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Post by armaster2323 on Aug 8, 2016 3:15:02 GMT
During the duration of the story Aunt Alexandra continuously bothered Scout and made comments on how she dressed and what she said. This leads me to my point was she really a good influence or was she just a distraction? I believe she was a distraction because she told Scout who to be and didn't let her live her life and who Scout wanted herself to be, even if she enjoyed the guy activites. To support my statement Aunt Alexandra would say to Scout "it would be best for you to have some feminine influence"(Lee 140). This supports my statement because she is telling her what is best for her and in a way to change her lifestyle saying she can use some feminine advice to be more like a women.
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Post by avery young on Aug 10, 2016 4:16:46 GMT
While I can agree with your point as a whole, Aunt Alexandra doesn't seem to serve as a distraction to Scout, but more as a frustrating attempt at a mother figure. She doesn't mean to distract, in terms of both Scout and the story as a whole, but rather attempts to give Scout someone to look up and relate to. This doesn't go as planned for Alexandra, which results in frustration for both her and Scout.
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Post by tsharman on Aug 10, 2016 23:35:27 GMT
In some ways, Aunt Alexandra actually influences Scout for the worse. This is evident in her continual references to the distinction between "Fine Folks" and "trash;" for example, she says that the Cunningham are "not our kind of folks," prohibiting Scout from playing with him (Lee 299). She also keeps nagging Scout into acting ladylike. Thus, Aunt Alexandra, by forcing Scout into her way of thinking, probably had a negative influence upon Scout's development.
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Post by bennettspengler on Aug 11, 2016 19:17:05 GMT
I tend agree with Avery on this discussion. When Aunt Alexandra comes to visit, she tells Scout and Jem that “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." With their mother dead, Scout and Jem are only left with a father and his abilities to raise and influence his children. Although this seems to work so far, having a mother figure would (in theory) greatly help with the development of Scout and Jem.
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Post by hayleycurrin on Aug 12, 2016 16:33:50 GMT
Once again to agree with Avery, I believe that Aunt Alexandra was more of a failed motherly figure than someone sent to quell Scout's dreams of a certain life. She was a very static character throughout the novel and never proved herself to be of any great importance to the story. Truthfully, Miss Maudie was more of a mother figure than Aunt Alexandra was. Still, another way to think of her presence and Atticus bringing her in to make Scout more of a lady is really just a symbol of the times. Woman were granted the right to vote in 1920 which was pretty close to the beginning of this novel and the first female lawyer was only in 1869 and woman only became more accepted in that profession (one Scout had demonstrated interest in) decades later. Some prejudice still exists today with woman in law. We also must consider that the South, especially in small towns, was far behind in changing their ways at that time and even now. If you were a woman, you were expected to marry, have children and go have tea and coffee with your neighbors. It was nothing personal against Scout; it was just the way things were.
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Post by Hannah Burgess on Aug 15, 2016 2:55:34 GMT
I wouldn't necessarily say she was a distraction but more of a debber downer, and brought self esteem down. Like when she wouldn't let Scout live the life she wanted live.
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Post by anikahagen on Aug 15, 2016 4:33:46 GMT
I agree with Avery that Aunt Alexandra was a poor attempt at a mother figure. Atticus called her looking to help Scout become more of a lady, and for Scout to have a proper mother in her life. However, he didn’t realize that Scout had Calpurnia to act as a mother. I do not see her as a distraction though, while she did make it harder for Scout to live her own tomboyish life, I don’t believe that her being there distracted Scout from anything.
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Post by armaster2323 on Aug 15, 2016 5:18:10 GMT
I definitely agree with you Avery but she was practically holding Scout back from what she wanted to do.
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Post by marliegroshans on Aug 16, 2016 19:50:18 GMT
I agree that Aunt Alexandra was a distraction, and a bad influence. She held Scout from being herself, and finding her own path in life. Aunt Alexandra wanted her to be "lady-like" instead of being who she really was, therefore being a bad-influence.
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Post by Jaiden Twining on Aug 19, 2016 0:25:34 GMT
I believe that Aunt Alexandria was very important to developing Scout's character because of her different point of view. Scout got to see what most women were like and how not just women but most people feel about racial differences. It allowed her to understand other people better and also how most of her world works. This could have been a negative effect if Scout's morals had changed, but they didn't and only allowed her to gain more wisdom as she grew up.
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Post by davidcastillo on Aug 21, 2016 0:10:49 GMT
I'm with Jaiden on this I think it was a way for Lee so show how society treats women and he used scout's aunt as a way to portray it in a negative way. Obviously her aunt was close minded and that helped develop the story to show how a majority of people used to think and how some people still do think.
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Post by annastellick on Aug 22, 2016 1:14:28 GMT
In this day and age it is believed that Aunt Alexandra was a distraction and a failed motherly figure for Scout. But at the time it was expected of young ladies like Scout to get married. Because Scout didn't have a mother to tell her how to act, her aunt was brought in to sincerely help her become the young lady she was expected to grow up to be. Because of that, I believe that for the time period Scouts Aunt was a good influence.
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