Who is calpurnia in the book to kill a mockingbird

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Atticus has employed her for years, and following the death of his wife, Calpurnia essentially raises Scout and Jem. Scout initially sees Calpurnia as tyrannical and horrible, but as she begins to grow, she comes to understand that Calpurnia truly does love and care for her.

For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:. Chapter 3 Quotes. Page Number and Citation : 27 Cite this Quote. Explanation and Analysis:. Chapter 12 Quotes. Page Number and Citation : Cite this Quote. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance. Chapter 1. Scout and Jem love Atticus, but their cook, Calpurnia , is a mystery. Radley died soon after and Calpurnia whispered that he was mean, which surprised Jem and Scout—she never speaks ill of white Throughout the novel, the more Scout matures, she starts to realize that Calpurnia is actually just there to protect her for years, and that she loves both Scout and Jem.

Calpurnia owns a house close to the Finches' house, and serves as their housekeeper. She hides her problems from others because she's scared of speaking out as a black woman in the s. One of the only black people in the novel who can read and write, she taught Scout how to write. She has been mentioned as having many children, one of them Mr. Zeebo, her eldest son.

She grew up with Atticus, as she is only a few years his senior. Scout at first sees Calpurnia less as a human being than as a force of nature that she runs up against all too often, someone who wins their battles not because she has right on her side, but because she has the might.

That's why she totally misinterprets those moments when Calpurnia softens up:. Calpurnia bent down and kissed me. I ran along, wondering what had come over her. She had wanted to make up with me, that was it.

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. Caught up in the tunnel vision of her own perspective, Scout can't see that Calpurnia is hard on her because she cares about her—just as much as Atticus, in her own way.

When Calpurnia takes the Finch kids with her to First Purchase Church, the kids get a whole new look at their cook. For one, she talks different:. 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. It's not ladylike—in the second place, folks don't like to have somebody around knowin' more than they do.

It aggravates 'em. You're not gonna change any of them by talkin' right, they've got to want to learn themselves, and when they don't want to learn there's nothing you can do but keep your mouth shut or talk their language. In other words, what's right in one place may be wrong in another. But is that always true? Atticus is known for acting the same everywhere, and that's presented as a good thing.