Girl Power: Sourcing the Feminine Strength in To Kill a Mockingbird Quotes and Antigone

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When it comes to being a girl, To Kill a Mockingbird's Scout is more spice than sugar. In fact, she is particularly sugar-free. No frilly pink dresses, pretty baby dolls, or sweet make-believe tea parties for her. She is more likely to punch you in the face than smile sweetly at you, especially if you're being a Grade-A jerk. And that is why most readers love her: she's a spunky, rambunctious tomboy with a good heart-just don't call her a girl. To Scout, being a girl is a lot in life she'd rather not have. After all, what use are dresses to her when she wants to climb, play, and fight? Girls just want to have fun! A dress is a liability; she prefers pants. At least no one can accuse her of being impractical.

Many literary critics are quick to point out the similarities between Scout and To Kill a Mocking Bird author Harper Lee's life. Whether or not Lee was a rowdy tomboy like good ole Scout, Lee was certainly able to get inside the mind of a motherless little girl constantly running with the boys. In fact, a close analysis of some select To Kill a Mockingbird quotes will show Scout to struggle with being a girl. To her, it's a "pink cotton penitentiary." Yet, as the novel progresses, Scout starts to see the value and skill in being a woman, despite what her father Atticus calls the Southern environment that follows the "polite fiction" that female subservience and inferiority are a given. Scout symbolically overcomes this notion in the coming-of-age story near the end of the novel when she follows in Aunt Alexandra in assuming a polite decorum in spite of the death of Tom, the black man Atticus represented in a controversial rape trial. She says: "After all, if Aunty could be a lady at a time like this, so could I." Scout sees there is strength and value in being a female, in bravely carrying on in face of trying situations. And she doesn't have to give anyone a bloody nose to prove it.

However, the idea of feminine strength and endurance in oppressive times is actually a theme that has been woven into literature for well over a thousand years-from Sophocles's Antigone to Nathanial Hawthornes's Scarlet Leter. In fact, Antigone, the daughter of notorious motherlover and Sigmund-Freud-darling Oedipus, is a prominent literary paragon of female strength in face of adversity. Scout could learn a lot from her. In spite of the tyrannous King Creon's decree that her brother Polyneices be left out like a sun-dried tomato instead of given a proper burial, Antigone does the moral, humane thing and buries him. The badass Antigone doesn't even flinch when Creon chastises and imprisons her for her supposed crime, sticking to her moral guns-or swords, if you want to be historically accurate in your expressions. She's got nerves of steel, that one. She accepts her punishment and then kills herself, arguably dying on her own terms to spite her impending death sentence ordered by Creon.

Sticking to your moral principles when the popular, much easier option is to abandon them takes some serious guts-something that Scout also learns in the novel's tense, racially motivated rape trial, the one Atticus refuses to quit because he believes representing Tom is is the right thing to do. Scout learns that men are not the only ones who have this moral ability to persevere-women have it too. Girl power for the win.

Paul Thomson is an avid reader of English Literature. His areas of expertise include Antigone, To Kill a Mockingbird quotes, and Scarlet Letter. In his spare time, he loves to participate in online literature forums and promote reading for youth.

Endurance As a Virtue in The Scarlett Letter - Antigone and To Kill a Mockingbird Quotes

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Endurance is a virtue that we, as a Westernized society, place a great deal of worth in. To withstand intense pain, strife or just plain unpleasantness-or even muster up the strength to resist an endlessly tempting pint of Ben & Jerry's Chubby Hubby-is to be respected, appreciated and at times, worshipped. History is littered with examples of those elevated super-humans who demonstrated the capacity to grin and bear it while turning the other cheek. Think Jesus, Mohammad, Buddha or even the countless Christian saints revered for their storied sacrifice and strength.

It should be no surprise that our reverence for those who endure has found its way into our story telling. Tales of strength, daunting and physically excruciating tasks and the ability to overcome the odds are the stuff that define our heroes. More importantly, these sort of tales also define humanity as a whole. They represent not only our values and our morals as mere humans, but they also construct social norms and rules that shape our societies. Again, religious figures such as Jesus and Buddha come to mind, whose teachings have shaped our perceptions of how we as humans should act for thousands of years. Consider the Golden Rule-a virtue present in nearly every religion that urges people to treat others as they would like to be treated-as a sort of test of endurance. Especially when you're in line for the DMV. That bitter (and completely justifiable) attitude is only going to get you more bitterness.

A classic literary example of valued endurance, especially with religious connotations, is Nathanial Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter in which Hester Prynne, a young woman living in mid-17th century puritanical Massachusetts Bay Colony area, is publicly punished and shamed for having a child with someone who is clearly not her husband, since the dude has been MIA for a few years. As part of her punishment, she is forced to wear the letter "A" to forever mark her as an adulterer. Yet, despite her imprisonment, constant public shaming and general disenfranchisement, Hester endures. A woman of honor, she does not public reveal who her baby daddy is (it's the town minister, by the way) to protect him and his reputation. Her love for the minister gives meaning and purpose to her suffering, making her a patient and relatively tolerant literary figure with religious overtones.

Another notable female figure of endurance is Antigone, Sophocle's famous play about a young noble woman whose morals and do-right attitude prompts her to defy the king's irrational decree that banned the proper burial of her traitorous brother. Her courage and gall is what largely defines her ability to endure, refusing to back down or out her sister as an accomplice while standing before the king. Though she does kill herself off stage while in prison, Sophocles' implies that her action was not out of fear or desperation but it was yet another way to defy and thwart the tyrannical king. That level of commitment and bravery is akin to the virtues contained in our human capacity to endure, often going hand in hand.

The trope of female endurance is also not lost on Harper Lee, who created Scout, a tough tomboy character who learns that with femininity comes great strength and an undeniable ability to endure trying times. In one of the To Kill a Mockingbird quotes, Scout finds that her Aunt Alexandra's insistence on maintaining polite hospitality in light of the tragic death of Tom is in fact an attribute of endurance and strength rather than being a hypocritical or insensitive display. Scout says: "Aunt Alexandra looked across the room at me and smiled. She looked at a tray of cookies on the table and nodded at them. I carefully picked up the tray and watched myself walk to Mrs. Merriweather. With my best company anners, I asked her if she would have some. After all, if Aunty could be a lady at a time like this, so could I."

Our stories show us humans to carry on and endure in hard times. After all, it's what makes us human.

Paul Thomson is an avid reader of English Literature. His areas of expertise include Antigone, To Kill a Mockingbird quotes and Scarlet Letter. In his spare time, he loves to participate in online literature forums and promote reading for youth.