“Are you a nigger-lover?” “I certainly am. I do my best to love everyone … I’m hard put, sometimes-baby, it’s never an insult to be called what someone thinks is a bad name.” This is just one of the APL; Atticus Power Lines, that take your breath away in Harper Lee’s prodigious novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, in this novel Jem and Scout are growing up in a time where people are tremendously racist. Along with that their father has to go to court and defend a black man who is on trial for raping a girl. The quote above is one of many conversations that Scout and her father had to have with each other because of what people were saying about Atticus. But along with all the hardship of the trial, Scout and her brother made a new friend Dill, …show more content…
Remember that this takes place in the 1930’s. In Alabama it was not unusual to have a black servant, but it was unusual for her to treat the white kids she was caring for like her own. This is exactly what Calpurnia in the novel To Kill a Mockingbird does. “Calpurnia bent down and kissed me… She had wanted to make up with me … She had always been too hard on me, she had at last seen the error of her fractious ways, she was sorry and too stubborn to say so” (Lee 28). As it's stated in the quote that Calpurnia is hard on Scout, but it is out of love for her that she is hard on them. She just wants the kids to grow up and have the best life that they can. Calpurnia had been in their life when their mother died. She stepped in to help care for the kids while Atticus and the kids were grieving their loss. Add more green Calpurnia cared for them by looking out and making sure they were fed and safe when their father was out working, or if something unpleasant was happening and they needed to be protected, she was there. “Calpurnia started, then grabbed us by the shoulders and ran us home. She shut the wood door behind us … She ran to the front porch, Jem and I at her heels. ‘You stay in that house!’ she yelled” (Lee 123, 124). In these quotes, Cal is very protective even though Atticus had not asked her to be. These quotes are written after Cal finds …show more content…
Jem and Scout don't want to stay in the house they want to watch the dog and find out what happens. She thinks of these kids as her own, and she won't let them get anywhere near the dog, so she practically locks them in the house so they
Throughout the memoir, Night, the best parts of human nature are shown. From the start to the end of the memoir, Elie Wiesel and his dad had supported and never gave up on each other. Near the end, Elie Wiesel had questioned his father’s will, “To have lived and endured se much; was I going to let my father die now,” (105). He could not let his father die, they had faced so much together, they were each other’s strength. Similarly, Calpurnia had support the Finch family throughout the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird.
But later on in the book once Scout and Calpurnia’s relationship begins to flower, she slowly begins to realize that Cal is both a friend and role model. Once they have a good relationship Scout begins to look at Cal more as a second mom than anything. The second reason that Calpurnia influences them is because when Walter Cunningham first came over for dinner at their house, Scout insulted Walter when he was pouring molasses all over his food. Walter is poor and his family is very poor, and to make his food flavorful, he has a habit of pouring molasses on his food to improve the taste that his food has. Scout isn’t used to seeing people act in this way, so she found this odd.
Calpurnia helped out not just herself, but Atticus as well by sitting in the back of Atticus’s car instead of the front. Additional factors are operating as to why Calpurnia doesn’t sit in the front of the car with Atticus; As well as history of racism discrimination in the 30’s. Back in the 30’s racial discrimination caused different problems to occur. One additional factor to as why Calpurnia doesn’t sit in the front of the car with Atticus is for protection. Calpurnia wants to protect herself and Atticus from the mobs of people in town that would disprove.
Atticus is a bold man considering he knew the mob would eventually come and he had to be prepared to protect Tom Robinson from harm. In addition, he was willing to risk his life for a black man which was very peculiar during the time but dared to stand his ground and fight for justice. Also, Atticus did not mind what other people thought of him or cared less about his reputation being ruined or his family being put on the line for defending a black man indicating he had the perseverance to fight for righteousness. When Scout sees that her father is in danger, or given that he is surrounded by unfamiliar faces, she realizes one of the men is Mr.Cunningham. In an attempt to cool the tension, Scout tries to find common ground with Mr.Cunningham by saying, "Entailments are bad" (Lee 205).
