To Kill a Mockingbird was published in 1960 although it portrayed certain behaviors of people in the 1930s. According to, To Kill a Mocking Bird The novel replays three key years in the life of scout finch, the young daughter of an Alabama towns principled lawyer. Scouts narrative relates how she and her elder brother Jem learn about fighting prejudice and upholding humane dignity through the example of her father (1960). The novel begins with Scout as a grown women and she is reflecting on her childhood years. Scout lived with her father Atticus Finch, Brother Jeremy, and also their house keeper Calpurnia who handles the children and she also happens to be black. Scouts father Atticus Finch has taken on the legal defense of a black man who has been falsely charged of raping an white women.
Scout seems to be a very intelligent young girl during that era, but she is also a tomboy. A tomboy by definition is a girl considered boyish or masculine in behavior or manner. Although Scout did not see anything wrong with the way she acted. It was frowned upon for a girl to act as rough as she did. During this era gender is very important and the way gender is treated insider of the novel is also very important.
There were different roles that different genders had to follow. Women were supposed to act girly meaning very feminine is the way she walks, talks, and dresses. She is to remain calm at all times and stay clean. She was supposed to follow tem roles and then more on to her womanly roles of taking care of the home, making sure that the family is running fine, and making sure everyone was happy. But that was not how Scout was; she was rough, careless, and acted just like a boy. According to Shackleford, D. Aunt Alexandra was fanatical on the subject of my attire. I could not possibly hope to be a lady if I wore breeches; when I said I could do nothing in a dress; she said I wasnt supposed to be doing anything that required pants. Aunt Alexandras of my deportment involved playing with small stoves, tea sets, and wearing the add-a-pearl necklace she gave me when I was born; furthermore, I should be a ray of sunshine in my fathers lonely life.(1996). So Scouts actions were not accepted among many of the women who lived in the southern town.
There was also some gender confusion going on inside of the book To Kill a Mocking Bird. Many girls grow up wanting the free life style of boys. To be able to do basically whatever they please, not to have a ton of rules placed on you stating how to act all day every day. To Kill a Mocking Bird Harper Lee (1960) stated that between the ages six of six to nine, Scout Finch has doubts about whether are not she wishes to grow up to be a lady. She much prefers the free, boyish life she enjoys with her older brother Jem, and his friends. She also enjoys an open relationship with her widowed father Atticus, a local attorney and perennial legislator. For a girl to be raised by two men it seems more than likely that she would take on a lot of their manly trends. Its not easy for a young child to go from a free manly lifestyle where you can be free and careless, and then move on into a womanly life style where you can only play with dolls, cooking toys, and remain pretty and clean for the remainder of the day.
In the 1930s, the time where the story was taking place it was the era of the Great Depression. Where the mans role became more and more defined as the provider of the families and the women feel into the roles of taking care of their homes and families. Around that time women were expected to dress appropriately in dresses and looking presentable. Women were not allowed to work and if a woman did some how obtain a job she was seen as she was stealing a job from those who truly deserved them men. Women was treated as second class citizens, only could wear what the men found appropriate or got frowned upon, had to take care of the house and kids, was not really allowed to work, and racially did what it was that pleased their men and not really themselves. Scout does not want to embraces that type of life style. She see ahead of time that she have bigger better plans for her life and she might only be able to reach them by following the life style that her brother and father was following.
According to Lenhoff, A. Scout's childish point of view plays a key role in one very serious and adult scene, however. A mob has assembled outside the jail cell of Tom Robinson, the innocent man Atticus is defending. Atticus stands in front of the cell, trying to hold off the mob, which seeks to seize Tom and lynch him. Atticus is unaware that Scout, Jem, and their friend Dill are spying from across the street. Scout misunderstands. She thinks the mob is a group of friends, and rushes into it (2001).Scout is not ready for the seriousness of becoming a women. She is more worried and playing around and enjoying herself as every other child. She also looks up to the only sibling that she have which happens to be a boy. Scout is only following the hand that she has been delt. Although she knows the correct way for her to act is like a girl, she is well aware of all the things that she will have to give up like, fighting with her brother, running around the town getting dirty and unknowingly helping her father. If she followed her girly format she probably would not have walked over to her father that day and saved his life and also the black man life he was defending (Tom).
Many people today exhibit some of the same tomboy behaviors that Scout had in the novel but their behaviors are more expectable now. Now and days female are running around dress like boys, wearing their hair very much like how boys would wear their hair. Girls are play what would be considered boys sports like basketball, football, wrestling, and soccer. Younger females are allowed to run around and get themselves messy and dirty from playing in dirt or with bugs like boys are usually allowed to do.
Already have an account? Log In Now
3184