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The role of women in killing a mockingbird
The role of the woman in literature
The role of women in killing a mockingbird
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For as long as women have been around they have been looked at as fragile, weak, and less than men. Even though without women, everyone would cease to exist they are automatically downgraded for being themselves. Women often do not call out when women are being judged, but rather are usually the ones judging. In the book To Kill A Mockingbird, Harper Lee proves, women are more likely to be judged and ridiculed for not being in the social standards. Women have always had certain social standards and high expectations on how they carry themselves that they are expected to meet. In multiple circumstances Scout doesn’t understand why being called a girl by Jem is a bad thing, but it must be. ¨I was not so sure, but Jem told me I was being a girl,
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...
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
In the early nineteenth century, women were measured as second-class citizens whose existence was narrowed down to the interior life of the home and the care of them children. After marriage, they did not have any rights to own property, maintain their wages, or sign a contract, and were unable to vote. It was expected that women be dutiful wives, never to hold a thought or opinion independent of their husbands. It was also considered inappropriate for women to travel alone or to speak in public. Women were also taught to cease from pursuing any serious education. Silently floating in their cages, they were seen as merely objects of beauty, and were looked upon as intellectually and physically substandard to men. However, among these simple housekeepers are social reformers, wonderful mothers, and powerful women of faith who changed the world by changing their own.
Harper Lee is an author that most people know of due to her writing controversial novels and her novels also being classified as classics. It seems like most middle school and high school book lists consist of Lee’s most famous novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, which is about a single father with two children, the Finches, who fights for the rights and lives of black Americans. When the novel was published, it was considered very controversial because it dealt with white Americans fighting for black Americans, which was not the norm at the time the book was published in 1960. Her novel To Kill a Mockingbird was not her only controversial novel though; she released a second novel titled Go Set a Watchman in 2015 which is also about the Finches, just when the children are adults, and with a twist that the beloved audience of Lee’s first novel do not approve of ever so slightly. Although the books are very different with the aging of characters and opposing views from the characters in the first novel, there is one theme that is very prominent in both novels. The common theme between the novels is gender equality. Harper Lee uses gender inequality in both novels to show her readers
To begin with, Scout Finch is a Tomboy. Scout enjoys climbing tree’s, getting down and dirty on the ground, or running around with friends. There were many issues with this, as prejudice dominated the minds of people in the south in this century, most expected femininity of a woman. For example, Aunt Alexandra constantly pesters Scout about wearing dresses, as illustrated by the following quote: “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 couldn't do nothing in a dress, she said I wasn't supposed to be doing things that required pants” (Lee 85-86). Aunt Alexandra believed Scout could never be a lady if she didn’t dress like one, but Scout refused to because she could not continue her daily activities in a dress. Another example is when Jack Finch (Scouts Uncle) says: “You’re also growing out of your pants a little” (Lee 105). This is meant to say that Scout should now stop wearing her pants and begin dressing like a woman, and wearing dresses and skirts. Many of Scout’s relatives and close friends expected more femininity out of her, but she was not fully up to the task, being a Tomboy.
Prior to the feminist movement of the 1960s, women had to follow strict gender roles. Scout is a prime example of a female child struggling to fit these roles placed upon her by not only males in society, but women too. The moment Aunt Alexandra enters Maycomb, she places it upon herself to mould young Scout and Jem into their societal roles. Scout especially suffers a great deal of criticism and pressure from her Aunt to be the stereotypical girl;
To Kill a Mockingbird’s relevancy to today’s society In To Kill a Mockingbird, author Harper Lee uses characters to explore the different stereotypes in the Southern United States of the 1930s. Through the eyes of Scout Finch you learn how these stereotypes are so absurd and fabricated they really are. The novel also portrays numerous examples of racism, sexism, in creative ways. The stereotypes and themes portrayed in this novel are exactly what makes it so relevant to today’s society. An important reason why To Kill a Mockingbird is relevant today is the ever-growing resurgence of racism throughout the country.
Therefore, the author favors Scout's unique personality and implies women do not have to act in a stereotypical manner. The book might inspire young girls to become independent and create their own unique personalities. To Kill a Mockingbird emerges as an important novel that contradicts female society and suggests that girls should not feel pressure to act in scripted "womanly" roles.
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
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
In today’s society women are being marked in various ways, such as their physical appearance, their employment and through the idea that women are inferior to men. As a women, I can attest to this. Although it is true men have also come to be marked, women have been greater victims of countless judgement for many generations and are still prevalent victims of it today.
Throughout history, women have been mistreated as the weaker gender. It has been evident throughout the epic of Sunjata, the history of Greek society as well as Indian society. It is evident today with the social classes we have formed that there are predominant gender roles in our society; history as we know tends to repeat itself.
Women have been discriminated against since the beginning of time, as early as the first people, Adam and Eve. Eve was called the evil one, who ate fruit from the tree of knowledge. Once she had the knowledge to know right from wrong, she chose to do wrong and give the fruit to Adam. Examples like these can be shown all over history books, in stories, tales and legends across the entire world. Women have been subordinate to men in virtually all societies throughout history.
Unban the Truth What does killing a mockingbird mean? To many who have not had the pleasure of reading Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, that is just a bird. To many more who have, killing a mockingbird means preying on the helpless and the good. No great story was ever without provocative topics.
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.