Every action can be categorized by whether it is acceptable or unacceptable based on the circumstances of when the action occurred. Harper Lee’s award-winning novel that soon secured the Pulitzer Prize, To Kill a Mockingbird, has numerous characters set in Maycomb County, Alabama during the early 1930’s. In this period of time, society was at its peak of unbalanced statuses between the rich, poor, and the racial difference. One very prominent character whose actions fits these description is Aunt Alexandra. When she was first introduced, Aunt Alexandra illustrated a dominating status and superiority upon others. Although she had justified her actions by saying she was “upholding her family’s reputation,” her actions were selfish and unwanted. …show more content…
In chapter three, page 301, Aunt Alexandra states, “Because- he-is-trash that is why you can’t play with him.” Through this one sentence brings up two topics that still affects modern time, which are problems that deal with self-esteem and social dominance. These two problems are rooted from the beginning within the authority figure in a child’s life. If the authority figure, such as a dad was to beat their child, that child would have the emotional scars forever shadowing their lives. Some might issues with violence and will most likely be susceptible to bullying other as a stress relief from the abuse from his father. After being prolongedly forced Scout to change, her behavior and personality slowly strip away to soon be influence by her aunt’s persona. Scout would have the idea that she is better than other kids because of her family’s social status. She would have thoughts that undermine other kids, such as, ‘I’m better than those kids because my family has money’ or ‘They’re poor, so they must terrible people.’ From Scout’s new perspective, anyone who's below her standards would be inferior and be
Even though many social forces impact Scout in Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, gender impacts Scout the greatest. It affects her in how other people treat her. Unexpectedly, Aunt Alexandra shows up at the Finch household, and Scout asks why she had just shown up. Aunt Alexandra replies, “We decided that it would be good for you to have some feminine influence. It won’t be many years, Jean Louise, before you become interested in clothes and boys” (127). After Alexandra says this, Scout becomes puzzled because she does not think she needs a “feminine influence”. But, as she becomes older she is expected to act more lady like. Since she is a girl, she is expected to act prim and proper. Her being raised around men is acting against these stereotypes. Certainly, it is obvious that boys are more daring than girls. So while Jem and Dill want to get a sneak peak inside of Boo Radley’s house, Scout gets a little apprehensive. Jem shouts out, “Scout I’m telling you for the last time shut your trap or go home. I declare to the lord you’re getting more like a girl every day,” (51-52). After Jem said this, she decides she has no option but to join them. She does...
To start, Scout isn’t able to see things from other people's points of view when she invites Walter Cunningham over for lunch on her first day of school and he pours molasses syrup all over his lunch. She isn’t able to realize that other people do things differently than she does. When she asks why he is doing this, Calpurnia scolds her for asking and tells her that some people just do things things differently. Since she is developing, she is able to realize that Boo Radley is actually a nice, caring person instead of a crazy, squirrel eating, monster. She realizes this when Miss Maudie’s house catches on fire and someone puts a blanket around her while she is standing outside. She realizes that it was Boo Radley is actually a caring person. This shows she is developing because she can discover things about other people instead of just sticking to her first impression of someone. Finally, Scout shows she can see things from other people’s perspectives when she walks Boo Radley home and stands on his porch and watches the last two years play out from his perspective. She is also showing that she changed when she is sad that she never put anything back in the knothole in the tree to give back to Boo. To finish, she has changed by being able to see things how other people see them. She shows she changes when she doesn’t understand why Walter Cunningham
Aunt Alexandra was one of the many that felt that black people were a threat, just because they looked different. During these times, people weren't treated fairly. This novel teaches us not to judge one another at all, let alone about their physical or social appearances. God created us all the same, he just made each of us special individuals with special differences, including the color of our skin, the amount of money we have, the people we talk to, and the way our minds imagine. We fail to accept who we are and the choices we make.
Scout is a young girl growing up in the south, she is intelligent, thoughtful, and good natured. Her identity is somewhat uncommon during the time she lives in. She is characterized as a tomboy, who doesn’t always act “lady like” or proper by southern standards. Scout most likely became the type of person she is by the care of her father, Atticus. He shapes her mind, while trying to protect her from a dangerous world and preserving her childhood.
Scout always listening to the knowledge of her teachers when she was younger makes her innocent and naive. First, Scout’s constant obedience to her teachers and lack of retaliation for her beliefs express her naiveness: “Now tell your father not to teach you anymore. It’s best to begin reading with a fresh mind. You tell him I’ll take over from here and try to undo the damage...Your father does not know how to teach. You can have a seat now” (Lee 23). This quote expresses how Scout was belittled by her teacher for reading outside of school. This aggravates Scout, however she holds in her anger, like any child, and she is forced to sit down at the command of her teacher, Miss Caroline. Also, Scout couldn’t defend herself when she explained to
At an age when other children would be easily impacted by such ideas, one would think that Scout too would be changed, when in fact it is the opposite for her; her stubbornness and defined sense of self respect cause her not to be afflicted. While the young girl is only slightly influenced by these ideas, her perspective of human nature is much broadened as she learns that prejudice is a disease with far reaching roots. Aunt Alexandra’s behavior throughout that book illustrates that while prejudices are natural among individuals, the way that one chooses to assert his own can have a profound effect on
As the reader first encounters Scott, she is found to be influenced by a prestige – honored environment as validated by her behavior towards the low status Cunningham's. People with more money think they are better than those with less money. Maycomb has a hostile and unsympathetic view of people with different colored skin and people who come from families with a low income. If someone in the town is poor, they will be treated differently and be segregated from others. The richer do this to make sure the poor know that they are lower than them. It seems that the poor are not given a chance. Scout accepts this as if it were wholly logical, evidence that she is gullible to the attack of social classes that she regularly faces. This point is strengthened as the story progresses to scouts first day of school. At no...
