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Gender roles in To Kill A Mockingbird pdf
Gender roles in To Kill A Mockingbird pdf
Gender roles in To Kill A Mockingbird pdf
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Women have been a big part of history and they have always had a certain standard that they feel like they need to stand by to be looked upon as a woman. Within Harper Lee’s fictional novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, the audience is subjected to the harsh impact of women's roles in which the innocent narrator, Scout Finch, struggles to understand the justification for such biased rights. By analyzing major female characters in the novel such as [scout and Calpurnia],one can evaluate the gradual change of female roles and expectations from the 1930s to current day.
Women then and now always feel like they have to dress “girly” in dresses to be accepted in society as a woman.Scout feels like she has to wear a dress to be considered as a woman even though she
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I felt the starched walls of a pink cotton penitentiary closing in on me, and for the second time in my life I thought of running away. Immediately. (Lee,15).This quote shows how scout would rather dress like a tomboy than a girly girl.And when she hears “girly”things she feels uncomfortable.This quote shows how scout would rather dress like a tomboy than a girly girl. Furthermore, based on an article published by Pennsylvania State University, many gender roles around the world were dictated by the environment and the needs of a society. The document also states how gender roles vary based on the historical and cultural background of a society, as well as ethnicity. This shows how gender roles are based by where you live and where you're from,these roles can also come from something as simple as your ethnicity. Women then and now feel like they have to talk a certain way and that if they have a masculine voice they're looked down upon. In the book aunt Alexandra talks about how scout's voice doesn't sound enough like a girl. In the book scout feels like she has to talk like a girl to be
Even though many social forces impact Scout in Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, gender impacts Scout the greatest. It affects her in how other people treat her. Unexpectedly, Aunt Alexandra shows up at the Finch household, and Scout asks why she had just shown up. Aunt Alexandra replies, “We decided that it would be good for you to have some feminine influence. It won’t be many years, Jean Louise, before you become interested in clothes and boys” (127). After Alexandra says this, Scout becomes puzzled because she does not think she needs a “feminine influence”. But, as she becomes older she is expected to act more lady like. Since she is a girl, she is expected to act prim and proper. Her being raised around men is acting against these stereotypes. Certainly, it is obvious that boys are more daring than girls. So while Jem and Dill want to get a sneak peak inside of Boo Radley’s house, Scout gets a little apprehensive. Jem shouts out, “Scout I’m telling you for the last time shut your trap or go home. I declare to the lord you’re getting more like a girl every day,” (51-52). After Jem said this, she decides she has no option but to join them. She does...
Most girls that grew up in the time that Scout did would be wearing dresses and acting in a more feminine manner. Some of this can be credited to Atticus’s hands-off parenting style, which doesn’t push Scout towards stereotypical gender roles. Scout seems to represent a very early and mild form of feminism in the south. When problems arise in the book, she often questions or examines them as a personal responsibility and seeks a resolution. This is a key difference because in feminist ethics, men often view something right or wrong instead of seeking a resolution.
While the women in Harper Lee’s novel To Kill a Mockingbird come in a variety of personalities and backgrounds, all of their lives are led by one constricting factor; their gender. Scout's upbringing as a young woman greatly contrasts that of her brother Jem. Jem is educated as a young boy growing into a man while Scout’s journey is taken as a woman. The manacle of womanhood is but a concept if one does not consider the harsh faults and inhibiting limits of men or rather the struggle for “masculinity” that men are similarly constrained. Though she is repeatedly told to have ladylike manners and to dress in more feminine way, Scout mostly denies this norm but is still able to become a young
This is an example of how herd mentality can lead to harmful and racist ideas that affect the lives of many. Another instance in the book that represents a negative of herd mentality is Aunt Alexandra’s beliefs that Scout needs to wear a dress to be more ‘lady-like’. This idea that to be a lady you have to wear dresses and stay inside and cook is a very insulting expectation. These misogynistic thoughts that stemmed from the herd mentality during that time led to some unfair disadvantages for
Gender roles in society have greatly changed throughout the years of America. From puritan women who thought that showing skin was undoubtedly a sin, to the flapper era in American history that welcomed the idea of women showing more of their sexuality. In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, which depicts the events that occur when a white man defends an African American man during the era of the Great Depression and what results from the story. Gender roles are a prevalent theme in the story. Through the characters dialogue and Scout's narration, Miss Maudie is characterized as a modern women while aunt Alexandra is characterized by her adherence to tradition.
