To Kill A Mockingbird Identity Analysis

For as long as I can remember, I have traveled between two houses. I live with my mom and every Tuesday and Thursday I visit my dad. Often when I describe my situation people assume I must be “broken” or “troubled” because my family isn’t normal. However, this is my normal and it would be strange to me if this was not how I lived my life. An identity has a dictionary definition, but is difficult to define. My identity has been and continues to be shaped by the social forces of gender, technology, and family.

One’s gender has a great influence on their identity. Their actions, opportunities, and most commonly, roles in society. I identify as a female and thus by preset standards should have certain talents and interests. I am a huge hockey

Not to say that some may enjoy said options, but they perpetuate the double standard that exists in the sports world. In order for a male to be a sports fan, he must root for the team and know a few statistics, but if a female is a true fan of a team she has to know the name of every past coach, every year the team has made the playoffs, the schedule must be memorized, and know every member of the 1983 roster. Someone who I feel can relate to my situation is Scout from To Kill a Mockingbird. Throughout the novel, she is told by her Aunt Alexandra to stop wearing her overalls because they are not ladylike and once Scout puts on her dress, she earns the approval of her aunt and the other ladies in the missionary society (Lee 229-234). Scout does not fit the typical “Southern belle” mold and is reminded of it quite frequently. She mentions that she felt “more at home in my father's world. People like Mr. Heck Tate did not trap you with innocent questions to make fun of you; even Jem was not highly critical unless you said something stupid...There was something about them, no matter how much they cussed and drank and gambled and chewed; no matter how undelectable they were, there was

I often have a difficult time describing my situation to others, but I wouldn’t want it any other way. Three divorces have taught me what successful and not so successful relationships look like. My younger sister with autism has taught me empathy, compassion, and patience. My step siblings have been there for me when did not have to be and for that I am grateful. No matter the family situation, every family has an undeniable sense of pride. For example, my family, most of whom were born in Ireland, throw the loudest St. Patrick’s day parties and keep our Irish flags up all through March. We are proud of our incredibly fair skin and abundance of freckles and redheads. My family’s pride is similar to that of Aunt Alexandra’s and her obsession with heredity and the certain “family streaks” in the novel’s Maycomb county. Scout mentions said streaks in chapter 13. “Everybody in Maycomb, it seemed, had a streak: a drinking streak, a gambling streak, a mean streak, a funny streak,” (Lee 129). I again feel Scout and I could relate to each other through our unique family situations, hers of course being her family’s cook Calpurnia and her neighbor Miss Maudie as her mother figures. Another unique family are the Pritchett’s on the show Modern Family. I was elated when this show came out because, while dramatized for comedic effect, it is a break from the straight, white, “we all get along fine” families usually depicted on TV.