How Calpurnia personifies the Mockingbird.

Mockingbirds are not what they seem, they do not have a call of their own. They instead echo calls of other birds that surround them.

In this light, Calpurnia is observed by Scout to behave and talk differently depending on her company. With the white people, Calpurnia has proper grammar and uses flawless English. In the presence of her own people, however, Calpurnia starts to talk “nigger talk’. In this way, she doesn’t have a voice of her own. She echoes the types of speech around her. Take for example:

’When in tranquillity, her (Calpurnia) grammar was as good as anybody’s in Maycomb. Atticus said Calpurnia had more education than most coloured folks.” (page 27)

Versus this:

“‘They’s my comp’ny,’ said Calpurnia. Again I thought her voice strange: she was talking like the rest of them.”(page 131)