Scouts Journey to Womanhood Essay

The story in which the character of Aunt Alexandra plays a large part in is To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. It is a southern gothic fiction novel. This story is about prejudice and racism. It is based off the Scottsboro trial, in which 9 black men were accused of raping two white women on a train in 1931. Atticus, Scout’s father, is defending Tom Robinson, who was accused of raping Maya Ewell. Aunt Alexandra comes to stay with Atticus, Scout, and Jem (their mother passed away years before the story began). She came to visit and stay for a while in order to act as a mother figure toward Scout and teach her how to become a woman. Scout is a tomboy, and she resists this change that Aunt Alexandra is trying to force on her. Aunt Alexandra,

Navigating Traditional Female Gender Roles in To Kill a Mockingbird In To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee explores how forcing traditional gender roles onto young children can cause rebellion, while not forcing those roles gives them the freedom to choose to follow traditional gender roles when they wish to. Through the characterization of Scout’s relationships with three important adults in her life--Aunt Alexandra, Atticus and Boo Radley--we see how a young girl responds to the pressures of traditional gender roles. Aunt Alexandra insists that Scout follows traditional female gender roles, which causes her to rebel. Aunt Alexandra is a very traditional middle aged women who feels Scout needs some guidance, especially about Scout’s appearance and what she wears.

Scout is quite a confident character in the To Kill A Mockingbird novel especially because she is able to fight boys without any fear. She might be a small girl but she has one big heart, possessing the virtue of caring by always seeing the best of others and as well as having great concern for others. The way she acts or the clothes that she wears, she can come across as a tomboy because unlike other girls who wear dresses she rocks it in her cozy fashionable overalls.

Throughout the book, To Kill A Mockingbird, one of the main characters, Scout, is impacted by sexism from her family, peers, and community. The book is set in the 1930’s when women were definitely not thought of as equal. There were certain social rules that girls should follow and the ways that society told them to act. The scout is a character that is impacted by sexism throughout the story. She is a young girl that changes because of the oppression that is placed on her by her family and peers. The character Scout is affected by sexism, which Harper Lee uses to develop the reader’s perception of Scout from indecisive and confined to determined, criticized, and conflicted and finally to confident, conflicted, and decisive.

On the other hand, Aunt Alexandra faced a different but common obstacle, prejudice. Since prejudice was ubiquitous, Aunt Alexandra demonstrated maturity when she became more accepting of others especially Calpurnia, Boo and Scout. Aunt Alexandra, Scout and Jem’s caretaker, had some difficulties interacting and talking around people who were a different race or a lower social or economic class. When Aunt Alexandra first met Calpurnia, the African-American maid who worked in the Finch’s house, she despised her and all of her actions. No matter what Calpurnia did or what she said, she could not please Aunt Alexandra. However, later on in the novel, Aunt Alexandra developed a more accepting attitude towards Calpurnia. She allowed Calpurnia to serve the children dinner. This shows how much Aunt Alexandra has grown to be more accepting of other races and not be prejudice. Not only does Aunt Alexandra accept Calpurnia for who she is, but she also learns to accept Scout. “She brought me something to put on, and had I thought about it then, I would have never let her forget it: in her distraction, Aunty brought me my overalls” (Pg.264).

Because of what people have heard about Scout, they stereotype that she isn’t ladylike because she acts like a boy and wears overalls. Mrs. Dubose, the Finch’s neighbor, says, “’…what are you doing in those overalls? You should be in a dress and camisole, young lady! You’ll grow up waiting on tables if somebody doesn’t change your ways- a Finch waiting on tables at the O.K. Café-hah!’”(Lee 135). In this case, Scout is considered a stereotype, but she changes her ways. Scout is confronted with her own stereotypes in the novel but as she grows and learns, she begins to regret her actions. Scout changes her ways throughout the book in order to get rid of the label people put on her. Even though she is still a tomboy at heart, Scout learns how to control her actions and act more like a lady.

