Code Switching In To Kill A Mockingbird

When people in todays society code-switch, we enhance our character and overall roundness to ourselves. There are instances where people code-switch to communicate with others in a different language, or we change our tone with certain groups of people. Speaking multiple languages in a household, can lead to a lot of code-switching because you can have that one relative who can’t speak english, so you become a “translator” to help them with daily tasks. Even though code-switching can happen with different languages, the most common code-switching is used when speaking to different groups of people. Talking to an adult would have a different type of tone, rather than speaking to one of your friends. Code-switching is used to help strengthen

our character, and add on to the complexity of one’s self.
The use of code-switching in todays world is very common amongst everyone of all ethnicities and ages.

Not only does this happen in the real world, but it also occurs in To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, when Calpurnia talks to the people at her church differently than the way she talks with Scout and Jem. Scout and Jem go to church with Calpurnia (their “second mother”), but this church is mainly for the people of color--which Scout and Jem are not--but Calpurnia is. At church, Calpurnia is greeted by Lula, who starts to speak in a way that seemed strange to both Jem and Scout. The way that African Americans and white people spoke were different from each other, because the African American way of talking sounded more like “slang”, while the white people had a more “sophisticated” way of speaking. Lula and Calpurnia ended up talking to each other in their “slang,” which shook Scout because Calpurnia spoke “in tones [Scout] never heard her use”(135). Scouts reaction leads you to believe as if Calpurnia was speaking a whole different language--even though it’s in English-- but, it’s in a different pronunciation of words. Even though Calpurnia knows how to speak “better”, she doesnt because “folks dont like to have somebody around knowin’ more than they do,” (143). Calpurnia doesn’t need to show everyone at church that she can talk a different way, almost seeming better than the people at her church. She has a character that makes her seem on top of the people that she is

assimilated with, making her more of a threat to people because no one wants to seem dumber than the person next to them.
In conclusion, Calpurnia has an interesting character that leads her to be a strong, diverse and intelligent woman. She is a woman of gratitude and someone you can look up to, because in the real world there should be more people who use their code-switching for good instead of putting others into a spot where they seem weak.