Miss Maudie Atkinson Character Analysis

To Kill a Mockingbird is a novel written by Harper Lee. The story is set in Maycomb, Alabama around the 1930’s; a time of racial injustice, poverty, and inequality. The protagonist-- Jeanne Louise “Scout” Finch-- recalls significant events in her childhood from an older age: the trial of a black man accused of rape, her mysterious neighbor Arthur “Boo” Radley, and the death of Bob Ewell. In the duration of the story, the main character repeatedly encounters three women that shaped and influenced her: Calpurnia the family cook, neighbor Miss Maudie Atkinson, and her Aunt Alexandra. Calpurnia, the family worker and valuable associate to the Finch family, had not only taught Scout the read and write, but had also been a link between …show more content…
Scout and Miss Maudie had developed a friendship in which they spent copious quantities of time. Nevermore, Miss Maudie had also been a role model and mother figure to Scout. The character is often perceived as eccentric and strange, and also sees Maycomb differently than practically the entire population people. Besides Atticus, she was one ofthe few characters who did not believe Maycomb was a utopian society. Miss Atkinson had influenced Scout to look at situations, people, and events in a different light. For example, Arthur “Boo” Radley. When the two characters were spending time together one day, Miss Maudie explained her theory on the reclusive Boo. “‘What I meant was, if Atticus drank till drunk, he wouldn’t be as hard as some men are at their best. There are just some kind of men-who’re so busy worrying about the next world they’ve never learned to live in this one, and you can look down the street and see the results.”’ (Lee, 45). Most people such as Miss Stephanie Crawford, saw Boo Radley as a monster and inhuman. On the contrary, Miss Maudie viewed the man as a victim; she defended him, treated him with respect, and as a real human being. She was able to see the same situation, but contrastive of the majority. Due to their friendship, Scout was fairly accustomed to her behavior and …show more content…
These female characters each shared a special relationship with Scout in which they taught her lessons and impacted her signicicantly. Miss Maudie had taught Scout to view the world diffrently, Calpurnia had given a glimpse of the black world, and Alexandra had shown Scout the southern way. All of the women acted as mother figures and shaped Scout into a child that was aware of the inequality, the racial problems, and the injustice all around her. Unlike most people, she didn’t assume this as typical. She had seen the sins in society, and no longer was she a naive, simple-minded child. Today, in 2016, rascism is recognized as bad, every person deserves to be treated equally, and you are innocent till proven guilty. Children are raised to value said beliefs. However back then, in the 1930’s, it was the opposite. It was routine for a black person to have an unfair trial, it was ideal for woman having a smaller voice than men, and it was perfectly okay for a person to be sent to die because of their race. Scout had been able to see the wickedness at her young age, when full grown adults coudn’t. Miss Maudie, Aunt Alexandra, and Calpurnia are significant to Scout’s life as they had each contributed into shaping Scout’s perspective that allowed her to see the troubling issues