What is it like to depart from what is considered to be normal or what society wishes for one to be? Southern females are expected to be perfect at all times. During the nineteen hundreds, people who were not considered perfect to society’s terms were excluded from social events like prayer groups or bible study. As a woman, one may depart from the normal to become who they have wished to become all along. As well as to prove the absurdity of the traditional female expectation. In To Kill a Mockingbird, Scout is a young female who wishes to enjoy childhood. Instead, she is held up to the southern female expectation by her Aunt Alexandra. In the novel, her brother Jem makes Scout feel as if being a female was a bad thing, while the church women
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Through this she teaches readers that being oneself is the way one should be. This takes place at the beginning of the novel, when Scout wishes for approval.“ I was not so sure, but Jem told me I was being a girl, that girls always imagined things, that's why other people hated them so, and if I started behaving like one I could just go off and find some to play with” (Lee 45). Scout has grown up without a mother, and her only mother-like figure is Calpurnia, her housekeeper, who lets Scout be whoever she wants like her father, Atticus, has done. Jem wishes for Scout to not be “girly”, this making Scout worry about not having approval from her older brother Jem, so she spends time with him hoping for approval. Scout does not care what others think of her, unless it is Jem. Scout wanting to make friends with her brother defies the southern expectation of young girls, for example; “ I should rejoice to see you form friendships with good, high-minded, intelligent, gentle mannered girls of your own age” (Starrett 155). Young females are expected to spend time with other young females by playing stereotypical games like tea party and dress up. Scout does not wish to participate in this type of entertainment, simply because she like to play outside instead, with her brother Jem. Scout shows the reader that an eight year old should not have to worry about who she is supposed to spend time
Through this she teaches readers that being oneself is the way one should be. This takes place at the beginning of the novel, when Scout wishes for approval.“ I was not so sure, but Jem told me I was being a girl, that girls always imagined things, that's why other people hated them so, and if I started behaving like one I could just go off and find some to play with” (Lee 45). Scout has grown up without a mother, and her only mother-like figure is Calpurnia, her housekeeper, who lets Scout be whoever she wants like her father, Atticus, has done. Jem wishes for Scout to not be “girly”, this making Scout worry about not having approval from her older brother Jem, so she spends time with him hoping for approval. Scout does not care what others think of her, unless it is Jem. Scout wanting to make friends with her brother defies the southern expectation of young girls, for example; “ I should rejoice to see you form friendships with good, high-minded, intelligent, gentle mannered girls of your own age” (Starrett 155). Young females are expected to spend time with other young females by playing stereotypical games like tea party and dress up. Scout does not wish to participate in this type of entertainment, simply because she like to play outside instead, with her brother Jem. Scout shows the reader that an eight year old should not have to worry about who she is supposed to spend time