Aunt Alexandra Influence In To Kill A Mockingbird

Scout asks Aunt Alexandra if she's come for a visit, and aunty says that she and Atticus have decided that it's best if she stays with them for a while, as Scout needs some "Feminine influence"(13.10). Scout has trouble making any kind of conversation with her aunt. That evening Atticus comes home and confirms Aunt Alexandra's reason for her coming to stay, though Scout thinks it's mostly her aunt's doing, part of her long campaign to do "What Is Best For The Family"(13.22). Aunt Alexandra is popular in Maycomb and takes a leading role in the feminine social circles, even though she makes obvious her belief that the Finches are superior to everyone else. Aunt Alexandra is a firm believer in Streaks - each family has one, though Scout doesn't
Aunt Alexandra is none too pleased to find this out, and inserts a resounding "No" into the conversation when Scout asks Atticus if she can visit Calpurnia. Scout turns rudely on her aunt for intruding into her conversation with Atticus, but her father makes her apologize. Trying to save face, Scout goes to hide in the bathroom, and returns to overhear her aunt and father quarrelling about an unnamed "Her." Scout is worried that she's the "Her," and feels "The starched walls of a pink cotton penitentiary closing in on" her (14.24). As Scout reenters the room, Aunt Alexandra vents her emotions by stabbing her embroidery angrily. Jem pulls Scout out of the room and tells her to try not to get on her aunt's nerves. Scout bristles at Jem's assumption that he can tell her what to do and his insistence on talking like he's so much older and wiser than her. On the way to bed, Scout steps on something and thinks it's a snake. Dill tells a story about how he escaped from his cruel father and journeyed to Maycomb, and Scout brings him some food. Scout had had fallen asleep for a while. She wakes up only to find Dill joining her in bed. Scout asks Dill why he ran away, and Dill eventually tells her that he felt like his mom and her new boyfriend weren't paying him any attention and didn't want him
Just before they fall asleep, Scout asks Dill why Boo Radley has never run off, and Dill answers that maybe he doesn't have a place he can run to. Atticus goes outside, while Jem, Dill, and Scout peer through the windows, to Aunt Alexandra's dismay. Mr. Link Deas says that Atticus has everything to lose from this case, and Atticus answers, "Do you really think so?" (16.21), which Scout recognizes as his "Dangerous question"(16.22), meaning that he's not going to take being messed with. Jem breaks the tension by shouting out that the telephone's ringing and Atticus tells him to answer it, causing the men - whom Scout now recognizes as people she sees every day - to go off laughing. Atticus tells Scout that Tom Robinson has arrived at the Maycomb jail, and that they should have kept him there in the first place. One man tells Atticus to move away from the door and let them through, but Atticus tells them to go home and that Heck Tate's nearby. For a moment Atticus looks afraid when he sees Scout, and then again when he sees Jem and Dill. One of the strangers tells Atticus to get rid of the kids, and Atticus pleads with Jem to leave, but Jem isn't budging an inch. Scout asks Atticus if they can go home now, and