Calpurnia Leads the Way!
The children learn right from wrong through many events in the novel, but Calpurnia teaches them about respect and representing yourself to certain situations specifically. Calpurnia really shows Jem and Scout about how to act around certain people. Calpurnia, as a mother figure to the kids, has the sense to yell at them when they do something disrespectful. When Scout asked Walter what he was doing using so much molasses, Calpurnia pulled her into the kitchen and said “There’s some folks who don’t eat like us,” “but you ain’t called on to contradict ‘em at the table when they don’t.”(24) This part of the book really shows where Calpurnia stands in the Finch family. She also shows that representing yourself to the situation is a very important thing when she brings Scout and Jem to the African American church. When Jem asks Cal why she talked “black” when she was with other African Americans, she responds calmly and says, “suppose you and Scout talked colored-folks’ talk at home it’d be out of place, wouldn’t it? 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.”(126)Calpurnia at this time is really showing how you nee to act with certain people. By saying this, Calpurnia could be showing a lot more then just “black and white talk”; she can show how to talk to many different types of people, like talking to friends vs. family. Calpurnia really teaches Scout and Jem a lot about respect and representing yourself that could lead to so many other ways of respect too.
