Similarities Between To Kill A Mockingbird And The Help

Women had certain expectations to follow in society. Examples can be found in Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird and Kathryn Stockett's The Help. Hilly from The Help had a large influence on other women. This character was very bossy, rude, and fake. She forced Skeeter, another main character to go on dates and dress up to please the men. This represented the standard that Hilly expected Skeeter and others to follow. Finding a husband was an expectation that Hilly imposed on Skeeter. These actions are similar to Aunt Alexandra in To Kill a Mockingbird. Aunt Alexandra constantly bossed around Scout to be more ladylike. For instance, Aunt Alexandra would make Scout talk with the ladies of the town. She would say “Jean Louise come speak to these ladies” (Lee 176). This was because she did not want Scout playing with Jem because it made her less feminine, even though Scout would rather be with Jem. Women in both pieces of literature had to …show more content…
To illustrate, Hilly is not sincere with her actions. Hilly is very manipulative with the things she does. For instance, she controls the women in the town because of her lunch group. Hilly can do almost whatever she wants because everyone either wants to be a part of her group or they fear her. This is not an example of how a “true lady’ should be acting by society's standards. This differs in To Kill a Mockingbird in such that Aunt Alexandra bosses around scout to help her grow up the best she can be. For example, “Aunt Alexandra met us and nearly fainted when Calpurnia told where we were” (Lee 282). This highlights the fact that Aunt Alexandra genuinely cares about the kids and the things she does is out of love. She shows that being a lady means being respectful unlike Hilly. The role of women is shown very differently in these two pieces of literature. Racism however, was very similar in