"Jem's growing up now and you are too," she said to me. "We decided that it would be best for you to have some feminine influence. It won't be many years, Jean Louise before you become interested in clothes and boys--" (pg. 145)
At this point in TKAM Aunt Alexandra is just moving in with Atticus, Jem and Scout and she is explaining why she was moving in.
At this point in history, most of the time in which defined gender roles and civilizations existed before it and a long time after it mothers were expected to be the primary role model and care taker of their children. In particular they were a role model and educator of their daughters in preparation for them being housewives like their mothers. In a family their was a strict dichotomy between the roles that men and women served in their families, men were seen as the mind while women were the heart. This made women "natural" teachers for their daughters to get through what they need to in life, find a husband, have kids and regulate the household. Women were generally seen as lesser then men and best for their reproductive capability. As Dr. Vesna Leskošek says in 'Historical Perspective on the Ideologies of Motherhood and its Impact on Social Work', "Woman was seen as intellectually and emotionally inferior, physically weaker and therefore fully dependent. The only function that could endow her with a certain value was her reproductive ability which consequently became an object of patriarchal ownership."
Since Scout had no mother to fill that role Aunt Alexandra did. She put herself in place of a mother to make sure what she thought should happen with Scout growing up, did happen. With that there are several things wrong. In the bigger picture the defined gender roles of the time just overall weren't "right" which luckily have (mostly) gone away and are still an option, but not a gender defining job picked out for women from birth. With Aunt Alexandra moving in to change scout, she just shouldn't.
Another example of the defined gender roles of the 1930s is on page 93 in which Aunt Alexandra is nagging on scout about how she should wear dresses not pants and she should be playing with small stoves and should be a sunbeam in her fathers life in general.
http://www.socwork.net/sws/article/view/270/445
Zack, what a great post, article quote, and article! (I especially loved the article line "She is a garden governed by natural laws or instincts and cultivated by others, with this cultivation being mainly her husband’s mission." Hee hee.) Yes, Scout is at the age when she is being ushered into the confines of "good womanhood" - and Jem, Uncle Jack, and Aunt Alexandra are all helping the process along. How do you think Scout and Harper Lee may be alike? Did Harper Lee become a good wife and mother, as Scout was expected to be?
ReplyDeleteZack, what a great post, article quote, and article! (I especially loved the article line "She is a garden governed by natural laws or instincts and cultivated by others, with this cultivation being mainly her husband’s mission." Hee hee.) Yes, Scout is at the age when she is being ushered into the confines of "good womanhood" - and Jem, Uncle Jack, and Aunt Alexandra are all helping the process along. How do you think Scout and Harper Lee may be alike? Did Harper Lee become a good wife and mother, as Scout was expected to be?
ReplyDelete