What Is The Mother's Role In To Kill A Mockingbird

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To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee tells a story of a lawyer, Atticus Finch, and his children during the most important trial to come to their home in Maycomb County. Unfortunately, their family has been rendered motherless since Atticus’s wife died before the events in the novel. However, if the Finch mother was alive during the timeline in Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, her presence would drastically limit many characters’ development. Calpurnia, the family’s cook, serves as the dominant female figure to the children, but her role would not be as important if the mother had been in the novel. The protagonist of the story, Atticus’s daughter Scout, “…had felt her... presence as long as [she] could remember” (Lee 7). Cal has been with the family for many years and is the main feminine influence in their life. If she is not tending to the housekeeping, Calpurnia is giving the children advice, keeping them in line, or taking them to church. Consequently, if the mother was in the story, Cal’s character would simply be a cook with nothing more to her. She might not have even been in To Kill a Mockingbird, similar to Aunt Alexandra. …show more content…

Unfortunately, this event causes the kids to have to put up with constant nagging from the gossiping motor-mouth that is their aunt. Even with Calpurnia around, Atticus, “… decided that it would be best for [Scout] to have some feminine influence” (Lee 170). In spite of this, Alexandra would have no need to come to Maycomb if the womanly influence of the Finch mother was present. Aunt Alexandra’s appearance would be reduced to almost none if Jem and Scout’s mom was alive during this time. Not only would the children’s relationship with their aunt be altered, but their relationship with each other would be as

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