Womanhood In To Kill A Mockingbird

The main issue of the section we are acting out of Chapter 11 in “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee is the prejudice that Ms. Dubose holds. She is both sexist and racist, both forms of prejudice that were common back in her generation, but were finally starting to change at that time. Aunt Alexandra and Ms. Dubose, most likely having been raised in the same time period, were both offended by Scout wearing pants. Ms. Dubose specifically asked ‘What are you doing in those overalls? You should be in a dress and camisole, young lady!’ (Lee, 101), which is greatly reminiscent of what Alexandra said at Christmas. Obviously, they were both raised with the same morals about having to wear dresses, causing them to be unintentionally sexist and myopic.

Throughout the book, you can often see sexist beliefs. Written in the 1950s, based in the 1930s, Harper Lee wrote To Kill A Mockingbird to challenge and expose many injustices occurring in society in those time periods. One of those injustices is Sexism. Sexism is the discrimination of someone based on their gender. In the 1930s, the sexism was usually towards women. Sexism often promote discrimination in jobs, discrimination from men to women through comments, and discrimination from every one through actions.

Imagine a world where evil and unjust actions are based on the color of skin; a world where some don’t even realize that they are prejudicing. In the book To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, these themes are present. People and how they commit evil, hypocritical, and unjust acts. We see these themes and great issues through the point of view of a child; the vigorous, youthful, elementary-aged Scout. Through this character Harper Lee shows the innocence of children, and what they go through in our inequitable world.

When you first think of the law legal system here you think justice. But in Maycomb County’s legal system many innocent lives are taken because of close-minded judges and racist juries.In this award-winning novel To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, we learn a lot about this poor town. In this novel, a very smart white lawyer named Atticus defends an innocent black man but unfortunately, he got wrongly accused. In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, The legal system is very unjust because it takes away innocent lives this is strongly demonstrated in the Tom Robinson’s trial.

As the United States “progresses” in economic, educational and technological advancements we still are fighting for racial equality. With more than 50 years since the brown vs. board of education case there is still incidents like Ferguson, Baton Rouge, and Phiando Castile where many questions are still unanswered. However, Harper Lee dealt with these same problems in 1960 when she wrote To Kill a Mockingbird. Lee created an emotionally confronting story. Lee writes through the eyes of “Scout” a lawyer’s daughter in a small sleepy town of Maycomb in Alabama during the great depression. Throughout the book “Scout” learns coming of age lessons from Atticus and her own experiences. But when Atticus takes on a case defending a black man (Tom Robinson) convicted for rapping a white woman (Mayella Ewell) and is found guilty. “Scout” her brother Jem begin to understand the effects of the prejudices in society. Therefore, Lee applies the literary concepts of diction and tone to revel the truth that prejudices in society negatively affect the way people treat each other in To Kill a Mocking Bird.

“I believe that maturity is not an outgrowing, but a growing up: that an adult is not a dead child, but a child that survived”- Ursula K Le Guin. In the poignant tale of “To Kill A Mockingbird” by Harper Lee, Scout showed both shows traits of perseverance and courage to preserve her fragile, yet powerful innocence through her maturation. The up-and-coming story of a curious girl named Scout set the scene for this tragic piece of literature and depicts the tenacity needed to surpass all obstacles. Firstly, the destruction of the innocence in the trial case with Tom Robinson causes Scout to acknowledge the harsh realities and learn valuable life lessons.

To Kill A Mockingbird shows many examples of what it was like to be a women in the South during the 1930’s. We see this through the eyes of the main character, Scout. She is often put through the things women and girls had to deal with during this time. Majority of the time Scout opposes and has a hard time understanding the “role” of being a women.

Roger Elbert (1942-2013), a critic, once said, “Teaching prejudice to a child is itself a form of bullying. You've got to be taught to hate.” Harper Lee shows in the award winning novel To Kill a Mockingbird how Tom Robinson a black male, experiences other characters acts of prejudice against him, such as a false accusions of rape by the family of the Ewells. This whole situation occurs in a Town called Maycomb, Alabama, Tom Robinson’s defence attorney, Atticus Finch, who has children named Scout (Jean Louise) and Jem, as well as a friend of Scout’s and Jem’s who comes around during the story named Dill. During this time, in the 1930s, prejudice and racist people exist all over the place putting African Americans at a disadvantage. During

The theme in To Kill a Mockingbird is that one shouldn’t be sexist. Towards the end of To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, the reader learns that the women are sent away from the men in the book due to natural occurrences. When Scout overhears her aunts missionary circle talking she tells us “They put the women out in huts when their time came, ..”(Lee 305)Sending women away from the house when their occurrences came is disrespectful and out of women's control. Men and women should be treated equally, if the women need to leave so should the men. In addition, the reader also discovers that some characters connect the word ”girl” with something bad. Scout says “Jem told me I was being a girl”(Lee 54). Jem said this to Scout as if being

Imagine a box, this box has one label on it, and the label has one word to describe yourself. Choosing one word to describe yourself is nearly impossible for most. Jean-Louise “Scout” Finch the main character in To Kill a Mockingbird is a tomboy. She wears overalls rather than dresses, and she plays with boys rather than tea sets, a traditional “girl” toy. In the iconic novel, To Kill a Mockingbird written by Harper Lee, the main character, Jean-Louise “Scout” Finch struggles with traditional gender roles.

It was a different time in the 1930s, children acted like children, women had their own set place, and racism and social classes were the norm. The classic novel To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, follows the lives of the Finch family and the attitudes of the town and people around them. Harper Lee illustrates important themes throughout her telling of Scout in the novel To Kill a Mockingbird where she expresses the theme of innocence through Scout at the jailhouse scene, gender roles within her relationship with Aunt Alexandra and the missionary, and social inequality when she invites Walter Cunningham over. Scout shows the theme of innocence especially in the scene at the jailhouse when she speaks up. Mr. Cunningham makes an appearance

but taught by a mother figure. For Evelyn, Aunt Good was her ‘mother’ and Calpurnia was Scout’s ‘mother’. Both Aunt Good and Calpurnia care deeply about how their ‘child’ acts.

The novel To Kill A Mockingbird written by Harper Lee is used as a teaching method when learning about the Southern half of the United States during the Great Depression. The novel showcases controversial topics looked at through the eyes of an adult and a six-year-old girl. When the small town of Maycomb, Alabama is faced with a trial that not only is decided by race but by class and gender also the town is left to decide which person contains more power, a white female or an African American male.

In To Kill A Mockingbird, the female characters throughout the book either tell other women that they must be a certain way, are treated wrong because they are women, or are told to be like all women are "supposed" to be. These oppressing attitudes towards women still exist in the world, but there have been some improvements, even when certain situations have worsened.

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, is an ideal display of feminism that takes place during the period of depression in the south. It portrayed the two kinds of women found in the south during this time, the women who were pro the feminist movement, and the average Southern women. Sadly some women mistakenly rebelled against the ideals of society, by just being themselves. Men and women were to conduct themselves as ladies and gentlemen, were men were expected to dress in suit and ties and women were expected to wear dresses and be courteous. Since southern towns were so sheltered from the liberal views of the rest of the world they had no chose but to abide by these gender roles.