In To Kill a Mockingbird, Aunt Alexandria says Jean Louise Finch “wasn’t supposed to do anything that required pants” and she expected scout to be “playing with small stoves, tea sets, and wearing the add-a-pearl necklace. This reaffirms the gender stereotype that women were meant to look after the house and that females should conform to society’s expectations of them. This highlights how society’s attitude and values about gender stereotypes limit the opportunities for females to have important or influential jobs. In The Help, the majority of the female characters are maids or unemployed. This reflects how gender roles are prevalent in Maycomb County’s society. When Celia Rae Foote states that “kids are the only thing worth living for” it reaffirms the patriarchal values of the society of Jackson County. This also displays how in “The Help” societies’ values and attitudes about gender constricts a female from receiving the same opportunities as their male counterparts and having the same authority as their male
As a growing young girl, Scout was learning and experiencing things just like any other child would though growing up. She got older and was able to understand things a lot better as well as being able to apply lessons she had learned in her everyday life. She began to act slightly more grown up in situations such as Aunt Alexandria's dinner party. Scout forgot how much she despised her Aunt and how much she disliked dresses and joined the group of women in their conversations. Despite how she didn't want to "act more like a lady", she played along with her Aunt's "campaign to teach me (Scout) to be a lady" made an exception to please her Aunt and to create some peace between them. Upon hearing the news of Tom's death she concludes "if Aunty could be a lady at a time like this, so could I." This shows how Scout was beginning to act more ladylike for her Aunt.
Scout wears overalls and wants to play with and help her brother and her guy best friend. She despises dresses and wants to fit in with the guys. Alexandra shames her for this because she, “needs to act more like a lady,” which Scout could care less about at the age of nine. There is also a speech called “Ain’t I a Woman?” which is about a woman that is trying to stand up for her rights.
Scout recalled Jem screaming: “Scout, I'm tellin' you for the last time, shut your trap or go home—I declare to the Lord you're gettin' more like a girl every day” (Lee 24). Of course, after hearing this, Scout was determined to stick what Jem was doing to “prove herself.” This impacted the plot by letting Jem’s crazy schemes occur; perhaps, if Scout had left instead of going along, Jem would have reconsidered his actions. But, since Scout hated to be called a girl, Jem and Scout ended up sneaking into the Radley yard to peer in, which ended in them almost being killed. Thus, gender roles have impacted the plot of To Kill a Mockingbird by encouraging Scout to be tough and provoking the
For example, one of Scout’s elderly neighbors shouts at Scout one day and says “What are you doing in those overalls? You should be in a dress and camisole, young lady!” (Lee 85) which demonstrates how the pressure to be a lady is forced onto girls regardless of how young the girl is. This statement and numerous others leave Scout with the unwanted burden of attempting to be a proper lady. This internal conflict within Scout is shown when she replies that she wants to be “just a lady,” (Lee 196) after being asked about what Scout wants to be when she’s older.
Sexism is not as common a topic in comparison to racism, but does play a role in the development of the novel. This type of discrimination is expressed towards women from men and women alike. Men feel compelled to protect women from unsightly things, (Lee 221), and the women in Maycomb have the mind set that, to be a lady, they must conform to society's expectations of them. They believe they must dress, act, and speak a certain way to appease the community. Aunt Alexandra is a big believer in acting the way society expects her to and attempts to impose these values on her niece, Scout, who becomes mortified, as she has always been a tomboy and prefers spending time in the dirt. “Aunt Alexandra was fanatical on the subject of my [Scout's] attire. She said 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 ...
Lee purposely has Scout represent these feelings, so that Lee could make the claim that the naivety of youth and a poor, most likely masculine, setting results in the hampering of a girl’s brilliance. Secondly, “other people” is a broad term that grants Lee the ability to stereotype men as haters of strong women who “always imagined things.” Through her analysis of naivety, setting, and misogynistic tendencies, Lee demonstrates how society naturally and unintentionally creates an environment for gender discrimination.
Women are still expected to follow rules that society has set for them. Advertisements with unrealistic beauty standards are shown millions of times everyday. Women are still expected to stay at home and cook and clean while men go to work. Scout is a very brave girl who is not afraid to break the rules society has set for her. In every chapter, Scout shows the reader that she is not afraid to be herself.
In To Kill a Mockingbird, the main protagonist, Scout, is living in a time where people thought of women as a minority, believed women had to act and look a certain way, and also presumed that women have lower intelligence then men. Their assumptions and beliefs about Scout reveals that
In To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, forms of discrimination are seen throughout the book. Scout is expected to act as a female and lady instead of the tomboy she is at heart.