Calpurnia

A/N: Here's my essay for To Kill A Mockingbird. It's a character analysis of Calpurnia. This is still a bit of a rough draft, I just needed this on my blog before eleven. haha. I'm planning on going back and fixing things...

As a motherly figure, and the gateway to the black society for the Finches, Calpurnia is a very important character. She tries to fill the gap between the black and white societies, she looks after Jem and Scout as if they were her own children, and they respect her. Though Calpurnia's motherly love for the children is true, she doesn't quite practice what she preaches. 

Calpurnia, since Scout's mother had died, is the only woman figure for Scout to look up to throughout the book. Because of this, Calpurnia feels that she has to the right to show and teach Scout just as a mother would. She protects Scout and the other children just as a mother would too. When Calpurnia says Jem and Scout have a boundary between Mrs. Dubose’s house and the Radley place, it shows that she wants them close enough so they can hear her voice when she calls for them. This is showing that Calpurnia, like a mother, is very protective of them, and does not want them to get hurt. 

Calpurnia takes the Finches to the black church. This is their first encounter with the real "black society." Even though Calpurnia tells them that blacks and whites are equal, and the whites are the racist ones, Calpurnia uses a different tone of voice, even a completely different dialect with the members of the church when they tell her that she shouldn't be bring whites into the church. This completely counteracts what she says; The blacks can be racist, just as the whites are, and if everybody is truly equal, Calpurnia would not have needed to change her dialect when speaking to whites as opposed to speaking with blacks. 

Despite Calpurnia's efforts to show the Finches blacks and whites are equal, her actions speak more than her words. Though she preaches whites and blacks are equal, and that we shouldn't be racist, the scene at the church shows how she subconsciously acts and reveals that the two societies are very different. Calpurnia also cares deeply for the Finch children, and they look up to her, despite the fact she is black. Atticus also respects her, although he is a grown white man. In a way, she did break the border between whites and blacks, if only a little bit and for few people.