Aunt Alexandra is very cognizant of what she considers to be the class structure in Maycomb County. Even though the Finches are cash-poor, they are rich in land, because of their ownership of Finch's Landing, and in something Jem calls "background." Jem believes Aunt Alexandra associates "background" with the number of generations that a family has been literate - meaning that all children in that generation are taught to read and write - and also the level of education achieved by at least the male family members. Atticus is a lawyer and his younger brother, Jack, is a doctor. In Aunt Alexandra's mind, this is the type of future intended for Jem. And while Scout is stubborn and tomboyish, Aunt Alexandra most likely imagines that Scout will be married to a man who comes from a similar family as the Finches - a man with "background."
Associating with the Cunninghams for anything other than business would tarnish the reputations of both Scout and Jem. Aunt Alexandra points out several attributes of the Cunningham family that make them "inferior" to the Finches: they drink; they have bad habits. Ultimately when Scout keeps needling her about why Scout cannot invite Walter over to their house, Aunt Alexandra says, “Because— he—is—trash, that’s why you can’t play with him. I’ll not have you around him, picking up his habits and learning Lord-knows-what" (Lee 228).
Aunt Alexandra believes that a person's worth is determined by their "background," which is a strange blending of family, education, socio-economic status, and race. Even if Walter Cunningham separates from his farming family and gets a college education; even if he gets rid of the hookworms he has from going barefoot, because his family can't afford shoes, and eats three square meals of good food a day to fatten him up, he will still be "inferior" in Aunt Alexandra's eyes. She says: "The thing is, you can scrub Walter Cunningham till he shines, you can put him in shoes and a new suit, but he’ll never be like Jem. Besides, there’s a drinking streak in that family a mile wide. Finch women aren’t interested in that sort of people” (Lee 228).
This complex notion of "background" is very difficult for both Scout and Jem to understand. Their father seems to be trying to raise his children with compassion for others, such as when he teaches his children to "walk in someone else's" shoes and the Christian concept of thankfulness embodied in the phrase "there but for the grace of God, go I." Jem finally decides that there are four classes of people in Maycomb County. He tells Scout "There’s the ordinary kind like us and the neighbors, there’s the kind like the Cunninghams out in the woods, the kind like the Ewells down at the dump, and the Negroes" (Lee 230). And unfortunately in Jem's mind this class structure exists simply so one group of people has another group of people to look down upon which makes them feel better about their station in life.
He says: "The thing about it is, our kind of folks don’t like the Cunninghams, the Cunninghams don’t like the Ewells, and the Ewells hate and despise the colored folks" (Lee 230).
Even though Aunt Alexandra attempts to cloak her racism and class-ism in politeness and gentility, her belief about the Cunninghams and even the fact that she will not allow Scout and Jem to go to Calpurnia's house, because Calpurnia is considered of the lowest class of society because she is African-American, even though she has worked for the Finch family her entire life and is more of a mother to the children than Aunt Alexandra will ever be - these beliefs are ugly and shallow. Both the reader and Scout respond to this ugliness and Scout beautifully sums up her idea about the "kinds of folks."
She says: "No, everybody’s gotta learn, nobody’s born knowin‘. That Walter’s as smart as he can be, he just gets held back sometimes because he has to stay out and help his daddy. Nothin’s wrong with him. Naw, Jem, I think there’s just one kind of folks. Folks" (Lee 231).
No comments:
Post a Comment