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The mother figure of Ms Maudie Atkinson by YenusonMs Maudie is presented as a mother figure along with Calpurnia where Maudie is the loving caring personality of a mother which will do the nice things for them. Harper Lee creates a bond with young scout especially giving Scout a mother she never had.Miss Maudie presented as a mother figure:Chapter 5“Miss Maudie’s benevolence extended to Jem and Dill”We see that Miss Maudie is a loveable character and for someone like Jem who knew his mother and knew how she was how loving she was and for him to accept miss Maudie and how loving she is shows us that miss Maudie is seen as a mother figure to Jem as she is the mother that Jem was missing and the mother Scout never knew.“She baked… a big cake and three little ones”The fact that miss Maudie bakes one big cake for everyone and the three little ones just for Jem, Scout and Dill shows us that she cares for the children as her own as she takes care of them when as her own children and the way out of all the children in Maycomb, miss Maudie makes cakes just for Jem, Scout and Dill showing the caring character that miss Maudie and she looks after them shows the mother figure the harper lee tries to create.“Miss Maudie had known… Jack since they were children”Harper Lee tries to create this social background with Miss Maudie and the Finches. By doing this, it makes us closer to Miss Maudie and makes the reader feel as if she is the closest person to the finch family making Miss Maudie more of a mother figure compared to Calpurnia. At the same time, the way that Scout says this makes us feel that she loves Miss Maudie to the extent she wishes they were family making Miss Maudie and scout especially close to each other “His name’s Arthur and he’s alive”The respect that miss Maudie has for Boo and calling him by his real name not only shows how miss Maudie doesn’t take in the stereotypical stories that the people of Maycomb create but also shows the character of Atticus and the words that miss Maudie says makes us believe as if was actually one of Atticus speeches making us create a clear link between Atticus and Miss Maudie. The relationship between these two people make us feel that Miss Maudie fits in perfectly to the type of character that the finches family are perceived to be emphasizing how much of a mother figure Ms Maudie is presented. “Miss Maudie. You’re best lady I know”The short sentence form scout expresses this clear relationship between Miss Maudie and Scout as they become really close at a time where Jem and Dill are growing up and playing their boy games and scout has no one else and therefore decides to go to Miss Maudie. The fact scouts says this to Miss Maudie directly illuminates to the reader how loving, caring, and how much of a mother figure Miss Maudie seems to be. The close relation that Miss Maudie has to scout, Atticus and the finch family exaggerates how much of a mother figure harper lee tries to create with Maudie. “She was old and snug on her porch”The short phrase the use of the word “snug” gives the effect that scout finds comfort around Miss Maudie and her house, this comfort creates the loving atmosphere in which a mother normally has for their child. This link that scout has with miss Maudie shows us this mother daughter relationship making us feel that even though Miss Maudie isn’t scouts real mother she will always be a close mother figure especially to scout as she never knew or saw her mother so the way miss Maudie looks after her would make scout feel that Miss Maudie was her real mother“She was our friend”This short sentence emphasizes the seriousness at which scout is talking to us, we see that through the short sentence that scout thinks about miss Maudie a lot and the short sentence shows us that she is completely sure that miss Maudie is her “friend”. The word “friend” exaggerates the close relationship between Miss Maudie and scout. As the reader it makes us feel that because scout lost her mother and never knew her, Miss Maudie being her “friend” hints to us that scout finds is Maudie as a caring and comforting character making Miss Maudie a mother figure for scout. Chapter 8“Atticus, you’ll never raise them”Miss Maudie uses very short sentences to show her care towards Scout and Jem as through this quote we see that Miss Maudie loves and cares for them so much that she is willing to speak to Atticus is a harsh way to show her passion towards the children and we see the mother figure in Miss Maudie as she tries to be the more stricter mother figure and tells Atticus that the snowman they created is not acceptable “Always wanted a smaller house”In this quote we see many characteristics of Miss Maudie like her bravery, true courage and mother figure. The short sentence shows us how strong Miss Maudie is as she hides her sorrow around the kids so that they don’t get affected. By hiding her feelings we see how much Miss Maudie cares for the children because she wants to keep them happy from this. We see a caring and loving mother figure in Miss Maudie because the way she hides her true emotion also suggests she is protective over the children as well. “she put her hands to her head and whooped” Miss Maudie can be seen as a mother figure through this scene because we see that scout tries to learn from Miss Maudie as scout uses the word “morphodite”. Even though, there was a mix up in word we see that miss Maudie is the loving and fun mother figure as she laughs over the small mistake and not taking it seriously and the ending “that was just miss Maudie” shows the close relationship between the children and miss Maudie. Chapter 22(237) “Hush, Stephanie”In this short sentence we see a protective and caring mother figure from Miss Maudie as we see through the short forceful word “Hush” that she cares for Scout in the way Maudie doesn’t want scout to suffer through rumours and bullying from the others in the society. To the reader in this particular scene Harper Lee makes Miss Maudie as the mother who will never let go of their daughter and will protect them from anything that might upset their daughter as Maudie stops all the rapid fire question from Miss Stephanie in one go showing us the power that Miss Maudie is given and the strong relationship between Scout and Miss Maudie.