Breaking Social Norms In To Kill A Mockingbird

All throughout this book Scout shows how strong she is, for her family, for her friends, and for herself. She acts likes its ok sometimes but, she just wants her family to be happy. “ Aunt Alexandra’s fingers trembled as she unwound the crushed fabric and wire from around me. “Are you all right darling?”

Aside from learning about her fellow citizens of Maycomb, Scout also had to start to protect herself, and her father from their neighbors and classmates. The atmosphere of discrimination towards the black defendant, and hatred towards their father, caused many uncomfortable and sometimes dangerous situations for the Finch Family. When Scout is confronted by her uncle Jack about a fight between Herself and her classmate, Scout responds “-tell you one thing right now, Uncle Jack, I’ll be-- I swear before God if I’ll sit there and let him say something about Atticus.” (114) This quote explains how she had to protect her father, and she could not just stand around and let him say malicious things about Atticus. Those actions were very brave of Scout, but she did not stop there.

To Kill A Mockingbird is a classic written by Harper Lee, published in 1960 by Harper Perennial Modern Classics. The story unfolds as Jean, better known as Scout is talking about her ancestors and what they did in their lives. The story moves on as Jean Louise Finch has begun her school year. She had begun first grade with Miss Caroline and had begun the school year with the wrong foot. In school, Miss Caroline is introduced with many new people and their social boundaries.

The African-American community of Maycomb respects Atticus for doing his best with what he is given and for treating everyone with respect. Scout may not realize at first why she must stand up while her father is leaving, but since she is sitting with the community of African-Americans, she quickly realizes that it is a sign of respect, and it makes the audience feel proud. On the contrary, Mayella Ewell makes a remark that can lead the audience into thinking a variety of things, one of which is terrifying. While Tom Robinson is giving his testimony and explaining what happened while he was in the Ewell house, he states, “She says what her papa do to her don’t count,” (260). Someone could read this and think that her father is raping her, which is very alarming.

Conformity can change society drastically both negatively and positively. In the book To Kill a Mockingbird conformity changing society is shown many times. In this book a mockingbird represents innocence. Atticus even describes a mockingbird as something that does nothing but sing for people and that people shoot them for no reason. In To Kill a Mockingbird, conformity in society has turned Tom Robinson and Mr. Dolphus into “mockingbirds” due to the fact that they’re judged and hated because of them doing things that Maycomb doesn’t like.

He urges Scout to refrain from saying those words, yet she fails to grasp his reasoning. Subsequently, Atticus clarifies that he’s defending a black man named Tom Robinson. “Scout, you aren’t old enough to understand some things yet, but there has been some high talk around town to the effect that I shouldn’t do much about defending this man” (100). He knows it’s frowned upon to defend a black man in the South, especially in Maycomb, Alabama. Nevertheless, he stands firm in his commitment to righteousness and remains unburdened by racial prejudices.

Many individuals within To Kill A Mockingbird are able to identify him as innocent of beating and raping Mayella Ewell based on the abundant supply of sufficient evidence in his favor. Yet the inhabitants of Maycomb cannot allow a colored man’s word to be held above that of a white man. Through Atticus’ choice to defend Tom Robinson, doing so to the best of his ability, the Finch family is even subjected to verbal brutality and the name of “nigger-lovers.” Atticus explains to Scout that it is “just one of those terms that don’t mean anything” (107) but simply something “slipped into usage with some people like ourselves, when they want a common, ugly term to label somebody” (107). Others feared being labeled as such which was one of the reasons Tom Robinson was a sacrificial lamb for themselves.

The victim in the To Kill a Mockingbird trial took advantage of this, with pressure from her father, and falsely accused a black man of rape. Despite obvious holes in evidence and a general public opinion that the victim was lying, jurors convicted the black man because to do otherwise would have been unheard of, and viewed as not fulfilling the duty of protecting Southern womanhood. Although the main character, Scout, does not understand much of the trial and its workings and themes, she does understand that there is a definition of Southern womanhood, which she is supposed to fulfill. In To Kill a Mockingbird, Scout rebels against the idea of becoming the ideal Southern woman embodied by her Aunt Alexandra by becoming a tomboy in every way. Many people view To Kill a Mockingbird as a novel about Scout growing up and embracing what it means to be a Southern woman, when at heart, it is a novel about Scout redefining Southern womanhood and embracing the definition shown to her by three women with great influence in her life.

No society is perfect. As much as we strive for the best, it is impossible to be impeccable. Both authors and musicians lean towards writing about events that are affecting them directly, or the society at which they live in. That being said, the literature and media at which many produce, highlight key social issues that individuals are faced with everyday. Literature and forms of media; including music reflect society's flaws in hopes to make the culture aware of the damages they are bringing on to others.

He wants Scout to change who she is to fit his idea of what being a woman is about. In Jem’s mind, women and girls should not be opinionated and “rough”, they must be feminine and frail.

Scout demonstrates the idea that adversity does strengthen an individual by learning how to take her life situations, furthermore turn them into positive outcomes, resulting in her building an emotional wall in order to prevent her past from breaking her down, leading her to show the world that she is transitioning into a mature, young woman. In Harper Lee’s novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, Jean Louise Finch (Scout Finch) becomes exhibited to adversity in her early childhood. Scout begins by having an arduous time trying to be herself without facing the wrath of people narking on her about the way she dresses as well as the way she acts. Without a mother figure present in her life, the only way she feels like herself is by doing what she knows best, acting as well as dressing like a boy.

“Don't trade your authenticity for approval” stated an unknown author. In the novel To Kill A Mockingbird Scout is a young girl who breaks the social norm of wearing proper clothes such as dresses. In the town called Maycomb, the social norms are for whites to separate from African Americans along with women dressing a certain way and men dressing another. Those social norms don’t just exist in Maycom they are also in the real world. Ellen DeGeneres is a woman in the real world who breaks those social norms.

To Kill a Mockingbird suggests that women should be able to have equal opportunities to men. Through Scout’s tomboyish attitude,Harper Lee is able to highlight to wrongs in forcing a girl to

The way the people and the town influence Jem and Scout make the characters more realistic and the overall story much more interesting. To Kill a Mockingbird is an exceptional novel that conveys many positive messages throughout. In her novel, Lee creates honest and relatable characters that take the reader on a journey through life in the south during the Great Depression. Readers are impressed by Lee’s eloquent writing and amazing characters, all of which make To

Although men may hold the primary bias toward women, it is fair to say that the women, however, “perfected” it. From the men around Scout, readers can see that they mostly just made earnest advises on Scout’s need of feminine behavior, but it was the women who emphasized on her lack of decency and aggravated her suffering on the “education of ladyship”. Aunt Alexandra, a textbook paragon of the ideal “southern belle”, the kind of woman who wore a corset even under her bathrobe; she had been Scout’s “tormenter” since the death of her sister-in-law (the Finch kids’ mother) and took on the role of instructing moderate behavior to the children. To her, the boyish attires of Scout was a disgrace that showed how “lack of discipline” the Finch family