To Kill a Mocking Bird

Outside the courtroom Scout and Dill meet Mr Dolphus Raymond who is different to most of the residents in Maycomb as he tries to avoid conflict in many ways. Dolphus Raymond owns alot of land and comes from a repected Maycomb family, despite this he doesn’t behave like white people, there’s alot of gossip about him because he’s different. Everyone thinks that Dolphus Raymond is a drunk, but Dill discovers ‘it’s nothing but Coca-Cola’ that he drinks. He pretends it’s whisky so people can blame his drunkenness for the fact that he prefers the company of black people, he thinks they wouldn’t understand otherwise. Dolphus Raymond trusts Scout and Dill because he knows they’re too young to have been corrupted by the prejudice of Maycomb, he clearly has alot of respect for Atticus.
As the story progresses Scout realises what being a women actually means and several females influence her. Scout’s main role models are Calpurnia and Miss Maudie, both of them independent women. Scout is soon critized for not being the ‘perfect little girl’ like her Aunt Alexandra wants her to be. Aunt Alexandra is almost ashamed of Scout when she doesn’t want to wear dresses or act like a girl, especially when her missionary circle of traditional Southern women see her. Scout doesn’t know how she’s meant to act she has Aunt Alexandra forcing her to wear dresses but Jem telling her to stop acting to ‘like a girl’, when she plays with Jem and Dill if she doesn’t act like they expect her to.
The Radley family have always had a strange reputation and are always the main source of gossip around the neighbourhood. Boo Radley has been locked away for the majority of his life as people thinks he is a murderer. Jem thought that Mr Radley restrained Boo to keep him in the house but Atticus tells him that there are ‘other ways of making people into ghosts’ strongly hinting that Boo has been mistreated by his family. Many people gossip about Boo which generates stories that are not true and over