One theme that really stood out to me was the sexism againt women. Scout goes throughout the book being a "tomboy". She wears overalls instead of dresses, and plays gmaes with Jem and Dill. These games wern't what little girls her age used to play. Other girls played with dolls and played tea party. Scout followed Boo Radley and participated in the games the boys played. When I was little, I was pretty tomboyish too. I loved bugs, mostly. Other kids in my class would run away from bees and spiders, when I could spend a long time watching them, fascinated. My whole family was like that, I guess. My little sister spent hours digging in our compost pile, looking and playing with worms. I was more into the spiders, but we did NOT like the Disney princesess, and rarely played with dolls.
I think it is ironic that Scout takes it as an insult when Jem tells her to stop acting like a girl. Even now, when people say stop being a girl, it is an insult. Why?, I don't know. This just helps to prove the point of sexism against womenand is why this theme really stuck soundly in my mind. As a small child, other girls couldn't understand why I liked to play with beatles instead of Barbies. Likewise, Aunt Alexandra never comprehended why Scout wore overalls and acted like a boy, when her idea of raising a girl included making sure they wore a dress and had lady-like manners.
To Kill a Mockingbird has many important themes, but the sexism against women is the one I can connect the best to.
Alena
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