What effect does Aunt Alexandra have on the routines of Atticus, Jem, and Scout? Why? - Rose Fahy
In Chapter 13, Aunt Alexandra moves in with Atticus, Jem and Scout to keep them from doing what she thinks is ruining their family’s reputation. She doesn’t like how Atticus is raising his children, so she moves in and changes their lifestyle. Harper Lee uses the conversation between Atticus, Jem and Scout at the end of Chapter 13 to show how Aunt Alexandra is manipulating Atticus. Scout notices how Atticus was acting different and cries because “This was not my father. My father never thought these thoughts. My father never spoke so. Aunt Alexandra had put him up to this, somehow” (151). Aunt Alexandra thinks that how Jem and Scout act is ruining the family’s reputation. She is trying to change how he is raising them because she hopes to change their behavior. According to Aunt Alexandra, her and Atticus decided that it would be best for Scout to have some “feminine influence.” Aunt Alexandra does not like how Atticus allows Scout to act unladylike, so she tries to change Scout’s behavior herself. Later in the chapter, Scout thinks that “Aunt Alexandra’s appearance was not so much Atticus’ doing as hers. Aunty had a way of declaring What Is Best For The Family, and I suppose her coming to live with us in that category”(146). Aunt Alexandra believes that how Scout acts and dresses isn’t ladylike. She wants Scout to be more like other girls her age. Aunt Alexndra’s affects how Atticus reacts to Scout and Jem’s behavior because she thinks that they are ruining the family’s name.
Does Aunt Alexandra have as much of an affect on Jem as she does on Scout? Why or why not?
Do you think Aunt Alexandra will also try to change the way Atticus feels about the trial? Explain how?
Do you think Aunt Alexandra will be successful in changing the family’s lifestyle?
I don’t think that Aunt Alexandra is making too much of an impact on Jem. During the reading, we can see that Jem has become more mature and more of a gentleman. Jem now reads the newspaper and Cal calls him “Mister Jem.” Also, Jem and Scout have parted ways of playing with each other since she is still young and Jem has grown up more. I think Aunt Alexandra is impacting the most on Scout. Aunt Alexandra doesn’t believe that Scout is ladylike enough for a Finch. Scout goes around in overalls and usually gets mud on her while she is playing. Aunt Alexandra doesn’t approve of how Scout can do this under Atticus’ watch, so she decided to show up and change Scout to become a lady.
ReplyDeleteI don’t think Harper Lee was trying to have Aunt Alexandra change the family lifestyle, but to be there for Scout to understand more about what her life would be like with a white woman in the household. Aunt Alexandra is a sexist woman who criticizes Scout constantly for not being a stereotypical girl in Maycomb. She has an image of what Scout is and can’t look past it. Harper Lee is putting this character in the book to give the reader perspective on a possible situation that could have happened. Having the book be in first person with the protagonist as Scout, I am able to see how she feels and thinks of her aunt. I think Aunt Alexandra will play the role of the antagonist with all of the negative feedback and shame that she puts against Scout.
ReplyDeleteI think that any impact Aunt Alexandra has on them will be short lived, if she has any impact at all. The way that Harper Lee has Atticus respond to Scout at the end, telling her that she doesn't need to remember the way Finches are supposed to act, and to forget it, almost as if he were snapping out of a trance is foreshadowing for later chapters in the book. Aunt Alexandra will most likely try to change Atticus's mind about the trial, and Atticus will have to realize what the right thing is, and that it doesn't matter what Aunt Alexandra thinks.
ReplyDeleteI believe that Aunt Alexandra impacts Scout drastically, and Jem, little to none. Scout and Jem have been raised to be free, themselves, and playful, but now since they are getting older, they are expected to change. Aunt Alexandra expects Scout to be "proper" and "ladylike", which supposedly means wearing dresses instead of shirts and jeans, and being proper and formal constantlyRight now, Scout is just a child who goes to school, and plays outside with her brother and Dill. Aunt Alexandra wants her to become more like Cal, more proper, and even more like a servant so she can be "groomed" to be a good wife. Even though this isn't stated in the book, it's quite obvious that this is what's happening, and it's just sick. Whereas Jem isn't affected by Aunt Alexandra in any way. In the end of Chapter 13, Aunt Alexandra convinces Atticus that his children have to become softer which means dressing appropriately and being polite, but this is more addressed to Scout than it is Jem. I think that later on in the book, there will be a situation where Jem is told that boy's'll be boys, and he's supposed to be silly, and unruly, and Scout is told that she should always be ladylike. I don't know when this will happen, but I am prepared that something similar to this will occur.
ReplyDeleteI believe that Aunt Alexandra isn't having as much as an impact on Jem because there's no way for her to really hurt him. Her goal is to turn Scout into a lady and to do that she manipulated their father. In the book, Harper Lee explains that Scout and Jem knew something was up and different about him. He wasn't the same carefree man he had been before, he was now willing to have his daughter be turned into a lady. There might be a possibility that Aunt Alexandra will impact the way Atticus thinks about the trial and I believe that there could have been some foreshadowing in the two chapters. Aunt Alexandra has already been successful in changing Atticus' lifestyle, who's to say she won't change the rest of the family's. I think that Aunt Alexandra took advantage of Atticus' vulnerability at the time of the trial and is now forcing him into something he is unsure of.
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