Foils Techniques in Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird

Character foils are important to any story or play as they compare and contrast character traits as the story unfolds. The use of character foils allows the audience to understand a characters way of thought and the actions that they take. Character foils show the moral behaviour and can help the audience see contradictory factors that help advance the plot. Although characters may seem similar, the use of character foils can show their differences. In William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, the use of character foils proves Fortinbras is a stronger political leader over Hamlet, the contrasting view of Laertes as a son in comparison to Hamlet and Horatio being thought of as the better man in contradiction to Hamlet.

When Atticus leaves on a work trip for the Tom Robinson case, Calpurnia takes care of Scout and Jem. She takes them to her community church, The First Purchase, for black people. When they arrive, a black woman named Lula approaches them. Lula questions why Calpurnia brought white children to their church. She says, “You ain’t got no business bringin’ white chillun here-they got their church, we got our’n. It is our church, ain’t it, Miss Cal” (Lee 119)? Lula

Calpurnia, or “Cal”, was the Finch’s African-American housekeeper and cook. Her being a black, middle-aged woman in a white dominated society, we can already infer she has experienced great racial injustices. Throughout the novel, we see significant and noticeable changes in the main characters, but little development in Calpurnia´s character. Before you discard this essay on what was supposed to be about a chosen character changing due to social and racial injustices throughout the book, give the thesis some thought. Scout is the narrator of the book, therefore we are seeing changes through her point of view; so we only see Calpurnia changing through the eyes of Scout, but they were not in actuality

Calpurnia was the Finch’s African- american housekeeper. She played a huge role in the parenting of both Scout and Jem because Atticus was an only father. Calpurnia helped Scout become more ladylike at the end of the novel by teaching her proper manners and edict. Scout is a hardcore

Since Calpurnia is so caring and good to the kids, they look at her as more than just the cook, they look at her as if she was a second mother. One day while Atticus was away for the day Calpurnia decided to take the kids to the all-black church with her. When she showed up with Jem and Scout she was getting nasty looks and comments from some of the other church-goers. She just ignored then and led the kids into the church. When church was let out and they began their walk home. This shows that Cal is caring enough to take the kids to church, knowing ahead of time that the other church members were not going to be happy. On their way home Scout asked if she could go visit Calpurnia at her home one day. Calpurnia responded with, “Any time you want to. We’d be glad to have you” (Lee 168). This also shows that Cal is willing to open her house for them anytime they want to come. Due to Calpurnia’s strong opposition to race, the kids aren’t racist. They don’t care about skin color, they want justice for all. Another example of her caring is the time Tim Johnson, the rabid dog, came down the street and headed right towards their house (Lee 123). The kids ran to get Calpurnia and she took

Foils in The Crucible In literature, a character’s true personality is revealed through the use of foils. A foil is a minor character that contrasts with a main character and highlights his or her particular characteristics. They are found in movies, television shows, novels, and plays. Foils can reveal both positive and negative traits. Throughout The Crucible, literary foils reveal the true personalities of many characters.

Calpurnia does not force Scout to be feminine; she lets Scout observe and be who she wants to be. In a way, her teachings also mirrors Atticus- slowly nurturing the children’s morals, answering whatever questions they might have, and leading them in the right direction while letting them also try to discover things on their own. In addition, Calpurnia acts as a bridge between the two worlds (black and white & the Finch’s house and her black community). At the church, the Finch children are able to see the other world (the black community) and to their surprise, they face prejudice there by a woman named Lula. Lula wanted to know why Calpurnia was “bringing white nigguns to their church”. For possibly the first time, Scout and Jem is in a situation where they can see that as much as there is prejudice from white to black, there is just the same from black to white. They might not fully understand what prejudice is at the moment, but this experience definitely helps them understand later on in the story as they mature. In their trip to the black church, Harper Lee portrays the black community in a highly positive light to highlight the idea of racism and prejudice in the white