This is an example of how herd mentality can lead to harmful and racist ideas that affect the lives of many. Another instance in the book that represents a negative of herd mentality is Aunt Alexandra’s beliefs that Scout needs to wear a dress to be more ‘lady-like’. This idea that to be a lady you have to wear dresses and stay inside and cook is a very insulting expectation. These misogynistic thoughts that stemmed from the herd mentality during that time led to some unfair disadvantages for
As Aunt Alexandra has been living with the family she has started judging Scout's clothes, "I could not, possibly hope to be a lady if I wore breeches; when I said I could so nothing in a dress, she said I wasn't supposed to be doing things that required pants" (Lee 108). As Scout grows, up she faces the force of adulthood, which involves her becoming more lady like. Once Scout realizes that she has to give up part of her past, she feel reluctant to do so. Aunt Alexandra tries to push Scout into the family legacy, but instead Scout feels the need to hide from the reality of moving on which means growing up. Scout wants to be herself and not forced to be a "Finch". She doesn't want to be molded into something or someone that she's not. Scout escapes the pressures of being a "lady" by hanging out with her brother and Father, where she was more at "home" and not surrounded by "hypocrites"- fragrant ladies. Scout's need and desires to be herself are not acceptable within her community and it pains her to convert to becoming a "Finch", a stereotypical Southern
In the novel, ‘To Kill A Mockingbird’ by Harper Lee some characters suffer in the hands of justice and fairness more than others. Many characters in the novel are discriminated against such as Calpurnia, Dolphus Raymond, Helen Robinson, Burris Ewell and more. However I will be focusing on the discrimination against Tom Robinson for his race, Walter Cunningham for his low socioeconomic status and Boo Radley for the rumors and supposed mental instability he holds. I chose those three because they are the most prominent and I will discuss how the discrimination against the characters therefore leads to their injustice or unfairness.
As the story progresses, Scout slowly becomes introduced into the world of hatred, unfairness, and racism that the 1930’s exposed. Nevertheless, since Scout still had both her innocence and naivete, due to her premature age, she completely expressed total disapproval towards the treatment of blacks during the time of her childhood. The author portrays this disapproval through Dill and Jem, Scout’s friend, and Scout’s brother, respectively, as shown here by Dill, “‘I don’t care one speck. It ain’t right to do ‘em that way. Hasn’t anybody got any business talkin’ like that—it just makes me sick.’';
People are always influenced by family members. Sometimes this influence is positive and sometimes it is negative, yet no matter what, it will change a person’s life. Change can be caused by that person fitting into the ways of a household, or be forced to act differently in the presence of others. Either way, that person will never be the same again. In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, characters are constantly being influenced by family members. Aunt Alexandra, started off as a rude and bossy woman, but as she became closer to Atticus, Jem, and Scout, she changed into a more loving and compassionate person. In To Kill a Mockingbird, Aunt Alexandra is influenced by the Finches during her stay at their home.
At the beginning of the book, Scout was not a nice child. She had hard times controlling herself, and usually she was not able to. She knew Atticus wouldn't like it if he heard of her fighting, but still she fought a lot, like the time she got angry to Cecil Jacobs and fought him (pg. 99). She was also mean and rude, which can easily be seen as she got angry and protested it when Walter poured syrup all over his dinner (pg. 32). As she was young, she also was not able to look at things from other people's perspective. This could easily be seen in her first day of school, as she only saw things from her point of view, never caring about her teacher's perspective (pg. 26). Her youth also ...
As a growing young girl, Scout was learning and experiencing things just like any other child would though growing up. She got older and was able to understand things a lot better as well as being able to apply lessons she had learned in her everyday life. She began to act slightly more grown up in situations such as Aunt Alexandria's dinner party. Scout forgot how much she despised her Aunt and how much she disliked dresses and joined the group of women in their conversations. Despite how she didn't want to "act more like a lady", she played along with her Aunt's "campaign to teach me (Scout) to be a lady" made an exception to please her Aunt and to create some peace between them. Upon hearing the news of Tom's death she concludes "if Aunty could be a lady at a time like this, so could I." This shows how Scout was beginning to act more ladylike for her Aunt.
Scout is the narrator of the whole book. She is the young daughter of a lawyer, Atticus. They live in Maycomb County with Scout's brother and Aunt in the 1930's. At the beginning of the book, she doesn’t know much about the prejudice of Southern America. She basically knows nothing about prejudice. She thinks every person is the same as her. But she finds that out at last. She also finally finds out that most people are nice. She just has to put herself in those people's situations. "As I made my way home, I thought Jem and I would get grown but there wasn't much else left for us to learn, except possibly algebra" (Lee pg. #). This statement shows that she understands the prejudice and people's thinking, at last. That makes her life a lot different.