To kill a mocking bird - With specific reference to the extract on p.232 to p.234, ["Immediately thereafter"... "Until you start wearing dresses more often"] comment on the portrayal of women inthe novel. Discuss at least 4 characters.

The second group of female characters of the book are those who try to be a lady, but will never success owing to their daily manners. They are mainly town gossips, domineering women or women with strong but self-centered ideas. They will try their best to criticize other people in order to obtain their popularity. Through criticism, they try to show society how “right” they are. They are inconsiderable, fascitious and sarcastic. One example of this group is Miss Stephanie Crawford. She is a town gossip. She deliberately embarrasses Scout by saying, “I thought you wanted to be a lawyer, you’ve already commenced going to court.” She makes the ladies around laugh and at the same moment, she gains popularity of being the “mighty” one. She does not consider Scout’s situation and feelings. This action proves that she is far from being a lady who is usually well behaved and considerable. She can only stay as a town gossip. Mrs. Merriweather is also an example of this group’s female. She refers Tom Robinson’s wife as “that darkie’s wife”, which is a complete and utter racist comment to the black people.

The third group of female characters are those who are neither ladies nor town gossips. They could be neither of them because of their social status. Mayella Ewell is one example of this group. She belongs to the group of people who are regarded as social outcasts. She does not have any friends but loads of siblings and an irresponsible, always-drunk father. She has no choice, but to sit aside and behave in the way she is supposed to be – a social outcast.

Among these three groups of female, there is one specific character who is always somewhere in-between. She is Calpurnia. She is a black herself, who is a social outcast according to the book. At the same moment, she is subservient, considerable, obedient and kind (“Careful now, it’s heavy. Don’t look at it and you won’t spill”). This makes her a little bit like a lady. Moreover she has to look after Scout and Jem and take care the Finches’ house. By saying this, that means that she has to be a strong and open-minded woman in order to archive all these. Therefore Calpurnia is an exceptional case among the female characters who are divided into four groups throughout To Kill a Mockingbird.

The fourth group of female characters consists of only one person. That person is growing up. She has to learn to be a lady. She is learning the behaviour, appearance and attitude from the adults. She does not have a single clue how she should behave in the way she is supposed be. That person is Scout. In the book, Scout is the narrator. Her innocent and naïve actions bring out another main theme of the book of growing-up and maturity. By comparing with her analyze and understanding of her narration, we can see that Scout has grown into a very mature person after the incident described in the book. That is because of her learning process during several occasions. During the missionary tea party, she experiences all kinds of human behaviour. She is helpful, loyal and considerable to Calpurnia (Quote: “Can I help you, Cal,” “I was wearing my pink Sunday dress… if I spilled anything Calpurnia would have to wash my dress again for tomorrow.”) She experienced the sarcastic way Miss Stephanie Crawford behaves (or else she will not have specifically mentioned it in the book.) She experienced the kind, friendly and nice way Miss Maudie Atkinson behaves (as mentioned above, “she never laughed at me (Scout) unless I meant to be funny.”) She experiences the subservient, humble way Calpurnia behaves. She also experiences the domineering and self-centered way Aunt Alexandra behaves (she always wants her to be a lady.) From these aspects, she starts to develop her own way of thinking, the way she believes to be the best way to live with. We can see how mature Scout is from the way she narrates the story. That is because she has experienced enough from the previous generation that brings her understanding and consideration.

In Maycomb County, there are all sorts of women: from ladies to town gossip, from social outcast to a modern family child who is growing up. There is no exact answer to the question “how a woman should behave?” You can never understand a person until, to borrow a sentence from Atticus, “climb into his (her) skin and walk around in it.”