To Kill a Mockingbird Essay: Overview
To Kill a Mockingbird In Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird Calpurnia has become the motherly figure in Scout’s life by teaching her lessons, morals and values. Calpurnia taught Scout to write when she was bored on a rainy day “Calpurnia was to blame for this…then copying out a chapter of the bible beneath” (p24). This shows Calpurnia is not just cooking and cleaning; she entertains her and has a special connection with her.
Another thing Calpurnia is doing for Scout is teaching her manners and mannerisms “…that boy’s yo’ comp’ny and if he wants to eat up the table cloth you let him, you hear” (p32). Here Calpurnia shows Scout that she needs to be polite when they have company in their home. Calpurnia is more to Scout than a nanny: she is more like a mother to her. “Perhaps Calpurnia sensed that my day had been a grim one… she knew I loved crackling bread” (p38).
Cal has a motherly instinct with the Finch children and she knows when something is wrong in their lives just like a mother. Throughout the novel Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird it shows that Calpurnia is a major part of both Jem and Scouts life. She has taught them both so much from how to write to how they should be acting as they mature and if things were any different Jem and Scout probably would have turned out different due to the massive influence that Calpurnia has had on them.
