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To Kill A Mockingbird Calpurnia Character Traits

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Many children experience the lavish love of mothers, but those who lost their mothers at a young age often have replacement mothers set up by their remaining parent. Calpurnia established herself into the Finch family as a mother figure in Jem and Scouts’ lives. While cooking for the Finch family, this southern black woman filled the motherless voids in the children’s hearts. Although Cal’s job required only cooking skills, she utilized her best traits by being motherly, responsible, and brave. Wise old Calpurnia obtained many good attributes in her lifetime which she exercised in her job. Diligently, Calpurnia cooked, cleaned, served, loved, and taught while completing the Finch family with love and kindness. Her vital characteristics include motherly, responsible, and brave. …show more content…

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

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Since their mother pasted away, Atticus seems to not know what to do with the children. Due to this, he hires Calpurnia. She acts almost like the mother figure who dresses Scout. She also disciplines the children and attempts to teach them proper manners. Toward the end of the story, due to life threatening events, Atticus’ becomes closer with his children.

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578 Words | 3 Pages

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).

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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.

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487 Words | 2 Pages

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.

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600 Words | 3 Pages

Scout Finch Jean Louise “Scout” Finch is a 6 year old girl at the start of the book and grows on us as a sophisticated, cultivated and cultured young woman as we reach the start of part 2. A slim girl, with short dark brown hair, Scout was a tomboy who loved to hang out with her brother, Jem, and Dill. A large fragment of the first part focuses on her virtuousness and incorruptibility. Her first day in school tested the very bases of her youth and innocence. After Miss Caroline repeatedly asks Walter Cunningham to take a few coins and buy himself lunch, Scout stood up and tried explaining the Cunningham’s poverty but unfortunately could not do so.

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1336 Words | 6 Pages

Cal then yelled at Scout to stop judging Walter and to stop being mean and tells her to try to see people's perspective before judging them. The last reason is that Calpurnia is a truly loving person and she cares for Scout. She does the same thing with Jem, and with any other person who is honest.

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620 Words | 3 Pages

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.

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Through To Kill a Mockingbird the reader gets to know the Finch family, Scout, Jem and Atticus. A traditional nuclear family missing one part, the mother. The reader expects the children to feel the absence their mother, and as we find out from Scout in the first chapter, Jem does feel the absence. However, Scout goes on to say that she herself doesn’t feel the absence of her mother, “Our mother died when I was two, so I never felt her absence” (1.7). While Scout may believe she doesn’t feel an absence because she was two at the time of her mother’s death, with perspective she may see that the mother figures in her life kept her from feeling an absence.

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Calpurnia is an ideal influence for Scout’s coming of age moments. She teaches Scout the importance of manners, and treating people with respect. When Walter Cunningham comes to eat lunch with Scout and Jem one day, Scout

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Although Aunt Alexandra does not possess the strength to detach from the social customs, Scout and Calpurnia are able to cast off the conventional roles despite society’s wishes. Calpurnia’s act of successfully living in black and white communities and Scout’s act of defying typical gender roles illustrates to the reader how immensely society pressures women. Although the expectations of women in modern times are not the same as in southern Alabama, women are still oppressed today. It is not always clear to see, but women today are so used to acting a certain way, they are unable to recognize the inequality between genders and races. Through Aunt Alexandra the reader is able to grasp, that not every woman is capable of having the incredible amount of strength it takes to break away from the socially accepted roles.

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Why does the United States have a two-party system? American politics is set up around five main principles. The first is that individual behavior is driven by that individual’s goal. This is very self explanatory. If an individual has a particular political preference, they will act on their opinion to try and accomplish their goal.

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Atticus, trying to keep retain the children’s innocence explains how needed Calpurnia is and how much of a helpful and benign influence she was upon them. Atticus states that “She’s a member of this family and you’ll simply have to accept things the way they are.” (Lee 115) The children receive two different views and consider both carefully throughout the

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1132 Words | 5 Pages

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.

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858 Words | 4 Pages

Throughout the story, Jem and Scout Finch are greatly influenced by the strong women around them in the novel. One of these strong women was Calpurnia, a black maid paid by the Finches to do cooking and cleaning around the house. For example, when Aunt Alexandra stated that Atticus should get rid of Calpurnia, Atticus explained how Calpurnia was a good influence on the kids, and in a way, the mother the kids never had. Why would you

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1095 Words | 5 Pages

Thus, whilst slightly unconventional, Calpurnia has a distinct role in teaching the Finch children respect and responsibility. In conclusion, Atticus Finch and Calpurnia are contrasting characters with the same purpose in To Kill a Mockingbird. Atticus maintains a fair, wise character throughout the novel, in comparison to Calpurnia's cogent, blunt personality. What brings them together is how they set the correct example for and give life lessons to Jem and Scout.

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