Friday, October 25, 2013

What do the children notice about Calpurnia's behaivor in her church community?

Scout and Dill do indeed hear Calpurnia move from the standard (Southern) dialect that they're used to hearing her speak to a more strongly marked black dialect when they accompany her to church in Harper Lee's novel To Kill a Mockingbird. They also see her stand up to one black woman (Lulu, who's pretty much the black version of the Ewells, despised by the main characters and by most readers) who doesn't approve of white children coming to their black church. Not everything in Calpurnia's behavior is above reproach, however. She addresses Lulu with a coarse term (in a context that's hardly neutral): "Stop right there, nigger."


The most important thing that Dill and Scout learn through their visit to her church, I believe, is that Calpurnia has a full life outside of their house. They've grown up believing that they're all she has, but in reality she has a church, a house, and probably even a family of her own (although, as I recall, the reader never gets to know anything about that family).

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