She came in to help Atticus with Scout and Jem after the death of their mother. Even though she is a African American she still is a mother figure to Jem and Scout. Jem and Scout also accept Calpurnia as their mother figure even though she is not their mother. This shows that she accepts them for the type of people they are, and that she isn’t
Calpurnia has raised his children, she is the only motherly figure they really know. Because of Atticus’s morals he treats Calpurnia very respectfully and is genuine about
Calpurnia serves as an amazing role model and mother figure to the children, and yet Aunt Alexandra wants to fire her. She had raised Jem and Scout, and plays an indispensable part of their lives, showering them with discipline, structure, and love. Aunt Alexandra, however, barely existed in the children 's lives up until she moved into the Finch’s home, yet she inflicts great injustice on Calpurnia by failing to recognize the necessitous part of the family that Calpurnia fills. Scout even overhears Aunt Alexandra saying, "...you 've got to do something about her. You 've let things go on too long Atticus, too long.
She was hired to be the Finch’s families cook but she had put more into that job then required, she built a close relationship with these kids over the years of her working there, she became a parental figure to them. This was not very common in this time because most families had mom and a dad and if a white family both were white and if it were a black family both were black. Calpurnia was a black worker and was the closest thing the kids had to a mom in the family. During the time of preparation for the trial Atticus was gone a lot and was not able to take the kids to church one Sunday, Calpurnia decided she would take them to her church.
Atticus stands up for Calpurnia many times however one of the first showings of this is when Calpurnia gets mad and Scout speaks of her “She was furious, and when she was furious Calpurnia’s grammar became erratic. When in tranquility, her grammar was as good as anybody’s in Maycomb. Atticus said Calpurnia had more education than most colored folks” (pg.32). This shows that Atticus had taught Scout to still see Calpurnia's strengths even though she was heavily looked down on, to have integrity in their beliefs and treat her as one of them. When Scout disrespects her Aunt, it's shown once again that Atticus expects his children to respect Calpurnia “‘Let's get this clear: you do as Calpurnia tells you, you do as I tell you, and as long as your aunt’s in this house, you will do as she tells you.
Calpurnia is a good mother figure. When Jem does not want to play with Scout anymore, Cal comforts her and says she can spend time with her. She keeps them clean and cares about them. Before Cal took them to her church she made them “soap all over twice and drew fresh water in the tub for every rinse” (Lee, 156). She even says “I don’t anyone sayin’ I don’t look after my children” (Lee, 157).
You may think otherwise, but I couldn’t have got along without her all these years. She’s a faithful member of this family and you’ll simply have to accept things the way they are” (Lee 182). Atticus has tolerance towards Calpurnia because he understands that she needs a job, and to leave her in the dust would show
In the 1930s, if a black man was on trial there was a ample chance he would be convicted even if evidence proved he was innocent. Throughout history humans being prejudice and bias have affected the lives of thousands of people; some ending with favorable outcomes while others weren’t so fortunate. Within the book To Kill a Mockingbird the readers learn that prejudice and bias people outnumber the understanding and kind. One decision or in this case twelve decisions decide the fate for an unfortunate man. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee reveals that people often follow their biases and prejudices rather than the truth.
As the story continues and Tom has been put in jail, something unexpected happens. While Scout and her Aunt Alexandra are having a meeting with different women from the town, Atticus rushes in and calls the two of them and Calpurnia, their black housekeeper, into the kitchen. Atticus says, “Tom’s dead. Aunt Alexandra put her hands to her mouth. They shot him.”
Jim Crow laws are derogatory laws about colored people formed in the post-Civil War era; they stayed prominent in the United States until the Civil Rights movement in the 1960s. In To Kill a Mockingbird, a novel by Harper Lee about a childhood in the South during the Great Depression, Jim Crow laws are very eminent in the quotidian life of Scout Finch, the main character of To Kill a Mockingbird. Atticus Finch, Scout’s father, has to cope with problems caused by these laws because he is the lawyer for an African American man named Tom Robinson, who was convicted of a severe crime. Even though Jim Crow laws were considered customary during the 1930s, Atticus Finch protested them in more ways than one, including accepting the Tom Robinson
She teaches these kids that it’s not always the right thing to do what everybody else is doing. Calpurnia looks after these children and takes them in as her own when she is told to. Atticus shows the most examples of courage in this story. He teaches his people many lessons, especially his children.