During the 1930’s in Maycomb Alabama, prejudicial, preconceived and hypocritical views reigned over empathetic and open-minded attitudes, but by Harper Lee’s use of Scout as the protagonist in the novel, a sense of hope is created. Scout represents exploration and the need for knowledge and through using her as the protagonist, harper lee can convey that through having an educated and understanding generation, there is hope for the future. Scout, being the daughter of the most progressive thinking man in Maycomb, is able to empathise with many people and through using her optimism and developing views and opinions she is able to “finally see” that most people are “real nice” if you get to know them and prove that there is a real sense of hope carried throughout To Kill a mockingbird.…
To Kill a Mockingbird was written to show the Great Depression in the southern United States and what life was like during these times. Maycomb, Alabama is a little town where each person knows who you are, your class, and race. In Maycomb, race was a huge issue. Tom Robinson, a black man, was accused of raping and beating Mayella Ewell, a poor white girl. However, Atticus Finch, a white man, who was representing Tom proved to the court and town Tom did not rape or beat Mayella, but Tom did not win the case due to his race. Mayella was one of the poorest people in Maycomb and part of the lower class. For this reason, I do believe that Mayella is powerful due to her class, race, and gender.…
To Kill A Mockingbird is a novel that is artistically written. Through the situations the “mockingbirds” go through living in Maycomb County, many important life lessons are taught not only to the characters but also to the reader. The dilemmas at hand are creative ways of teaching these lessons. Scout’s growth throughout the novel is symbolic of the growth of the town in many issues surrounding racial prejudice, sexism, and the usage of pigeon…
Atticus, who is portrayed as an unprejudiced character, allows his young daughter, Scout, to wear overalls in a generation that girls were expected to wear dresses. He does not force her into society’s gender specific roles because he recognizes that she is an individual with a personality of her own. Throughout the novel Atticus consistently prompts his children, Jem and Scout, to be considerate of others regardless of their race or gender. However, even Atticus, who is nondiscriminatory, maintains and perpetuates sexist beliefs. This is evident in chapter 23 of To Kill a Mockingbird when Atticus insinuates that women do not have the same intelligence or mental capacity as men. Scout proclaims her indignation that women are not allowed to…
Do children’s ideas of societal norms change as they get older? In 1930s Alabama, most people had the same idea of how society should be kept. During this time, The Great Depression, many people believed all stereotypes were true. It was even thought that Caucasians were superior to Black-Americans. All these perceptions are evident in Harper Lee’s historical novel, To Kill a Mockingbird. More specifically, the characters Scout and Jem Finch, children of Atticus, have different perspectives on these societal norms as they mature. It is obvious throughout the novel how Jem has changed when he understands situations Scout cannot, develops a sense of the how the world truly works and sees things in a more adult way; Scout changes in a sense that…
The book To Kill a Mockingbird is based out of the town of Maycomb, Alabama. The residents in Maycomb are extremely racist and see minor inequalities as major differences and reasons to segregate. The families of Maycomb have their own hereditary social classes and are pretty much stuck in their class based on occupation and race. People in Maycomb are born into significance or are born into less fortunate situations. Many of the characters use these social classes to boost their self esteem. Due to the social classes and stigmas surrounding these classes the citizens have limited their ability to develop fully as humans.…
Frank Barron, a professor in Psychology once said, “Never take a person's dignity: it is worth everything to them, and nothing to you.” Scout Finch is a wise, young and respectful girl who lives in a little town in Alabama called Maycomb. Scout lives with her older brother Jem Finch and her father Atticus Finch. Scout has a fuse when it comes to her temper, so when something sets her off she shows it. In Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, the character of Scout Finch is revealed to the reader as a respectful character through standing up for her father, and respecting her Uncle Jack in forgiving him for what he had done wrong to her.…
Living in the pages of a classic novel, there is a girl named Jean Louise Finch, or rather, Scout. She is young and untainted by the world's prejudices, and she possesses a mind full of curiosity. Scout wondered about many things. She wondered why Mrs. Dubose is such a mean old hag, about why Arthur, Boo, Radley never leaves his house, and why must a girl become a lady? The question that Scout pondered most about, however, was what it means to kill a mockingbird. The character Scout and the book To Kill A Mockingbird, written by Harper Lee, is greatly influenced by a history of repression and injustice and by a set of ideals that had once dominated most, if not all, of the country at one point or another. Three of the many events and ideas…