(238) “it was no accident” + (237)“ there are some men in this world who were borrn to do unpleasant jobs for us. Your father was one of them” Miss Maudie uses a lot of short sentences to show her mother figure characteristic as Miss Maudie shows similar characteristics to Atticus in ways like lessons. In this quote we see the caring mother figure as she teaches lessons along the way in Scout’s life just like Atticus. Miss Maudie tries to comfort scout like mother at this time at which the whole town of Maycomb is against Atticus and Miss Maudie comforts scout in saying Atticus is not a bad person as the town says through the uses of lessons. This sharing characteristic between Miss Maudie and Atticus shows the bond between both of them and it makes the reader feel that Miss Maudie fills in the spot as mother in the finch family as she cares for scout and Jem as well as always backing up Atticus at times like this. (238) “that’s something you’ll have to take up with your father”The simple sentence shows Miss Maudie’s mother figure characteristic in the way that Jem finds Miss Maudie as such a loving, caring and comfortable person; Jem feels that he can speak to Miss Maudie about anything because their relationship is so close and strong. IN addition, the way miss Maudie tells Jem that this conversation is best with Atticus shows us the caring mother figure of Miss Maudie in the way that she is always there for them to look after and love them so to help them its best to talk to Atticus. Miss Maudie compared to the other mother figures:“reign over the street in magisterial beauty”The use of the adjective “magisterial beauty” emphasizes how Scout sees Miss Maudie as a more loving and friendly compared to Calpurnia who is seen to have “hand was as wide as a bedslat and twice as hard” which exaggerates how Calpurnia is presented as the more strict and more of a disciplinary mother. Through both these quotes it makes the reader feel as if Scout was a bit closer to Miss Maudie as she prefers to have the loving mother figure of Miss Maudie over the strict Calpurnia.“she always spoke nice to … Mr Aruther”For the quote we see that Miss Maudie is not the same as the people of Maycomb who make rumours and speak ill about people they don’t know whereas she is the type of person who speaks about people the way she perceives them which shows similarity to Atticus in the way he doesn’t speak wrongly about Boo like the people of Maycomb. The Character of Miss Maudie contrasts with Aunt Alexandra in the way she expects Scout to be a “ray of sunshine” which shows us how Aunt Alexandra fits in with the typical people of Maycomb and how Aunt Alexandra is the type of person who fits into the societal code perfectly with the racism and discrimination and we see from this that Miss Maudie is more of a mother figure to Scout and Jem in the way that Miss Maudie brings the children up in the same way as Atticus and doesn’t try to push them into being even more like the discriminating people of Maycomb and fit into that towns code Aunt Alexandra as a mother figure by GeorgeAunt Alexandra sees Scout as a girl who had been “born good but had grown progressively worse every year” and so she feels that it is her job to make Scout become the person she believes every girl should be. Which would mean Scout would need good manners and act and dress in a very ladylike way. However Scout finds it hard to live up to these expectations and so does not like the approach Alexandra takes to try and change how she behaves.How Aunt Alexandra is presented as a mother figureShe has very high standards for Scout to live up to. She believes that every girl who lives with a family like the finches should behave and act in a certain way which is to be polite, have good manners etc. This is shown when Aunt Alexandra arrives at the Finches house hold in chapter 13 and the second thing she says is “Jean Louise, stop scratching your head.” This shows how she is expecting scout to always be acting in a lady like manner, and so when she sees Scout doing something unfeminine like scratching her head, she feels it is important to mention it as she disapproves of people acting in this sort of way.Scout does not like the way in which Aunt Alexandra is always trying to make her act in a certain lady like manner because Scout thinks that she be allowed to act in whatever way she likes, but as usual Atticus tries to find reason in why aunt Alexandra tries to make scout act so lady like and it is “Alexandra didn’t understand girls much, she’d never had one”, which shows how Atticus’ reasoning for Aunt Alexandra treating Scout in the way she does is because she does not have the experience with treating young girls, and although in her mind she has a concept of what the perfect girl could be, she does not understand girls enough to realise that Scout Is never going to be as polite and well-mannered as she would like her to be.As a mother figure Aunt Alexandra also tries to make Scout aware of the class structure within society. This is shown where she says “you should be friendly and polite to him, you should be gracious to everybody, dear. But you don’t