TKaM II WRITING

Página 1

Shriya yenugu

English 9 Acc

Ms. kade

11/20/18

Prove that gender roles are positive.

To kill a mockingbird suggests that gender roles are positive. There is a difference in the opinion scout has over being like a lady. At the beginning of the book, scout is not comfortable with the idea of being a lady-like. She didn't want to “take hot showers after their 3pm afternoon naps” and by night be soft as a teacake. When Aunt Alexandra tells scout to wear a dress so she could “be a ray of sunshine in your father’s lonely life”, scout is against it. Scout says,”I’ll be a ray of sunshine in pants as well. In this point of the book, scout’s opinion of being a lady irks her to a great extent. In chapter 9 page 92, she also says,”i could not possibly hope to be a lady if i wore breaches; when i said i could do nothing in a dress, she said i wasn't supposed to be doing anything that required pants. Aunt Alexandra's vision of my deportment involved playing with small stoves, tea sets….”. These quotes prove that scout doesn’t want to be a lady, that being a lady has its disadvantages of not being able to play with Jem and Dill. However, her opinion on being a girl changes when Aunt Alexandra comes to live with them because the children needed “more feminine influence” apart from Calpurnia. In chapter 24, Scout is asked whether she wanted to be a lawyer like her father but Scout says,“Nome, just a lady”. Later in the same chapter it says,” Aunt Alexandra looked across the room at me and smiled.” and Scout thinks,”if she could be a lady t a time like this, so could I.” Aunt Alexandra is obviously pleased about her answer about what she wanted to become, considering she never or very rarely smiled at Scout. Scout is beginning to warm up to the idea of being a lady. This shows that gender roles are positive.

However, considering the positive sides of gender roles, there is also a negative side to it. Being asked to act like a girl from different parental characters. Scout has 4 parental characters in her life that influenced her to be like a girl who are Atticus, Aunt Alexandra, Uncle Jack and Miss Maudie. These characters appear at different time of the book and when the gender role topic is brought up, each of them have their own opinions. Scout’s opinions start to fluctuate on being ladylike. This shows that gender roles are unstable. Furthermore, in chapter 4 and 6, Jem judges Scout by her gender. In chapter 6, Jem says,”Scout, sometimes you act so much like a girl it’s mortifyin’. “ Scout judges that being in a dress or acting like a lady is negative.

However, the fact that at the end of the book, in chapter 24, she is confident of what she wants so this shows that there is still a good part to gender roles