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Post by benswanson00 on Aug 13, 2016 16:47:20 GMT
In this book, the mother of Jem and Scout is dead, and Calpurnia takes the role of the mother. She is not treated so much as an outsider, but more as the mother of the two children. I think her role is so that the kids do not a lack a feminine aspect of discipline that Atticus would not be able to give the children. She also helps clean around the house, and other motherly things that she would not normally do. But, what is the significance of having a non-blood related character play the role of a mother instead of just having their mother alive? What did this change throughout the story?
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Post by ariellebakken on Aug 13, 2016 19:02:37 GMT
While Calpurnia does mostly take the role of other to the children I believe the biggest significance is not that she is a non-blood related character but rather that she plays this role as a black woman. Calpurnia being a black woman plays a huge significance in the story and in how the children learn about the world. Through Calpurnia's background the children learn to treat people of other races as equal humans and not as people lower than them. In example when the children go to church with Calpurnia they see that black people have many of the same practices as they do with slight variations. Additionally it was greatly important to the story that Calpurnia was both black and played a mother-like role because had the children had their real mother or a white caretaker they would not have had the same experience with other races thus not allowing for them to understand why Atticus defended Tom Robinson.
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Post by judithmills on Aug 13, 2016 21:30:55 GMT
The significance behind Calpurnia being their motherly figure instead of having a mother that is blood related to be there for them is substantial. Both Scout and Jem have different experiences than the other kids, and get to see the other side of their culture, where people of color would gather, that place being Calpurnia's church. Also, if having a motherly figure that was blood related in the story would make that much of a difference in the story, Aunt Alexandra could have fit the role, no? After all, even though she came with flaws, those flaws came to be because she loved the family so very much.
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Post by Alyssa Eilerts on Aug 14, 2016 6:03:14 GMT
Why Harper decided to make Calpurnia is not answered unless asked directly but you can infer as to why it is significant. As said in upper comments, Tom would have really never had a lawyer unless we had a starting black influence form Calpunia. Plus, this experience of having a colored care taker rather than a real mother or a white women, would not give them both sides of the spectrum when it comes to the story; the kids have more of an understanding of equal treatment.
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Post by romansorrels on Aug 14, 2016 15:53:55 GMT
just as harper Lee shaped atticus after her father she may have made calpurnia after someone she looked up to and respected, if so we can see that calpurnia had become a major impact on Scout just just as a feminine role model but also as model for what a person in general should be and act like
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Post by lenadunz on Aug 22, 2016 2:45:15 GMT
The significance of having a non-biological mother play Scout and Jem's Mom did change the story dramatically. If their mom hadn't passed, Calpurnia may have never made it into the picture, she never would have warned everyone about the Mad Dog, or anything. Having Calpurnia be Scout and Jem's Mom made the children think differently as well, I would say. A black woman was not supposed to care for white children as a mother figure, and yet, she did.
This reminds me heavily of The Help, where a man and his wife have a black nanny taking care of their child. But what makes it so crazy to me is that this little girl whom the nanny takes care of sees her as more of a mom than her actual biological mother. I know that this isn't exactly the same thing as TKAM, but I felt that it needed to be said.
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Post by tonybressan on Aug 24, 2016 22:24:38 GMT
The lack of a blood related mother and rather having Calpurnia be their mother figure is to have someone act as both a strong African American female character. This means Jem and Scout have someone in their life who undergoes discrimination on a daily basis. This creates a connection between them, humanizing her. However if they didn't have someone like that in their life, most likely they would have been less accepting of African Americans like the rest of the people in Maycomb.
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