To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

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.

As Scout gets a little older, she soon realizes that she will have to start acting like a lady. She begins to understand why Aunt Alexandra wants her to act the way that she does. She comes to understand her Aunt and believes there is something interesting in learning how to be a lady. She most realizes this when Jem and Dill go swimming and she couldn't go because they are swimming nude. Aunt Alexandra decides to invite the missionary Ladies for a tea party to discuss the current events in the town of Maycomb (their hometown). Aunt Alexandra dresses Scout up in a dress

First of all, Scout is more a tomboy than a girl. Boys tend to live by the phrase, “Boys rule. Girls drool.” Scout expresses,” I was not so sure, but Jem told me I was being a girl, that girls always imagined things, that’s why people hated them so, and if I started behaving like one I could just go off and find some to play with.” (45). This quote implies that Scout thinks girl things are bad and boy things are good. She has constantly been taught this. Scout believes she can avoid being a girl by not acting like one. Being a girl to Scout is more about what she does than what she is born with. Another example of Scout being more of a boy is how she reacts to the situation with Walter Cunningham and Miss. Caroline. In the text, Scout states, “Ah-Miss. Caroline? Miss. Caroline, he’s a Cunningham.” (22). The gender role of a girl would usually to sit back and watch everything go down. In Scout’s case, she is outspoken and has no filter. She has to tell Miss. Caroline what everyone else is thinking. It is in this sense and others that Scout challenges the traditional gender roles throughout the

128) The quote shows that women are often perceived as gossipy, and care a lot about their appearance, because Maycomb's version of “feminine influence” is equal to Aunt Alexandra's personality and lifestyle. This could be true for both genders and it is stereotypical to believe that woman gossip and worry about their appearance, 24/7. Furthermore, being a girl is stereotypically associated with being delusional. In chapter 4, Scout says “Jem told me I was being a girl, that girls always imagined things, that's why other people hated them so” (4.119) Kids are heavily influenced by adults, from what Jem says it shows that it's a stereotype for girls to be delusional and it's bad to be a girl. It's shown here that Scout believes that being a girl meant you had to be delusional, which is not true and just a stereotype. Now Scouts so afraid that anything she does results in would make Jem see her as unworthy, even though being a girl is something to be proud of.

“‘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).

As they were walking past Mrs. Dubose’s house, she accused them of making trouble and disapproved of Scout’s wardrobe by bellowing and saying“...‘And you—’ she pointed an arthritic finger at [her]—’what are you doing in those overalls? You should be in a dress and camisole, young lady!’ ” (Lee, 135). As far as the reader is aware of, Scout’s usual wardrobe consists of overalls and she is not a big fan of dresses, another indicator that she despises acting ladylike. Like Mrs. Dubose, Aunt Alexandra disapproves of Scout’s attire and is constantly telling her to change the way she dresses and acts, so she can act more like a girl and less like a boy. This is another situation from the book where a character is treated unequally from the others, simply because of their gender and because of the way they carry themselves. In attempts to convince Scout to dress more like a girl, Aunt Alexandra feeds her lies by telling her that dressing up in dresses would allow her “to be a ray of sunshine in [her] father’s lonely life” (Lee, page

During the 1960s there was a very strict caste system in the South United States. This caste system was based on race and social inequality. In To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee the main character and narrator is Scout Finch, a naïve but insightful young child. Through the help of her father, Atticus Finch and her brother Jem Finch she learns about human nature and starts to mature to see the world differently while Lee delivers a brutal and thorough social critique on the existence of social inequality, the coexistence of good and evil, the importance of Moral Education, Innocence and Experience and Fear and Courage through the eyes of an innocent child.

In the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee develops the theme of gender roles through characterization. During the 1930’s, stereotyping between males and females were prominent and even today in our society .Scout challenges the idea of gender roles to remain a tomboy. She challenges characters such as Aunt Alexandra and Jem. Primarily unconventional in terms of gender, these role models fluctuate between different ideas. Lee describes characters that resist agreeing to the example of masculinity and femininity and instead fill middle positions between the stereotypes, as Scout’s tomboy a behavior exemplifies.

