Chapter 12/13: Explain what Scout means when she says, “There was indeed a caste system in Maycomb” (175). What is a caste system, and how does it work in Maycomb, according to Scout? (Mac)
When Scout says that there is a Caste System in Maycomb it means that how you're perceived and the wealth of your family will decide if you will be poor or rich. A caste system “is a class structure that is determined by birth. Loosely, it means that in some societies, if your parents are poor, you're going to be poor, too. Same goes for being rich, if you're a glass-half-full person.” In Chapter 13 scout says “There was indeed a caste system in Maycomb but to my mind it worked this way: the older citizens, the present generation of people who had lived side by side for years and years, were utterly predictable to one another: they took for granted attitudes, character shadings, even gesture..”(Lee 175). I think what Scout is saying is that if you are born into a rich respected family you don't have to worry about anything. That they don’t think about what they do and take everything for “granted.” Do you think something similar to the Caste System happens today? Why?
The caste system according to Scout resembles stereotyping almost. The quote states "No Crawford Minds His Own Business, Every Third Merriweather Is Morbid, The Truth is Not in the Delafields, All the Bufords Walk Like That" (Lee 175). These statements are based on observations that have been made years before. However, they are a huge generalization. One of them states that "Every Third Merriweather Is Morbid" (Lee 175). This may be a trend in the Merriweather family but it isn't always true. The Maycomb County may be a quiet, peaceful town, but there is still an underlying offensive side of it.
ReplyDeleteI agree with CC about how the caste system is split by families. However, what she says about the families in the caste system being stereotypes are just observations made over generations. Scout says the statements (Which CC quoted above) are just general truths in the town, and that they were all "simply guides to daily living" (Lee 175). This is also strengthened by Scout saying that "attitudes, character shadings ... repeated in each generation and refined by time" (Lee 175). Over time, what once were just random things about people became a trend for their descendants and describes much of their character. This shows that everyone in Maycomb is very defined by the family they come from, and the whole community knows that.
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