How often do you see sexist remarks about women anywhere? Not as often as you would have 20 years ago and beyond. Though the thought that women have to take on certain roles has faded it’s not the only gender stereotype out there. The rise of feminism has brought forth both good and bad ideas as well as change towards a brighter future. To Kill a Mockingbird is a novel, by Harper Lee, which takes place during the Great Depression. Around this time there were a lot of different stereotypes about different kinds of people such as, Racial, Gender, Class, and Social stereotypes just to name a few. The main character, Jean Louise “Scout” Finch, is a girl and as a result faced a lot of Gender related stereotypes which still appear in today's society…
As girls grow in life, they mature and change into women. In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, Scout, the main character, begins to mature into a woman. In the beginning of the book, she is a tomboy who cannot wait to pick a fistfight with anyone, but at the end, she lowers her fists because her father, Atticus, tells her not to fight. Scout's views of womanhood, influenced by how Aunt Alexandra, Miss Maudie, and Calpurnia act, make her think more about becoming a woman and less of a tomboy.…
Throughout To Kill a Mockingbird, people constantly stress the idea that Scout must wear a dress to be a lady. Mrs. Dubose 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” (Lee 135). This quote implies that if Scout does not wear a dress she will not be successful. Femininity, according to the town, means to wear a dress, do what you are told and never talk back, and never work outside or get dirty. It is seen this way due to many previous years of sexism and inequality. The town runs on traditional ideas, not leaving any room for change. This creates the image they know of women, making anything else seen as…
In the past, having a complete list of what a female should look like and act like was common. Women and even little girls were expected to behave in a certain way, and show their femininity and properness in whatever they did. The main character and narrator of To Kill a Mockingbird is a girl named Scout. Scout is very different from other girls because she’s a total tomboy. She likes…
In the book, To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee is able to successfully develop the characters and portray her purpose for writing the novel. Numerous authors use their characters to achieve the goal of establishing a theme and purpose within their material. They are able to do this by using literary devices to convey what they want the readers to know. This technique is commonly used by authors to relay information and this book features the use of the main character’s perspective, irony, and metaphors. Harper Lee utilized rhetorical devices that manifested the purpose of the novel which focuses on the treatment of people, discrimination during that time era, along with prevalent gender roles forced upon characters throughout the book.…
The snowman Jem creates in Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, is a mixed-race snowman that helps to express the message that racism overpowers equality in the community of Maycomb. One example relating to the snowman that displays fairness is the instance when Scout is showing her confusion to Jem about the snowman having a black surface rather than a white surface. Scout says knowingly to Jem, “‘Jem, I ain’t ever heard of a nigger snowman,’ I said. ‘He won’t be black long,’ he grunted” (75). Scout, being the adolescent that she is, explains her confusion when the snowman doesn’t look like the majority of the residents. This quotation demonstrates that a darker skin tone is not well-known in Maycomb suggesting prejudice…
‘To Kill a Mockingbird,’ classified as one of the greatest novels of all time, written by Harper Lee, is narrated by a young girl who goes by the name of ‘Scout’ Finch. It follows her experiences of prejudice through sexism, racism, and also classism, which occurs at many stages throughout the novel as a consequence of the trial of Tom Robinson, and her encounters with Boo Radley, her neighbor. Even though Scout is surrounded in numerous acts of prejudice on a daily basis, she does not give in to the narrow-minded views of society instead making assumptions of her own. Her father, Atticus, helps her in keeping her innocence and freedoms, teaching her valuable life lessons on the way; one being that the most important form of courage is moral courage. There are different types of courage: physical, intellectual, and moral. While humble, Atticus undoubtedly possessed physical courage; when Tom Robinson was in jail awaiting trail, he spent the nights outside the cell reading, once encountering an angry mob intent on lynching the prisoner. But moral courage is unquestionably the most vital type of courage, and this Atticus undoubtedly had. Moral courage…