In this story, a few characters are turning out to have multiple sides to their personality. The newly found side is not necessarily the total opposite of their apparent characterization, but it does provide a considerable amount of contrast. One example of a character who turns out that she has a side different from what she seems to be like is Calpurnia. From the beginning of the story, she has some clear- cut characteristics while working in the Finch household. While working, she pretty much always stays within the Finch household, except for emergencies. While inside, she does chores and little yet important things like washing the dishes and making meals. In addition, she acts as a mother figure of sorts towards Jem and Scout. Accordingly, feeding them and calibrating their moral compass
Calpurnia does a lot more than what she is hired for. She cooks and teaches Scout how to write. The Finches are very grateful to have Calpurnia, however, since she is a black women in a white household, injustice rise. Aunt Alexandra is racist and because she is family, she has some authority in the Finches house. One day Aunt Alexandra overheard Scout telling a story to Atticus about the time she visited Calpurnia’s black church, and Scout was invited to go to Calpurnia’s house. Aunt Alexandra blurted in the middle of the conversation a denial for Scout to go. “She promised me I could come out to her house some afternoon. Atticus, I’ll go next Sunday… can I?... “You may not.” Aunt Alexandra said it.” (Lee 154) This initiated a clash with Scout. Scout turned disgruntled and “the only way I could retire with a shred of dignity was to go to the bathroom.” (Lee 154-155) Then a fight between Atticus and Aunt Alexandra occur, where Aunt Alexandra wants to get rid of Calpurnia, however, Atticus disagree. This notion of having blacks cannot be with white people is unrighteous. Therefore, having Calpurnia around did not solve the inequity done by Aunt Alexandra. A way to solve this injustice is by adding social capital and cultural capital of the Finches ideology onto Aunt Alexandra. Thus, making Aunt Alexandra accepting of
Calpurnia- Calpurnia is the cook in the Finch home. She is very proper when she is taking care of Scout and Jem, but when she takes them to her black church, Scout asks her why she talks like them. “Calpurnia tilted her hat and scratched her head, then pressed her hat down carefully over her ears. ‘It’s right hard to say,’ she said. ‘Suppose you and Scout talked colored-folks’ talk at home it’d be out of place, wouldn’t it? Now what if I talked white-folks’ talk at church, and with my neighbors? They’d think I was puttin‘ on airs to beat Moses’” (Lee
We are born ignorant, with no knowledge, for a reason. We need to earn it; we need to experience it. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee is a novel based around a 6 year-old girl named Scout. It takes place in the 1930’s right in the middle of the Great Depression. In the book, Scout turns from an inexperienced child to a mature young lady. She is exposed to many events that help shape her view of society. Using To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee conveys that the three basic levels of the ignorance we have regarding the world around us; complete ignorance, half ignorance, and no ignorance are directly distinguished by the amount of experience we have, rather than age.
Calpurnia also showed humility in To Kill a Mockingbird. Calpurnia, a black servant to Atticus, knew more
First of all Calpurnia is very responsible, yet fun with the children. Calpurnia also provided more culture and knowledge for the children to experience while she takes care of them. These fun characteristics have been displayed when Calpurnia was trying to distract Scout, because Dill and Jem would not let her play with them. Another time this side of her was revealed was when Calpurnia rewarded Scout with a “an open-faced sandwich of bread and butter and sugar.” Lastly, Calpurnia also helps the kids work things out, so that they do not fight as much. Calpurnia is also a good mother figure for the children, because she can provide them with more culture and knowledge that they can use when they get older. When Scout, Jem, and Calpurnia went to church with Calpurnia, they learned valuable information about a community different than their own. Calpurnia was also very smart when there was a rabid dog. Because it was in the wrong season no one thought that it was true, but Calpurnia did and her never giving up saved people's lives. Lastly, Calpurnia teaches Scout and Jem that even though you know something does not mean you have to show it off all of the time and intimidate people. Aunt Alexandra on the other hand, is not a good mother figure. First of all she does not get along with Atticus’s side of the Finch’s. This is supported when Aunt Alexandra is very rude and blunt with Scout and Jem, who are still little children. She also likes to tell Atticus that he is parenting wrong, and tries to get Scout to change the way she acts. The second reason I do not think that Aunt Alexandra would be a good mother figure is that she does not let the family be themselves. For example, she tells Scout multiple times to act more lady-like and wear dresses not pants. Atticus was also forced to tell the children that they are part of “gentle breeding,” and that they should act that way. For
When Calpurnia is scared she is still able to comfort Scout such as a mother would to her child by saying, “‘Don’t you fret,’ Calpurnia whispered to me, but the roses on her hat trembled indignantly,” (Lee, 158). When it is clear that Calpurnia and Scout have no relation, whatsoever, she still is able to reassure her. She continually proves her solicitude towards Scout by teaching her about what goes on in the world and by caring about her well being, mentally, emotionally, and physically. Calpurnia knows that they would not be connected other than the fact that she works for them and has to watch over them. Nevertheless, Calpurnia goes above and beyond when she decided to take their own needs before her own, by comforting them and not letting them worry about something, when she is clearly worried herself. She makes people reevaluate the relationship that black people can have with white people, by showing the close and nurturing relationship that she has primarily with Scout, but also with Jem. Her continual dedication to caring for Jem and Scout is not something that they would necessarily realize, but subconsciously they know what she does for them and how much concern and love she puts into looking after them. Even though it is her job to cook and look after the kids, she has this bond that makes her more like a surrogate mother towards them, in which it could be because she has been with them before Scout was born. However, Calpurnia has this never ending love that she feels towards the kids, and no matter what, it will never go away. She will always feel the need to look after and care for these kids that she has grown to love so
Quote #3- This quote occurs when Jem and Scout return to their present-receiving knothole and find that it is filled with cement. They interrogate Mr. Radley and find out that he filled up the hole. He has a legitimate excuse in claiming it was sick, and throws Jem off by telling him he should have known this. This quote is important because it shows us that Mr. Radley knows his brother has been leaving gifts in that tree, and Jem and Scout realise that they have gotten Boo into trouble.
