Blog 7

Choice C: So far, is this a novel about race? Class? Gender? Coming of Age? Place? Select and defend your answer.

I think that is obvious that this novel is about race. Its not a mistake that Tom Robinson is black, or that the book is set in the south. At this point in time one of the main issues was race. But I suppose this book is really about all of the above elements and the book couldn't happen if you didn't have all of them.

Gender plays a huge part in the novel because in all the times where scout isn't in the court room she is out playing with boys, which is acceptable at her age but as she comes of age she starts to get ridiculed about the cat that she is more like a boy then a girl. Its about how she is making her way into becoming a young woman and now people are expecting different things from her. She is no longer to play all these games that she enjoyed. As Aunt Alexandra says, Scout is becoming a woman and women don't wear overalls. She is being forced t change because of her gender and the fact she is coming of age.

I feel that you can't have a book that has race be a theme without class and place becoming a factor. For example in the north this book wouldn't have happened so its obviously a big part of the book. And race and class always seem to hold hands in books like this one. That is because at this time blacks couldn't get high end jobs so they were stuck at poor. So if you consider place to be setting then I would say that this book is really about the time period. Which is sort of encompassed into place. So in conclusion I think that this question is sort of a bad one because the story couldn't have taken place unless all of the above themes were in the book. But if I was forced to choose I would say place and time. Because this was a problem that was reoccurring in the south at this time. So that is my final answer.