uses
gender stereotypes againstas a way of preserving his status as oldest and as a defense mechanism
against Scout's superior understanding. In , for instance, Jem, Scout, and Dill are playing with
a tire when it accidentally goes into the Radley's yard. Jem clearly is afraid to go get it but
is goaded into doing it, and when he returns, he laughs off his fear by telling Scout that
"sometimes you act so much like a girl its's mortifyin'."
Later,
when the three are playing "" and get caught by , Jem again lashes out at Scout, who
(correctly) suspects that Atticus knows all about their game: Jem tells her that "girls
always imagined things, that's why people hated them so."
Jem and
Scout's relationship is complicated by Scout's tomboy ways. In some respects, the two are more
like brothers than brother and sister. One way to understand Jem's use of gender stereotypes is
as a way of reasserting his dominance as the older sibling, but at the same time,
Scout's...
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