Presentation of Females TKAM

        Miss Maudie teaches us about life in Maycomb. Although she looked like the other Maycomb ladies, she had different views, for example she believed in equality for black people. The presentation of Miss Maudie shows us the not everyone in Maycomb was prejudiced against blacks.  An example of this is, ‘[Calpurnia] “yes sir,” she murmured, fumbling at her apron. Miss Maudie went to Calpurnia and untied it.’ This shows that Miss Maudie was willing to help Calpurnia. From Miss Maudie, we learn that Atticus was still respected by some people even after his case. She teaches us that some people believed that Tom Robinson was innocent and that was why Judge Taylor chose the best lawyer, Atticus, to defend him.

        The black society in Maycomb helps us to learn about the way of life there. We learn that black people were prejudiced and weren't treated equally to white people. We learn this from Calpurnia. She is the source of many arguments between Atticus and Alexandra as Alexandra does not want her in the house anymore. The presentation of Calpurnia was that she was slightly big and her body was built for doing work, ‘her hand as wide as a bed slat and twice as hard.’ This shows that she was a servant and hard-working. When Calpurnia took Jem and Scout to the ‘black’ church, they come across Lula. Lula teaches us that as well as the white people hating the blacks, the black people also hated the whites, ‘You ain’t got no business bringin’ white chillum here – they got their church, we got our’n. It is our church, ain’t it, Miss Cal?’ This shows that the black community prejudiced the white people. At church, they lined the hymn and this shows the unity, goodness and solidarity of the black society in Maycomb. Furthermore, from the presentation of Calpurnia, we learn that some black people, including Calpurnia, led a double life in the novel. Calpurnia spoke ‘nigger talk’ to black people and spoke normally to white people. It shows that she was trying to fit in to two very different societies.

        The presentation of Miss Stephanie Crawford and the Maycomb ladies shows us a great deal about the life in Maycomb county. Miss Stephanie Crawford was the town gossip who thrived on telling rumours and stories. Nearly all the women in the missionary society except Alexandra and Miss Maudie loved to gossip. Anything abnormal that happened would be discussed. The Maycomb ladies were ignorant about their racism and discrimination towards black people, ‘Maycomb was interested by the news of Tom’s death for perhaps two days… To Maycomb, Tom’s death was Typical. Typical of a nigger to cut and run. Typical of a nigger’s mentality to have no plan, no thought for the future, just run blind first chance he saw.’ It shows that the people of Maycomb had a stereotype of black people, and it made them out to be careless and not being able to think things through before they did anything. Miss Stephanie Crawford and the other missionary society members were not very nice or sensitive people. ‘“Whatcha going to be when you grow up Jean Louise? A lawyer? … Why shoot, I thought you wanted to be a lawyer, you’ve already commenced going to court.” The ladies laughed again.’ From the way that Stephanie Crawford was mocking Scout; readers get the chance to see what she was really like. This shows that life in Maycomb was not always pleasant and the ladies were not always as nice as they first seemed to be. With all the gossiping from the ladies, Dill once said, ‘I think I’ll be a clown when I get grown… I’m gonna stand in the middle of the ring and laugh at folks… Every one of them ought to be ridin’ broomsticks.’ This shows the stupid attitudes of the Maycomb people, and how Dill just wanted to laugh at it because he did not know what else to do. He said everyone who wanted to sentence an innocent man to death ought to be riding broomsticks as they were evil for doing such cruel deeds.

Mrs Merriweather makes us learn about the hypocrisy in Maycomb County. Firstly, she was talking about an African tribe named the Mrunas who had poor living conditions and was complaining about the immorality of there being such underprivileged people. ‘Mrs Merriweather’s large brown eyes always filled with tears when she considered the oppressed.’ The hypocrisy was that they were treating the black community like trash, who in fact were in a similar position as the Mrunas. Secondly, Mrs Merriweather says ‘I tell you there’s nothing more distracting than a sulky darky… You know what I said to my Sophy, Gertrude? You simply are not being a Christian today.’ Once again, she is being a hypocrite because she herself is complaining. This shows that the people of Maycomb couldn’t see the hypocrisy and prejudiced nature of their ways.

Finally, Mrs Gates tells us about the life in Maycomb County. Mrs Gates, Scout’s teacher, asks what is meant when she writes ‘WE ARE A DEMOCRACY’. Scout says that it means ‘equal rights for all, special privileges for none.’ This shows that the people of Maycomb couldn’t see that they were prejudicing the blacks and they were not a democracy because the black society did not have equal rights. Mrs Gates then said how bad it was how Hitler was treating the Jews, however, before she said this, she was complaining to Stephanie Crawford about the bad qualities of black people. This also shows the hypocrisy of the people in Maycomb.

In conclusion, the presentation of female characters makes us learn a lot about life in Maycomb County in the 1930s. It makes us see the hypocrisy of the white people, the prejudice against Negroes and the evils of gossiping. We learn that there was a caste system in Maycomb and the status of the family influenced the society’s view on them. We also learn through Scout’s narrative the stereotypical attitudes held by Maycomb and that people in Maycomb could not always see their unjust ways. Altogether, we learn a great deal about Maycomb in many different aspects from the presentation of female characters.