Although the Finches hired her as help, she grew into a member of the family, because Calpurnia treated Jem and Scout as her own children. Some examples of her love for them included Cal’s affectionate ways of speaking to the children and exposing her lonesomeness when the children attended school. One day, she mentioned to Scout, “Baby…you just come right along in the kitchen when you feel lonesome.”, which demonstrated her motherly nature. After the children’s long day at school, Cal would explain the loneliness she experienced when the children learned at school. Those loving words filled the empty voids Jem and Scout’s hearts and knowing that Cal missed their company drove the children to feel needed. Clearly, the author expresses Calpurnia’s motherly side through these
Calpurnia is Jem and Scouts mother figure, because their mother died due to a sudden heart attack. Calpurnia takes Jem and Scout to her church, First Purchase, and introduces them to the fact that not all black people are bad people. She shows courage because it’s nerve racking to bring 2 white children to an all black church. Calpurnia says, “I don’t want anybody sayin’ I don’t look after my children” (Lee pg. 118). Calpurnia takes pride in Jem and Scout and shows a massive amount of courage taking these children to her type of life, and to her church. 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.
Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Atticus Finch has a level-headed and just personality, whilst his family’s cook, Calpurnia, is strong-headed and critical. Although differences in their characters set them apart, what brings them together is their equal, passionate love and care for the Finch children. Through different methods, both Atticus and Calpurnia make positive impacts on the children’s lives through lessons, lectures and experiences. Thus, though bearing strikingly different personalities, what makes Atticus and Calpurnia similar is that they both have the the best intentions for the Finch children and work hard to mold them into young, respectable adults.
In the 1930s, it was typical for whites and blacks to not interact. Many people in Maycomb consider those who intermingle with blacks and whites as outcasts. Calpurnia lives something similar to a “double life.” Even though society expects the two races to be separate, Calpurnia spends time with the Finch family, who are white, and her own family, which is black. When Calpurnia spends time with both groups of people, Scout referrers to her as “having command of two languages” (167). Calpurnia’s act of coexisting in two worlds is something the people of Maycomb do not accept in their social standards. She accepts white and black people even though she is aware of the risks involved with her actions. When Calpurnia acts differently than most people in her society, she disrupts society’s traditions of never mixing the two races. Although Calpurnia is pressured into living like the people around her, she continues to live her life the way she wants. Calpurnia knows that she cannot change the way everyone deals with society’s pressures, but by detaching herself from the cultural norms she is taking a step closer to
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. I don 't see any problem in letting her go"(182). Calpurnia deserves honor and reward, not termination. The injustice of Aunt Alexandra’s disregard for Calpurnia continues the underlying theme of the book.
Calprina is another mother figure in scout life, she cook’s for the family, and try to show Scout the right from wrong: “It was then that Calpurnia requested my presence in the kitchen. 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. When she squinted down at me the tiny lines around her eyes deepened. “There’s some folks who don’t eat like us,” she whispered fiercely, “but you ain’t called on to contradict ‘em at the table when they don’t. That boy’s yo’ comp’ny and if he wants to eat up the table cloth you let him, you hear?”Calprina(Lee,13) Scout immatureness got the best of her and was rude to Walter Cunningham’s but did not mean it. Calprina tried showing Scout that if people that were raised differently sitting at the same table then you do not be rude to whatever their doing because you would not understand, you are raised differently. Here is an example of Miss Maudie choice to defend Scout in a group full of women: “That Stephanie’s a card,” somebody said. Miss Stephanie was encouraged to pursue the subject: “Don’t you want to grow up to be a lawyer?” Miss Maudie’s hand touched mine and I answered mildly enough, “Nome, just a lady.”Miss Maudie (Lee,122) Like Atticus Scout father she gives advice and listens to.
Jacqueline Kelly’s book “The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate” takes place during the hot summer of Texas in 1899, Calpurnia; the main character, is trying her best to stay cool, so she decides that she will cut off one inch of her hair each week. She makes many discoveries, goes on adventures with her grandpa, and most of all, she strongly dislikes her “girlish” roles. One lesson that the story suggests is that even though specific genders have their own roles, it's actually okay if you want to do things that are unspecified for your gender.