1960s and long before, which is why To Kill a Mockingbird fits so well within the time period.