In the book, “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee, the theme of gender is shown through many characters and through their interactions in their southern society in Maycomb. Throughout the book, Harper shows the injustices and expectations that are brought upon certain individuals throughout the book. Throughout this essay, we will go over Scout, Calpurnia and Atticus' representation of gender norms and expectations that were shown consistently in the book. In the story, Scout Finch is the young protagonist that defies gender norms by her refusal to conform to society's conventional gender roles. A good example in which Scout’s behavior is shown as un-lady-like by her aunt Alexandra is when she goes on to criticize her for acting poorly and …show more content…
Within the family, Calpurnia creates her authority and independence despite being a black woman in the racist world of the time. She gave Scout and Jem attention and disciplined them as if she was shown as a mother figure in the book. Scout points out, “Calpurnia was something else again. She was all angles and bones; she was near-sighted; she squinted; her hand was wide as a bed slat and twice as hard” ( Lee 6 ). This shows Calpurnia as a strong, capable woman who challenges society's expectations for the stereotypes placed on her ethnicity. She is shown displaying her wisdom and resilience that stretches beyond the limitations of society. On the other hand, Atticus Finch, Scout’s dad, represents a more radical perspective on gender roles. Atticus goes against the masculine stereotypes by being kind, compassionate and understanding as a single dad raising his children. Atticus teaches Scout and Jem about empathy and how doing the right thing to do can go against what society expects. As Scout checks out, “ You never really understand how you consider things from his point of view.. until you climb into his skin and walk around in it” ( Lee 30
Calpurnia is the Finch housekeeper. However, she is much more to the family. She acts as a mother figure to Jem and Scout as she practically raised them after their mother’s death when Scout was two years old. Along with Miss Maudie, Calpurnia is a strong, positive female influence in Jem and in Scout’s life. She is corresponding to Atticus in her lessons of politeness and compassion. For example, when Walter came home for dinner, and proceeded to pour maple syrup all over his meal, Scout made fun of him to the point of total embarrassment. Calpurnia told Scout, “There’s some folks who don’t eat like us,” she whispered fiercely,” but you ain’t called on to contradict’em at the table when they don’t. That boy’s yo’ comp’ny and if he wants to eat up the table cloth you let him, you hear?” “He ain’t company, Cal, he’s a Cunningham- ““Hush your mouth! Don’t matter who they are, anybody sets foot in this house’s yo’ comp’ny and don’t you let me catch you remarkin’ on their ways like you was so high and mighty! Yo’ folks might be better’n the Cunningham’s but it don’t count for nothin’ the way you’re disgracin’ ‘em – if you can’t act fit to eat at the table you can just set here and eat in the kitchen!” Calpurnia sent me through the swinging door to the dining room with a stinging smack.” (Lee, page 26-29). Calpurnia’s moral lesson here is to respect
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
Throughout all those years as the kids were growing up, Calpurnia has shown and given an immense amount of love and support towards the children, just as a mother or a motherly figure should. Atticus sees her as a faithful member of the family, and he refused of letting her go when Aunt Alexandra suggested firing her. In addition, Atticus trusts Calpurnia with the children; he trusts that she will look after them and cook them food when he is not able to. Calpurnia and Scout have grown closer as Scout grew up because often times Jem would exclude her. For instance, when Jem became close to his teenage years, he would act out often and tell Scout what to do. Scout burst into tears after one argument where Jem told her that she ought to start acting more like a girl. As a result, she fled to Calpurnia, where she offered to keep Scout company whenever she needed: “...so you just come right on in the kitchen when you feel lonesome” (131). Also, Scout stated how Calpurnia seemed glad when she appeared in the kitchen. This shows how Calpurnia is always loving and supportive when Scout needs a shoulder to cry on, and how Calpurnia cheers Scout up when she’s not having the best of days. Besides from making Scout and Jem meals everyday, Calpurnia demonstrates exceptional mothering towards Scout on a daily
As girls grow in life, they mature and change into women. In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, Scout, the main character, begins to mature into a woman. In the beginning of the book, she is a tomboy who cannot wait to pick a fistfight with anyone, but at the end, she lowers her fists because her father, Atticus, tells her not to fight. Scout’s views of womanhood, influenced by how Aunt Alexandra, Miss Maudie, and Calpurnia act, make her think more about becoming a woman and less of a tomboy.
Scout is expected to behave like “a lady” but she resists conforming to those roles. For example, Scout faces discrimination because she doesn’t dress how society wants her to dress. More specifically, her aunt Alexandra forces her into a dress that which Scout does not want to wear. “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” (Lee, 108).
“‘You want to grow up to be a lady, don’t you?’ I said not particularly” (Lee). Jean Louise Finch is a tomboy growing up in a world where a girl is expected to become a lady. Submissive housewives and proper ladies were the expectations set for women in the time To Kill A Mockingbird took place. Scout Finch lived in a household that had a strong male influence; aside from Calpurnia, she had no real present example of what she was supposed to become. Because of this, Scout refused to conform to the ways of the rest of the women in Maycomb and the world (Lee 84).
