Character Foils in To Kill A Mockingbird
...d mighty! Yo’ folks might be better’n the Cunninham’s but it don’t count for nothin’ the way you’re disgracin’ ‘em…’” (29). In this excerpt, Calpurnia is explaining to Scout how one should always treat others with full respect when they are in your house, no matter if one’s family is “better” than the other’s family. One should always be welcoming. This strongly differs from Lulu’s immediate response of shunning the Finch children from the Negro church—simply because they are white. Through comparison, the character Lulu helps the reader distinguish Calpurnia as an open-minded, unprejudiced, and intelligent black woman. Next, Aunt Alexandra is clearly a character foil for Miss Maudie. Miss Maudie plays a crucial part in Scout’s life, serving as a solace mother figure and a friend: “…Jem and I had considerable faith in Miss Maudie. She had never told on us, never played cat-and-mouse with us, she was not at all interested in our private lives. She was our friend” (49). By contrast, Aunt Alexandra is somewhat of a nuisance to Scout: “Aunt Alexandra was fanatical on the subject of my attire. I could not possibly hope to be a lady if I wore breeches, when I said I could do nothing in a dress she said I wasn’t supposed to be doing things that required pants” (84). Miss Maudie is warmly humorous and truthful, as is exemplified by her reaction when her house burned down: “ Grieving child? Why, I hated that old cow barn. Thought of settin’ fire to it a hundred times myself, except they’d lock me up” (77). Aunt Alexandra, however, is uptight and comparatively vapid: “…Aunt Alexandra would have been analogous to Mount Everest: throughout my life she had been cold and there” (84). Aunt Alexandra also is mostly motivated by appearances and other’s thought: “…some afternoons when I would run inside for a drink of water, I would find the living room overrun with Maycomb ladies … and I would be called: ‘Jean Louise, come speak to these ladies.’/ When I appeared in the doorway, Aunty would look as though she regretted her request; I was usually mud-splashed or covered with sand” (134). This displays that Aunt Alexandra cares most about what people think about Scout than what Scout thinks about herself. Miss Maudie, whereas, is motivated by morality and integrity, not by aesthetics: “‘Mockingbirds don’t do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don’t eat people’s gardens, don’t rest in corncribs, they don’t do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That’s why it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird’” (94). Aunt Alexandra’s stiff and shallow values contrastingly underscore Miss Maudie’s values of morality, intelligence, and the will to enjoy one’s self. Lastly, Mr. Bob Ewell serves as a foil for Atticus. Mr. Ewell is largely ignorant: “‘About your writing with your left hand, are you ambidextrous, Mr. Ewell?’/ ‘I most positively am not, I can use one hand as good as the other’” (180). In saying that he is not ambidextrous but that he can use one hand as good at the other proves that he is just plain stupid. Atticus, however, is a highly intelligent man with wise insight: “‘You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view—’/ ‘Sir?’/ ‘—until you climb into his skin and walk around in it’” (34). The difference between the two is phenomenal. Mr. Ewell’s crude conduct extirpates any dignity he could possibly have: “‘I seen that black nigger younder ruttin’ on my Mayella!’/…As judge Taylor banged his gavel, Mr. Ewell was sitting smugly in the witness chair, surveying his handiwork” (175, 176). His vulgar c...