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Full-Text Articles in Arts and Humanities

Atticus The Man, Jessica Saunders Apr 2016

Atticus The Man, Jessica Saunders

English Class Publications

What makes a man, a man? One could argue biology and physical appearance. One could say a certain age determines manhood, or his independence, success in the world, power or achievements. However, masculinity is not fixed, but rather fluid; it is a social construct and what it entails to achieve manhood differs according to culture (Motl). Lee comments on the roles of race and gender dynamics in the early 20th century South throughout her novel, To Kill a Mockingbird. American stereotypes of masculinity include, but are not limited to: competition, power, aggression, and stoicism. Furthermore, manhood is often considered merely …


The Times Are-A-Changin': Portrayal Of Atticus Finch Across Harper Lee's Novels, Kacy Alaina Earnest Apr 2016

The Times Are-A-Changin': Portrayal Of Atticus Finch Across Harper Lee's Novels, Kacy Alaina Earnest

English Class Publications

In Harper Lee’s 1960 novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, Atticus Finch is the most successful lawyer in Maycomb, AL during the 1930s. When he takes a rape case defending an African American man against a white woman, the town doubts his sanity. The townspeople speculate that Atticus has taken the case for the sake of justice, possibly even racial equality. He goes against the town’s unspoken racial stigma to defend Tom Robinson. However, Atticus’ views on race relations seem to have flipped one-hundred-eighty degrees in Lee’s 2015 novel Go Set a Watchman. Readers see a dark side of …


Children Once, Not Forever: Harper Lee’S Go Set A Watchman And Growing Up, Allen Mendenhall Jan 2016

Children Once, Not Forever: Harper Lee’S Go Set A Watchman And Growing Up, Allen Mendenhall

Indiana Law Journal

The narratives of Jean Louise in To Kill a Mockingbird and Go Set a Watchman are as consistent as lived experience, which is marked by disruption and contingency, ambiguity and rupture, fragmentation and complexity. Only the careless would have accepted Jean Louise and Atticus as one-dimensional, self-contained figures unspoiled by the mores, customs, and vocabularies of their white discursive community. Such a sanitized view of Jean Louise and Atticus erases and rewrites rather than represents history in its disturbing, enlightening variety and complexity. Jean Louise and Atticus are not stock character types; their thoughts and behaviors are irreducible and inexhaustible.