Gender Inequality In To Kill A Mockingbird

To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee touches on some significant subjects, which still arise evidently in today’s problems. Furthermore, a gender-biased world includes one of the prominent themes running throughout the book and Harper Lee brilliantly explores this controversial topic without a noticeably heavy tone. Lee introduces the main narrator and character, Scout Finch, as a young girl in a tight-knit family living in the sleepy town of Maycomb where her family begins to struggle with injustice looming above, ready to dampen their spirits. Though their father Atticus keeps their family strong, it does not stop inequity to rear its ugly face to show no mercy at all. As Scout matures, she often gets berated about her tomboyish attitude and her liking to the company of men instead of women, as well as her brother making conflicting comments by using her gender against her.

The award winning book by Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird, explores various views on stereotypes and defying the standard. Atticus Finch, the father of Scout Finch and the main protagonist, must go against societal standards and follow his personal morals. He fights against the injustice in Maycomb Alabama, all while teaching his children valuable life lessons along the way. Although this book has many anti-racial themes, the characters in the story have racial beliefs that over-power its anti-racial themes, downplaying the book’s value as a teaching school.

In the early 1930s and before, a "real man" was seen with pure authority and power, who was tasked with decision-making for women, while women were seen as domestic and primary caretakers. Men have always been seen as the ones in control, and women have always been in their shadows. Women have always been second-guessed because no one takes them seriously. This theme has been connected with Harper Lee's novel To Kill a Mockingbird. Although this has been happening for a long time, men and women are pushing through the gender roles that are constantly made onto them, but they are continually trying to get out of that shadow of expectations.

Alabama, during the 1930s, women were strongly discriminated against. They were inferior to men and were prohibited to serve on juries. Additionally, men had the right to a career whilst women had no career and were expected to get married, have children and maintain the household. How wrong is that? As a result of societies views during this time, women were expected to follow unbelievably stricter ethical and behavioural codes than men.

41, and Atticus finds out. Scout gets worried that Atticus might know that what they were playing was related to the radleys, and tells Scout that she “was being a girl, that girls always imagined things, that’s why other people hated them so, and if I started behaving like one I could just go off and find some to play with.” this is one of the biggest examples of gender in the book, and shows that being a girl is the highest and worst insult, even amongst the children. And a few pages later, Scout says that she tried to avoid Jem and Dill because she was called a girl once and didn't want to be called a girl again. This really cements how much of an insult it is to be called a girl.

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.

As well the adventures of Jem and scout Atticus’s children. This book conveys Harper Lee's message in To Kill a Mockingbird that discrimination can affect

“The one thing that doesn’t abide by majority rule is a person’s conscience.” This is a quote from Atticus Finch, a courageous and wise character from Harper Lee 's novel, To Kill A Mockingbird. The story is told through the perspective of a young girl, Jean Louise ¨Scout¨ Finch. She lives with her older brother, Jeremy, and widowed father and prominent lawyer, Atticus, in Maycomb, Alabama during the time of the Great Depression. Throughout the novel, the children experience the injustice and prejudice of society through a tough case that their father was appointed to and are taught to respect and tolerate all people, despite their differences.

Pg.69). This quote represents the fear that scout shows while trying to hide her femininity. It shows that scout believes that women have a minuscule amount of power, and that she needs to act like a boy for her to even be recognized by Jem as a member of the group. Gender equality is not fully intact, as shown explicitly throughout the novel. Scout is not the only woman who feels the impact of sexism in the novel.

In Harper Lee’s historical fiction novel, To Kill A Mockingbird, two children live in a chaotic world of racial injustice and poverty. In this book, two siblings named Jem and Scout Finch grow and mature in a mysterious area of people battling and supporting racism. Throughout this book, Harper Lee uses symbolism to provide the view of racism. While doing this, she also uses selective choices of diction to shape the story. Harper Lee wrote To Kill A Mockingbird with a purpose, to bring awareness to racial injustice through hidden symbols and diction.

The novel “To Kill A Mockingbird” was written in 1960 by Harper Lee in the point of view of a young innocent girl named Scout. One of the main messages that Lee has (need a new word than – indicated or set out) is racism, it plays an important role which strongly impacts many character’s lives unfairly and changes the relationship between two. Harper Lee’s “To Kill A Mockingbird” shows that it is wrong to hurt someone who does no harm to you, for example, black people are innocent but no way did they have as many rights as white people did. Black people lived hard lives because society was judgemental, irrational and most importantly, racist. As Scout and Jem grow older they learn to cope, take responsibility and are introduced to new aspects of life, one of which is racism.

Race has always been a part of history, from slavery to MLK, to Barack Obama. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee defines race in the south during the 1930’s. Jean “Scout” Finch, is the narrator of the story. Her brother Jeremy “Jem” and her dad, Atticus, are both main characters. Calpurnia is their house cook and helper, she is also black.

Dhyanee Bhatt 9A          Scout’s Development for Narration All of us grow, develop, and adapt to our surroundings according to what we see and learn. However, we don’t always only the just induce the positive values, but also adapt to the disadvantageous values, as well. To Kill a Mockingbird is a unique novel written by Harper Lee, which tells about a sophisticated family living in a small town. The focus of the book is Scout, the main character and an innocent child, and the story is presented from her perspective.

To Kill a Mockingbird Essay ¨Inequality is the root of social evil¨ (Pope Francis). In the book To Kill a Mockingbird Harper Lee shows that social inequality affects everyone. As the book goes on, Lee proves that racial inequality was one of the greater stresses in the 1930’s. Social inequality does not just exist only with race; it interferes with wealth, family backgrounds, age, and even your beliefs.

In the novel, ‘To kill a mockingbird, Harper Lee demonstrates the small, imaginary town, the Maycomb County, as a place where racism and social inequality happens in the background of 1930s America. Not only the segregation between whites and blacks, but also the poor lived in a harsh state of living. As Scout, the young narrator, tells the story, Lee introduces and highlights the effects of racism and social inequality on the citizens of Maycomb County by using various characters such as Boo Radley, Tom Robinson, and Mayella Ewell. Firstly, Harper Lee portrays Boo Radley as a victim of social inequality through adjectives and metaphor in the phrase, “There was a long jagged scar that ran across his face; what teeth he had were yellow and rotten;” ‘Long jagged scar that ran across his face’ tells us that Boo Radley has stereotype about his appearance, which forces to imagine Boo as a scary and threatening person. The phrase, ‘yellow and rotten’ make the readers think as if Boo Radley is poor and low in a social hierarchy, as he cannot afford to brush his teeth.