In the 1930’s it is not at all strange or unusual to see sexism on the streets everyday but in “To Kill a Mockingbird”, the sexism is often overlooked by the rest of the events in the story. Scout herself even believes that being a woman means you are lesser, weaker, and less deserving than others in the book. “Jem was becoming more like a girl every day, not I.” (Lee, 239). In this scene of the book, Jem tells Scout to not kill a bug because it has not done anything to hurt her. In calling Jem a girl, Scout is insinuating that Jem is weak and fragile. This quote shows that because she has been around negative comments towards women, Scout believes being a woman is something that one should not want.

Since Scout lost her mother at a young age she lacks a lot of femininity and acts like more of a tomboy. Scout doesn’t care about wearing breeches or her appearance, she likes to climb trees, and play with Jem and Dill but they sometimes don’t allow her in the tree house because she is a girl. “but I kept aloof from their more fool hardy schemes for a while, and on pain of being called a girl, I spent most of my remaining twilights that summer sitting with Miss Maudie Atkinson on her front porch”(Ch. 5). This quote is showing that Scout was excluded from playing in the tree house with the boys since she is a girl. Gender prejudice in the book is a very common thing and equality is not.

Scout is raised in an environment where being a woman is an insult and makes you weak and fragile. When Aunt Alexandra comes to the Finch household she tries to be teach Scout how to become more

Because of this there is much pressure on Scout by her Aunt Alexandra to become more lady like. Obviously becoming a lady is not one of her foremost goals. In fact, it often seems like Scout would rather be a boy because they seemed to have more leeway. For example, “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.” (108) As Scout gets older despite what she used to think she realizes being a girl isn’t all sitting around and sewing

Pre World War II era showed that men and women had vastly different gender roles, which lead to separate ideas and beliefs between the two. During the 1930s, women were expected to stay at home and be the wife and mother. They could hold some jobs, but the job opportunities were limited to things such as teachers, clerks, and nurses; however the majority of husbands did not want the wives to work because of their expected gender roles and were still viewed as being weaker than men. Men also did not like that if their wife did work that they themselves would be viewed as not being able to support their family. Women were not only expected to act a certain way but to dress a certain way as well. Women wore dresses everywhere. It was vital to wear a dress no matter if it was at home or work. They would wear dresses that gave them a figure without using a corset and would flow (Hall 232). In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, Scout challenges her role as a female but doesn’t know what her role in society is yet. Scout is a young girl who is blind to how society works for men and women; unknowingly she becomes a pioneer for woman’s rights at a young age in many ways including actions and how she dressed.

“We decided that it would be best for you to have some feminine influence. It won’t be many years, Jean Louise, before you become interested in clothes and boys–” (p.170). This was the first example of Aunt Alexandra telling Scout that she needs to be more like a girl. Scout gets really upset by this. She has always had her own style and never been a very girly girl. Scout has always hung out with the boys because of her brother. So when Aunt Alexandra says how she here to be Scout’s feminine influence, Scout gets annoyed. Atticus has always let Scout act the way she wants as long as she is a respectful person. “I do. I guess it’s to protect our frail ladies from sordid cases like Tom’s. Besides,” Atticus grinned, “I doubt if we’d ever get a complete case tried–the ladies’d be interrupting to ask questions.” (p.296). Atticus says this to Scout because

“By watching her I began to think there was some skill involved in being a girl” (154). Scout Finch thinks that being a girl is boring and uneventful--that being a girl means having to wear dresses and behave. But, as she watches Calpurnia (the family maid) working, Scout realizes that there's more to being a girl than just being pretty. Scout Finch is just a young girl wrapped into a timeless story involving a heart wrenching trial, her stubborn brother Jem, and her wise, loving father Atticus. In Harper Lee’s realistic fiction novel, To Kill A Mockingbird, Lee explains the heartfelt story involving two young children of a local town lawyer whose curiosity leads them to many adventures, but when a local black man is put on trial for the rape