How Scout Develops from a Tomboy to a Young Lady in To Kill a Mockingbird

Scout was particularly affected by gender discrimination as she was a girl. She was told she acted too much like a boy when she should be acting like a girl. Scout described Aunt Alexandra as “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 pant” (108). Aunt Alexandra discriminated Scout for not wearing lady like attire and told her that if she continued to dress that way then she could not be a lady. Aunt Alexandra soon became determined to put an end to Scout’s non-feminine behavior. Atticus tried to explain to Scout that "She asked me to tell you must try to behave like the little lady and gentleman that you are. She wants to talk to you about the family and what it's meant to Maycomb County through the years, so you'll have some idea of who you are, so you might be moved to behave accordingly"(178). Atticus decided to take his sister’s word and told his children what they should act like despite him not approving of this. Scout’s behavior is what leads her Aunt Alexandra to discriminating her and telling her she will never be a lady if she continues to not dress

Jem changes his attitude as he gets older, and he starts to feel like Scout should act a certain way, telling her ““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!" With that, I had no option but to join them.” (Lee 58). At that time, being girly means that you are a coward and that’s why Scout couldn’t take it and had to defend herself. Through To Kill a Mockingbird, The role of men and women during that time, were very traditional and stereotyped.

Scout Finch is an unusual little girl. She’s overall intelligent, confident, and thoughtful. Scout Finch is strongly affected by the social force of gender, scouts appearance is irregular and her style does not follow the typical expectations of a girl in the 1930’s. Scout Finch is identified as a tomboy. She has short hair with bangs and chooses to dress in overalls instead of the stereotypical dresses.

This changes the way he lives and ultimately his identity. Aunt Alexandra’s identity can also be identified from looking into her past. In the book Aunt Alexandra is raised on Finch’s Landing with a very strict mindset that the Finch’s are better than everybody else. There are many quotes from the story that show how she was taught in her past and what her past made her believe in. One of these quotes is, “Whenever Scout expresses a desire to do something that Aunty believes is Not Done By Finches, she’s down on her niece like an avalanche.”

Since the beginning of her arrival halfway through the story, she never got along with Scout due to the fact that they both had different opinions on what a real women should act like, and this is the author portrays her as; societal standards. Because of this, she works very hard to convince Scout to let go of her tomboyish habits, which she displays an abundance of times throughout the novel. “Aunt Alexandra was fanatical on the subject of my attire…” (Lee 108) is a line that proves that Alexandra cares more about what standards society has on women in that time period than what makes Scout happy, But Scout then realizes that she was like this because she wanted to keep a good name for the Finches, even if that means sacrificing one's happiness (Sl Collins). Just like the rest of Maycomb county and their orthodox ways, Alexandra didn’t like black folks very much, so

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

In the book ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ we have seen only sides of Aunt Alexandra that are cruel and hateful. The first time we went Aunt Alexandra in the book we heard about her scrutiny towards Scout when she left her all alone at the kid table, but let all the other kids sit at the adult table. This was only the beginning of what happened that Thanksgiving Day. Jem, Scout’s older brother was to old to play, so Scout had to amuse Francis. This is when things got messy. When Scout was outside with Francis he started talking trash about Atticus. He told Scout Atticus was ruining the family name, that he was a nigger lover. At the start of

When they discover that Jem and Scout had been attacked she become more maternal, she starts to feel extremely guilty for not accompanying the children to the school. When she was helping scout remove the destroyed costume from her body, we can sense a lot of empathy, she is constantly asking scout if she is hurt. Aunt Alexandra is an extremely strong character, for instance when she was hosting the missionary tea, after hearing the terrible news of Tom’s death she quickly pulls herself back together to go back out there in front of the other ladies. "I never understood her preoccupation with heredity. Somewhere, I had received the impression that Fine Folks were people who did the best they could with the sense they had, but Aunt Alexandra was of the opinion, obliquely expressed, that the longer a family had been squatting on one patch of land the finer it