According to “Want to See Pay Discrimination Against Women? Look at the Top” by Bryce Covert, “Male-dominated fields pay nearly $150 more each week than female-dominated ones.” Women all over the world are treated differently because of their gender. This is clearly visible in To Kill a Mockingbird through Scout’s childhood. Scout’s aunt Alexandra encourages her to be calmer and more ladylike, but she doesn’t understand the appeal of being perfect. Throughout the book, Scout questions whether to be polite and refined or to run around with the boys. Atticus, her father tries to let Scout make her own decisions, but Alexandra is set on grooming Scout into the perfect little girl. Women in To Kill a Mockingbird are treated as fragile and sensitive
Although the theme of racism is more pronounced in the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, the theme of sexism is definitely there as well. Even Atticus, along with some other characters, said some sexist statements. In the end, Scout seems to accept the fact that she is a girl and she will always be one. She starts to accept Aunt Alexandra’s ways and embraces being a lady. By the end of the novel, Scout figures out what being a lady means to certain people and starts learning to live with
By utilizing character foil between Aunt Alexandra and Atticus, Lee was able to illustrate a contrast within the white society. In order to show how a typical white person would behave during that time, Lee introduces Aunt Alexandra to portray how most white people would act in Maycomb. “You all were coming back from Calpurnia’s church that Sunday? (Lee, 1960, p. 222)” This quote exemplifies how Aunt Alexandra is always discriminated against black people. She was shocked to hear about Jem and Scout going to black church with Calpurnia. While Calpurnia is portrayed as a well-mannered person who acts like a mother to Scout and Jem in this novel, Aunt Alexandra looks down on Calpurnia, because she was born with different skin color. In response to Calpurnia’s action, she told Atticus, “...you’ve got to do something about her... (Lee, 1960, p.224)” to discrete herself and to prevent Calpurnia from being in the same social class as her. While Aunt Alexandra symbolizes as a racial prejudice in this novel, Atticus is one of the characters that represents both a...
It is the story of Dave Pelzer, who was brutally beaten and starved by his emotionally unstable, alcoholic mother: a mother who played tortuous, unpredictable games that left him nearly dead. Dave's bed was an old army cot in the basement, and his clothes were torn and raunchy. When his mother allowed him the luxury of food, it was nothing more than spoiled scraps that even the dogs refused to eat. The outside world knew nothing of his living nightmare. He had nothing and no one to turn to, but his dreams kept him alive. To this day Dave Pelzer still suffers from lingering pychological effects. The willful infliction of pain and suffering upon children is known as child abuse and is treated by society as a serious crime. Children are so extremely vulnerable and defenseless, it is thought, that no excuse is possible for mistreating them. Even so, abuse is believed to be widespread. Despite strict laws against it, it sometimes goes unreported and unpunished. Perpetrators of child abuse are most often the child’s own parents. A study done in 2005 showed 79.4 percent of perpetrators were parents, and 6.8 percent were other relatives. Almost 1 out of every 100 children in the United States are abused as a child and an average of 5 children die everyday from child abuse (USDHHS). Some cases may be more extreme then others, but child abuse still has a dramatic effect on a person’s life as it continues to effect the victim through their adoloscence and into their adult hood. Not only does child abuse affect a person’s relationship life, but structuring them on who they become in life by altering specific triggers in their brain. What effects does child abuse have on a child’s life from their adolescence and into their adulthood?
In most countries, women only earn between 60 and 75% of men’s wages, for the same work. Sexism is still a problem in today’s society, but it has improved since Scout’s generation in “To Kill a Mockingbird.” Scout believes from an early age that girls aren’t good, and that she can avoid the judgement that comes with being a girl by not acting like one. Being a girl for Scout is less a matter of what she's born with and more a matter of what she does. Scout’s elders influence her perception of womanhood by putting preconceived sexist views in her head. In “To Kill a Mockingbird” Harper Lee shows the reader how all women are expected to act lady like and be proper through the actions of Mrs. Dubose, Jem, and Atticus.
In the 1930s, it was expected to have certain male and female roles. Stereotypically speaking, women were expected to take care of children, wear ladylike clothes, and stay at home and maintain the house. Scout wears clothes that are closely related to those of young boys. “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 anything that required pants” (Lee 81). Instead of following a woman’s attire, Scout decides to be a woman that wears pants, and makes her own decisions. She chooses to show courage to stand up against social standards by not wearing a dress all the time, and by displaying a very boy like personality. Likewise, Scout defends her older brother Jem as an unknown man attacks them. Women are usually expected to be helpless in such a situation, yet scout uses courage and breaks stereotypes. “He yanked Jem nearly off his feet. ‘ Don’t you touch him!’ I kicked the man swiftly” (Lee 152). Scout is not afraid to attack someone that towers over her, and uses courage to break stereotypes about women. Scout uses her tough personality to prove that girls are more than just characters that stay helpless in a delicate dress, but individuals that are capable of great things. Moreover, Calpurnia, Scout’s respectable cook, sets a good example for Scout and uses courage to show her this. Scout
Scout's narration and the character's dialog prove that Alexandra is characterized by her traditional values while Miss Maudie is characterized as a modern woman. The issues of gender roles are still a large part of society today and it affects a majority of adolescents because they feel the need to conform and ignore their individualism and that is why this novel is still relevant to society today.. The lesson to be learned here is to be comfortable in one's own skin and don't listen to negative feedback if it is not constructive. Works Cited Lee, Harper. To Kill a Mockingbird.
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...
Gender Roles and Feminism in Killing a Mockingbird. When the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, was written by Harper Lee, the Southern United States was still clinging tightly to traditional values. Southern societies pressured men to behave as gentlemen, and women were expected to be polite and wear dresses. These stringent gender roles were adhered to in small southern towns because they were isolated from the more progressive attitudes in other areas of the United States.