have to invite him home.” By saying this Aunt Alexandra is clearly setting a boundary between the two families (the Finches and the Cunninghams). Aunt Alexandra feels that the Finches are superior to the Cunnighams and for her that is reason enough for Scout not to invite them to the house or even play with themAlthough Aunt Alexandra always tries to act as lady like as possible, as she wishes to set a perfect example for scout to follow, but in chapter 24 we finally see Aunt Alexandra break free of this character and behave a lot more humanely, as she lets her emotions show, “she took her handkerchief from her belt and wiped her nose.” This clearly show how the events surrounding Tom’s death have bought her close to tears, but it is the events after this that really show us the courage of Aunt Alexandra as she walks back into the lady’s lunch and acts as if everything is fine. And it is here that scout finally gains respect for her Aunt, and begins to look up to her as someone she should be like, as she goes on to say “If Aunty could be a lady at a time like this, so could I.” And this shows how scout only now begins to learn what it means to actually be a lady and how it’s not to be dressed well and always be happy but instead it is to have dignity and confidence in what you do no matter the situation. And interestingly it is only when Aunt Alexandra isn’t trying to teach scout this, that she learns, because Scout only needed to see the actions of the real Aunt Alexandra to learn this.Aunt Alexandra compared to Miss Maudie as a mother figureMiss Maudie accepts Scout for who she is, and never really tries to change the way in which Scout acts or thinks, whereas Aunt Alexandra doesn’t really except Scout and is always wanting to change the way in which she acts to try and make her more like the girl she wants her to be “one has to behave like sunbeam”Aunt Alexandra is very strict and abides to the laws and codes of society “you don’t have to invite him home” and so tries to teach Scout to do the same whereas although miss Maudie still abides by the law of Maycombe, she also sticks to her own views and codes and so she wishes for Scout to do the same and not let others influence or change the way in which she thinksRevision on mother figures: Calpurnia(Harin)Introduction on Caplurnia:Calpurnia in the novel “To Kill a Mockingbird” is just more than a cook as she provides care and discipline for both Jem and Scout.Not only as she seen as a mother figure she is can be strongly perceived as being a courageous woman of her times.She is looking after white children in a predominantly racist area where she is a black women trying to raise these kids.We can see later that she lives by two lives as she has to be nice and caring to the white family she is taking care of while when she goes to “First Purchase” church she becomes different as she doesn’t want to seem superior amongst her friends. Quotes:…” He ain’t company Cal; he’s just a Cunningham “… …” Hush your mouth Scout! Don’t matter who they are, anybody who sets foot in this houses’s yo’ comp’ny’….Scout tries here to reason with Calpurnia but Calpurnia shows her true behaviour as she shows Scout the true reason why people should respect each other. The exclamation mark here shows us Calpurnia’s anger that Scout is trying to divide society and discriminate others due to their wealth. This gives us the idea that Calpurnia is a strong woman in society as she is looking after two white children in a predominantly racist area which just proves to the reader that she is the right person to teach these children about tough times and equality amongst all ad she is typically seen as the bridge between the black and white community. The themes Calpurnia bring up here are very important in the novel, themes such as Racism, Discrimination of Society, and Discipline.“Calpurnia sent me through the door to the dining room with a swinging smack” ...The alliteration of the “swinging smack” shows Calpurnia’s gentle but calm discipline upon the children. The only thing that confuses the reader is the fact that the children call Calpurnia by her name and whereas they seem to call Atticus “Sir” half the time. This can bring up the idea that the children don’t realise the fact that Calpurnia is a surrogate mother but it can also show that Calpurnia is almost like a best friend to them as they don’t have to address her like their father and they can share their problems and she can help them. In conclusion she is their surrogate mother as she is enforcing discipline but the children seem to accept it.“Calpurnia bent down and kissed me, I ran along and thought what had overcome her”….The phrase “kissed me” tells us that shows Calpurnia’s love for the children is immense and she treats the children just like they’re her children. Even though Scout “thought what had overcome her” we can learn that even though the children don’t call her Mum but her name the reader can understand that she is the true surrogate mother as she has been with scout and Jem “ever since they could remember” meaning that she has lived through everything with them therefore she is the strongest of the surrogate mothers.-4832352647950"... she's never let them get away with anything, she's never indulged them the way most colored nurses do. She tried to bring them up according to her lights, and Cal's lights are pretty good--and another thing, the children love her."00"... she's never let them get away with anything, she's never indulged them the way most colored nurses do. She tried to bring them up according to her lights, and Cal's lights are pretty good--and another thing, the children love her."464185-52451000 ................
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