When Aunt Alexandra arrives to help teach Scout how to become a lady, Atticus listens to what she has to say and helps her earn the children's respect, but more recently the relationship between Aunty and Atticus has become tense. The morning after Scout, Dill and Jem snuck out to see what Atticus was up to, Aunt Alexandra was in a particularly bad mood. "Aunt Alexandra sipped coffee and radiated waves of disapproval" (Lee 208), as well as showing disappointment directly towards Atticus, "But she was frowning at Atticus" (Lee 209). By Aunt Alexandra and Atticus disagreeing and arguing all of the time it could create tension in the family and problems for Atticus in Maycomb. Atticus is a respected lawyer and thoughtful person in general but Aunt Alexandra is respected as well in different ways. Aunt Alexandra is very popular in the neighborhood and was welcomed by friends of hers such as Miss Maudie, Miss Stephanie, Miss Rachel and even Mr. Nathan Radley came up to the fence to personally welcome her. Throughout the novel, Aunt Alexandra and Atticus haven't gotten along with each other or agreed with each others decisions but they at least respected each other, but if they loose that respect there will not be anything left of their relationship. Atticus and Aunt Alexandra's relationship may not be an easy one but farther on in the book it will prove useful later in the novel.
To add on to your post Simone, I think that the relationship between Atticus and Aunt Alexandra is changing because Atticus is staring to stand up for himself in front of Aunt Alexandra. One time Aunt Alexandra was telling Atticus that he can't teach the kids to say things in front of Negroes. Atticus snapped back at her, "I don't know of any law that says they can't talk. Maybe if we didn't give tim so much to talk about they wouldn't talk," (Lee, 210). Scout is also starting to notice this change in Atticus when he talks to Aunt Alexandra.
ReplyDeleteHow will this change in Atticus affect the events to come in the book?