Is it possible to see Calpurnia as a character subscribing to the image of a stereotypical black woman?
She is authoritative for one thing. This does put her on par with Atticus in bringing up the two kids, but being black her character also acts as a foil to Scout’s character, teaching her the proper values in life. And Valerie Smith in Black Feminist Theory and the Representation of the “Other” says that “Black women are employed, if not sacrificed, to humanize thier white superordinates, to teach them something about the content of their own subject positions” (1989, p. 375). However, Smith says this in relation to the portrayal of black women in relation to several films.
