Masculinity and Femininity in To Kill a Mockingbird (original) (raw)
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Literary texts written in English -A Critical Analysis: To Kill A Mockingbird
Nowadays, it is quite difficult to find 'a good book' which makes you feel emotions you have never experienced before, which makes you connect with the characters and writer of the story and appreciate the time taken to write such exquisiteness. Personally, I have only felt this way about one book, that of Harper Lee, titled 'To Kill A Mockingbird'. This particular novel was assigned to me as a student in my third year of secondary school, which I did not wholeheartedly appreciate at the time of reading, but of which I have returned to read on many occasions for the pleasure of reading it. There are many reasons why I have chosen to write about this particular novel, including the themes it so accurately deals with, symbolism, imagery, its literariness and the overall lasting effect it leaves on the reader.
MASCULINITY, FEMININITY AND THE ANDROGYNOUS MIND IN HARPER LEE'S TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD
JOURNAL OF LANGUAGE AND COMMUNICATION, 2020
The Southern culture of the United States of America (USA) is known to be violent and racist. Prejudice against black people in these regions is still dominant today as violence and murder inflicted on them are sometimes ignored. The call for justice for innocent black people is highlighted in Harper Lee's renowned novel To Kill a Mockingbird (1960). The time setting of the novel is in the 1930s, yet it is necessary to study the novel as it depicts how the Southern culture of violence and racism is unchanged. This paper, therefore, analyses how characters become anti-racist as a result of their androgyny that defies the culture in Southern USA by analysing the characters in To Kill a Mockingbird using the concept of the androgynous mind by Virginia Woolf. Scout is masculine in appearance, speech, and behaviour, but feminine in her emotions, affection with her father, and admiration for the skills in the kitchen. Atticus Finch is masculine in shooting well and his brave defence of Tom Robinson although he is feminine in his affection with his family, his inadequacy at role modelling masculinity for his son, and his stance against violence. Their androgynous minds cause them to challenge the Southern culture and in turn make them oppose racism. Hence, this study suggests how beneficial it can be for society to have both feminine and masculine traits.
A STUDY ON THE VARIOUS FORMS OF DISCRIMINATION IN HARPER LEE’S “TO KILL A MOCKING BIRD”
Everyone has their own prejudice that leads to differentiate certain set of people in the society and they are subjugated in the name of race, class, colour, ecomonic condition and so on. This discrimination leads to societal imbalance and creates a void in human relationship. This dissertation focuses on various kinds of discrimination in Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird. The work analyses the discrimination faced by Black community in the White American society. It also analyses the class struggle prevailing within the White community and the societal prejudices upon poor Whites. The novel breaks the colour stereotypes of White people, that Blacks are bad. The research focuses on the psychological depression and the traumatic journey of certain characters.
Racism and Cultural Clashes in Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird.pdf- Copy
This thesis presents Harper Lee’s view about prejudice, race racism and cultural clashes of social life in To Kill A Mockingbird. The aim of the thesis is to analyze deeply about the concept of prejudice and racism and cultural clashes of Harper Lee from the point of view of Scout as the main character in this novel. The discussion began by analyzing intrinsic and extrinsic elements. The intrinsic elements novel such as character and characterization, conflict and setting and the extrinsic element taken from the social conflict America at glance in 1930s. From the intrinsic and extrinsic elements, the reflection of Harper Lee’s view a struggle of a white man who defend a nigger which is in that time defending nigger such a disgrace for white people from the social judgments. The methods used are library research method and approach. The library research method is to gain information related to discussion. The approaches used here are structural and sociological approach. Structural approach is used to analyze character and characterization, setting, conflict, while sociological approach was applied to analyze Racial Prejudice in this novel. The result of the analysis shows that Scout as the main character is described as a person who is naïve, understanding girl, smart, emotional, lovely. She experiences the internal conflict, person against herself. The external conflict overwhelm Scout against some others characters and the society. In this novel Harper Lee’s shows her point of view on prejudice ,racism and cultural anarchy. She tries to tell people in the novel if Alabama in 1930s was full of prejudice and racism action from white people to black people. So, because of the prejudice black people always become the victim or person that blamed as a criminal when there was a case between white and black before or after the court. And the way the mocking voice of race people were sung by the narration of Harper Lee through her novel To Kill A Mockingbird.
