Thousands of years later we still see the mentor archetype. In Harper Lee’s To Kill Mockingbird, which takes place in the 1950’s, Calpurnia portrays the mentor archetype. Calpurnia, who tends to be strict, is the maid of our protagonist, Scout. At this point in the story Scout is in school, and in this town there are different social classes. Scout’s family is more middle class, but she is having a lower class kid over for lunch. Calpurnia yells, “Hush your mouth! Don’t matter who they are, any-body sets foot in this house’s yo’ comp’ny and don’t you catch me remarkin’ on their ways like you was so high and mighty!” (Lee 33) In this quote, Scout has Walter Cunningham over for lunch. Walter puts a ton of food onto his plate, then drowns it …show more content…
Cal then tells Scout that she isn’t allowed to treat others like they are “lesser” than her. Calpurnia is mentoring Scout by teaching her a life lesson. Calpurnia’s past which involves lots of discrimination helps shape the way she mentors. Cal is black, and during the 1950’s it was the peak of the civil rights movement. The story also takes place in smalltown Alabama, which hosts lots of racism. Racism and discrimination were very real things that Calpurnia had to deal with daily. Calpurnia has been treated like she is “lesser” than others for a long time. For example, she is forced to go to a segregated church. Calpurnia is mentoring Scout by teaching her to treat all people equal and never act like she is better than anyone. This goes for any reason, not just the color of her skin. This deals with economic class too, as the story takes place in the wake of the Great Depression. When Cal says, “don’t catch me remarkin’ on their ways like you was so high and mighty,” it shows how Cal doesn’t want Scout to turn into the type of person that treats others as less. Cal is making sure that Scout understands from a young age that all people are equal, which is an important life