What Is Aunt Alexandra's Role In To Kill A Mockingbird

In Harper Lee’s novel To Kill a Mockingbird morals are structured around Atticus Finch, who is able to educate his two children Scout and Jem about life’s meaning and what is right and prudent. The aunt of Atticus’s children, Alexandra is a more isolated and biased character. She is a not a central character, but she is essential to the story, and is crucial in contrasting against Atticus’s morals. Along with contributing to the novel’s plot, Aunt Alexandra’s presence in the novel helps to develop a theme: the idea that people in a community are not always the same, and you must come to adapt to their ways of life. Lee includes a brief background of Aunt Alexandra to introduce the new character. Aunt Alexandra tries to influence on Scout in class distinctions, upbringing and being a lady. She also directly confronts Atticus in order to challenge his ideas, and show her biased opinions towards Atticus’s morals. Although Aunt Alexandra believes that people should continue to follow in their family’s footsteps, she is fundamentally good person. …show more content…
Readers are introduced to Aunt Alexandra in the middle of the novel by being a rigid woman whose “appearance on the scene was not so much Atticus’s doing as hers”(147). She comes to help watch over Atticus’s children while Atticus is preoccupied with Tom Robinson’s trial. Atticus is appreciative of her arrival, and Aunt Alexandra shows the readers that she can be both supportive and imperious. While living in Maycomb, she chooses to live within constrictions and follows expectations. Aunt Alexandra is very bigoted towards opinions and a person's place in society while trying to nullify Atticus’s morals and