Acts of Anti-Racism Reflected in Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird (1960
IJMRAP, 2022
This research aims to identify and analyze acts of antiracism as reflected in Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird (1960). The method used in this study is a descriptive qualitative method to elaborate the acts of anti-racism occurred in the novel. The results showed the acts against racism in the novel can be encountered in Atticus Finch character which served as a lawyer to defend a black man which has been accused as a white woman rapist. Another act against racism found is how Atticus Finch taught his children about equality.
INTERPRETATION OF WOMEN CHARACTERS IN HARPER LEE'S TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD
It is a widely accepted fact that literature reflects society. Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird is the reflection of 1930's America. Lee meticulously captures the issues, beliefs, prejudices of the Americans in this time period in the setting of a fictitious town, Maycomb, Alabama. Maycomb is a small town of close-knit families living for decades in that town. Though this is her first and the only novel (1920) till she would go on to publish Go Set a Watchman (2015) in 2015, Mockingbird received rave reviews and critical acclaim for her novel. Mockingbird received the Pulitzer Prize and went on to become a classic American novel which is prescribed in American Schools. The narrative is partly autobiographical as it is vaguely based on the incidents Lee witnessed in her hometown in 1936. The novel though deals with a very critical issue, racial prejudice, is simultaneously warm and educative of human values. The protagonist, Scout Finch, learns her lessons of compassion and courage at the hands of her father, Atticus Finch and their domestic help, Calpurnia. The present paper deals with the portrayal of women in Mockingbird. Lee portrays her women as strong, assertive, ethical and nurturing. Simultaneously, we have certain social characters who are stereotypes and the accuser, Mayella of Tom Robinson, a negative character. It is interesting to note the strong roles, both positive and negative, the women characters play in this novel. The paper makes a note of the strikingly contrasting characteristics and attempts to study the autobiographical elements behind the portrayal of women characters in the Mockingbird.
Veda's Journal of English Language and Literature (JOELL), 2024
https://www.joell.in/vol-11-issue-3-2024/ https://www.joell.in/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/78-82-THE-EXPERIENCE-OF-OTHERING-ANALYSIS-OF-HARPER-LEES-TO-KILL-A-MOCKINGBIRD.pdf Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird (1960), written at the height of Civil Rights Movement in America, occupies an iconic status in the American cultural imaginary. Thematically revolving around the adventures of the nine-year old Scout, Jem, and Dill in their hometown, the racially-segregated Maycomb, and Atticus Finch's defense of a Black man named Tom Robinson who is falsely accused of raping a White woman, the novel deals with the perennial questions of identity, its intersections with race, class and gender, and its implications on the individuals' right to freedom and life. While the events of the novel are firmly rooted in the context of specific time and place, this paper argues that it profoundly resonates with the contemporary experience of racial, gender and class-based "othering". The paper explores the ways in which the process of "othering" and marginalization manifests in the novel by delving into specific instances from the lives of characters like Tom Robinson and Boo Radley. Amidst these difficult experiences, the novel probes into the possibility of social justice that the power of law can uphold. This paper examines how Atticus Finch, both as a lawyer and a father, upholds law as a means of delivering social justice as well as advocates his belief in each individual's judicious sensibility that allows him/her to be generous, tolerant and humane towards fellow beings. The proposed paper makes a case for To Kill a Mockingbird as a text of enduring value that exemplifies the futility of legal change if not accompanied by fundamental shift in prejudiced mindsets that sow the seeds of institutionalized "othering" and oppression of those different or opposite to oneselves.