calpurnia was the person who helped to take care of jem and scout.
who is the person who helps to take care of jem and scout?
calpurnia
just as lee explores jem's development in coming to grips with a racist and unjust society, scout realizes what being female means, and several female characters influence her development. scout's primary identification with her father and older brother allows her to describe the variety and depth of female characters in the novel both as one of them and as an outsider. scout's primary female models are calpurnia and her neighbor miss maudie, both of whom are strong-willed, independent, and protective. mayella ewell also has an influence; scout watches her destroy an innocent man in order to hide her desire for him. the female characters who comment the most on scout's lack of willingness to adhere to a more feminine role are also those who promote the most racist and classist points of view. for example, mrs. dubose chastises scout for not wearing a dress and camisole, and indicates she is ruining the family name by not doing so, in addition to insulting atticus' intentions to defend tom robinson. by balancing the masculine influences of atticus and jem with the feminine influences of calpurnia and miss maudie, one scholar writes, "lee gradually demonstrates that scout is becoming a feminist in the south, for with the use of first-person narration, she indicates that scout/ jean louise still maintains the ambivalence about being a southern lady she possessed as a child."
to kill a mockingbird
mrs. henry lafayette dubose is an elderly woman who lives near the finches. she is hated by the children, who run by her house to avoid her. scout describes mrs. dubose as "plain hell." a virulent racist, she calls atticus a "nigger-lover" to his children's faces, and jem flies into a rage and ravages mrs. dubose's camellia bushes. as a punishment, jem is required to read to mrs. dubose each day for a month. as jem reads, she experiences a fit of drooling and twitching and does not seem to pay any attention to the words. when an alarm rings, jem is allowed to leave for the day. she extends the punishment for one extra week and dies shortly after letting jem go for the last time. atticus informs him that mrs. dubose was terminally ill and had become addicted to morphine. by reading to her, jem had distracted her so that she could break the addiction. in thanks, she leaves him a candy box with a camellia flower in it; jem burns the box in anger, but is later seen by scout admiring the flower. atticus tells jem that mrs. dubose was the bravest person he ever knew, and she was trying to teach jem the importance of bravery and true courage to endure anything when the situation is hopeless, as in her morphine addiction.
list of to kill a mockingbird characters