As the story progresses Scout realises what being a women actually means and several females influence her. Scout’s main role models are Calpurnia and Miss Maudie, both of them independent women. Scout is soon critized for not being the ‘perfect little girl’ like her Aunt Alexandra wants her to be. Aunt Alexandra is almost ashamed of Scout when she doesn’t want to wear dresses or act like a girl, especially when her missionary circle of traditional Southern women see her. Scout doesn’t know how she’s meant to act she has Aunt Alexandra forcing her to wear dresses but Jem telling her to stop acting to ‘like a girl’, when she plays with Jem and Dill if she doesn’t act like they expect her to.
The Radley family have always had a strange reputation and are always the main source of gossip around the neighbourhood. Boo Radley has been locked away for the majority of his life as people thinks he is a murderer. Jem thought that Mr Radley restrained Boo to keep him in the house but Atticus tells him that there are ‘other ways of making people into ghosts’ strongly hinting that Boo has been mistreated by his family. Many people gossip about Boo which generates stories that are not true and over