Conformity In To Kill A Mockingbird

Words: 670

Pages: 3

Open Document

In the novel To Kill A Mockingbird, one of the many trials that Scout faces are fitting the conformity of how a little girl was supposed to act. She continuously breaks the boundaries of the social code of women that is known in the south. Because of this, her aunt Alexandra is brought to be a feminine influence and provide an example of what was thought of as a proper woman. A proper woman had many confinements and restrictions she must follow. They must be gentle, religious, well mannered, and charming. She cannot dominate any relationship because she was supposed to rely on a man to provide for her. Even Atticus sometimes gives in to this stereotype. This can be seen when he is talking to Jem about why women cannot serve on juries and says “ I guess it’s to protect our frail ladies from sordid cases … and the ladies’d be interrupting to ask questions” (Lee, 296). Another trait of southern women was they were very passive in public. As they were growing up, they were taught to not cause a commotion and any scene they caused would affect their reputation. A woman’s reputation was everything considering any damage to it would potentially affect her chance of being married, which was the main goal. Things like their appearance and how they carried themselves could do damage if it was not correct. A proper woman …show more content…
Miss Maudie was an example of someone who was not as strict about following the code and in some areas considered improper. However, it is for this reason that she accepts Scout and does not try to change her into something that she is not like Aunt Alexandra. Eleanor Roosevelt was more similar to Miss Maudie in the ways that she drove her own car, lived apart from her husband, and spoke her mind about topics like welfare, minorities, and women’s rights. All of that was considered extremely inappropriate along with her earning her own

To Kill A Mockingbird Conformity Essay

Conformity and individuality progress task Conformity and individuality are prominent ideas and themes in all people's lives that live in the modern world matter who we are, decisions are made in all of our lives whether we choose to conform or not. This is relevant in the text to Kill a Mocking Bird, which follows South finch and her father Addicus finch and their experience with conformity in the racist town of Maycomb. Whereas the film Beauty and the Beast by Bill Condon follows the story of Belle…

Words 739 - Pages 3

Injustice In To Kill A Mockingbird

mistake that many people make whether it’s meeting a new person or hearing rumors about someone. In Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, Maycomb's southern traditions lead to several biases that brought vexation to the town because only a handful of the fair citizens walked in others’ shoes. Harper Lee effectively expresses the power of resisting prejudice, injustice, and conformity by creating the characters of Scout, the young, innocent narrator and Atticus, a wise mentor, to whom the children seek…

Words 487 - Pages 2

To Kill A Mockingbird Analysis

We Were All Mockingbirds Once To Kill A Mockingbird, is a coming of age story set in the sleepy town of Maycomb County during the Great Depression. Over the course of three years, the three main children, Scout, Jem, and Dill go through many experiences that forever change their perspectives on life. They had childish understandings of situations, but once they matured, they were granted with mature ones. When you mature, you aren't just gaining wisdom or losing innocence- you are doing both…

Words 869 - Pages 4

Loss Of Innocence In To Kill A Mockingbird

Throughout the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, author Harper Lee follows Jean Louis “Scout” Finch, as she navigates the pitfalls of growing up. She is accompanied by her older brother Jem, and her father, Atticus Finch, a lawyer from a prominent family. In their small town of Maycomb, Alabama, the Finches are near the top of the town’s social structure. At the beginning of the novel, Scout partakes in fun, childhood adventures while remaining blissfully unaware of the segregated society she lives in…

Words 818 - Pages 4

Essay on southern gothic

Café” (1951), and Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird (1960). Amalgamating the gothic, the grotesque and naturalism, these unique writers create in their fiction recognizable warped rural communities while questioning small town fears and mentality and of the modern South. A grotesque character in each of these works reveals the failure of the southern honor code, the distorted family relations against the obligations of community expectations and pressures of conformity. The earliest work, Absalom, appeared…

Words 1878 - Pages 8

Maturity In Ayn Rand's Anthem

Just like Equality, Leopard Man in “The Sociology of Leopard Man” refuses to suffer from “the world’s most common but dangerous physiological disorder-” conformity (Feys 1). Unlike everyone else who obsesses over “the desire to fit in,” he “enjoy[s] the benefits modern society offers without becoming dependent on society” (Feys 1-2). Leopard Man is more mature than the “ordinary people… [who] fear what they…

Words 1411 - Pages 6