(If we look back to all the books we have read over the course of our life, we may see that a literary device commonly used by almost all writers would be foils. Foils are often put right next to one another, to emphasize the nature of each character, by putting a good character next to a presumably bad character, so that the bad character will look worse, but the good character will look exceedingly better. We have seen this writing technique in many different types of literature. For example, in mythology with the movie Troy, the foils were King Priam, and King Agamemnon. They may both be kings, but they have very different personalities. King Priam care not just for power, but he also cares for the people of his kingdom; however, King Agamemnon only cares about power.) (This idea of placing somewhat similar, yet mostly opposing characters side-by-side is also undoubtedly presented in the book To Kill a Mockingbird. Harper Lee does an incredible job of creating these opposing characters for Jam and Scout to encounter, so that they can learn what is right and wrong, and so that they could go from innocence to experience.) (In To Kill a Mockingbird, three foils are very highly valued in the children’s transition from their state of innocence to their state of experience; these three foils include, Miss Maudie Atkinson & Miss Stephanie Crawford; Calpurnia and Lula; finally, with Atticus Finch and Mr. Gilmer.)

A foil character contrasts the personalities of another character, which particularly enlightens certain characteristics of the individual. This element portrays these characteristics in an obvious manner, as it benefits the reader or audience. By showing the characteristics of one, it directly heightens the character traits of the other, creating a foil illustration of an individual. Nowhere is this element of literature more prudent than in William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, as he effectively engages the use of foil characters. In the play, two lovers from opposing, and hateful families fall in love, but the hatred between households lead to their downfall. Characters in the immoral city of Verona are set to represent key themes and

The world says that all people have a character foil. A character foil is a character or person that serve to highlight the contrasts between each other. There are many characters that are character foils, like Mickey and Goofy, Lieutenant Dan and Forrest Gump. In stories, there will always be someone who highlights the good and bad of another. In The Crucible , written by Arthur Miller Elizabeth Proctor is a character foil to Abigail Williams, because Elizabeth highlights the difference in honesty, she highlights the difference in love and she also highlights the differences each of them have in in their Puritan lifestyle.

A foil is a minor character that helps the audience better understand a major character. A foil may exist as a comparison character, with similarities between the two, as well as differences that bring to light an important contrast between the foil and the main character. A foil may also just be someone for the main character to talk to, so we can know and understand their thoughts and feelings. Foils help us understand the obvious as well as the arcane. In the classic tragedy Hamlet, we see William Shakespeare employ foils to illustrate both examples. They become important literary tools that help the reader rationalize the concurrent theme of the play -

Though Calpurnia and the people involved in Calpurnia’s life are greatly impacted, Jean Louise Finch, a.k.a. Scout, deals with more confusion and frustration brought on by racial discrimination. During a day at school, Scout encountered Cecil Jacobs and his ignorant mind. “Atticus had promised me he would wear me out if he ever heard of me fighting any more… I soon forgot. Cecil Jacobs made me forget. He had announced in the schoolyard the day before that Scout Finch’s daddy defends niggers”(Lee 99). Scout did not realize what this meant, but she was hurt by it any way. Scout is affected by a copious amount of racism, she just has no clue what is zipping around her. When she confronted Atticus about him defending Negroes, he said of course he does, and to not use

Harper Lee uses Calpurnia as an example of respect. Lee states, "That Calpurnia led a modest double life never dawned on me. The idea that she had a separate existence outside our household was a novel one, to say nothing of her having command of two languages"(143). Scout and Jem respect Calpurnia even though she is black. Scout and Jem think of Calpurnia as a mother. They respect Calpurnia and see her as equal. Harper Lee also uses Atticus as an example of a show of respect. When Scout asks Atticus if he is a n*****-lover", he responds, "I certainly am. I do my best to love everyone..."(140). Atticus is telling scout that he tries his best to treat everyone with

In chapter 12, there’s a dialogue between Cal-the Finch’s helper and Lula-Cal’s neighbor when they look like they’re fighting and mocking at each other. Lula was kind of racism when Cal brings Scout and Jem-white kids to the church of black people community. You can see the racism from Lula when she asks “I wants to know why you bringin’ white chillum to nigger church”. The word “nigger” and “whit” in one sentence, with the irony attitude Lula gave to Cal can show how much racism she is in this case. And she was mad “You ain’t got no business bringin’ white little chillun here – they got their church, we got our’n.” then she go to the “fact” which is “It is our church, ain’t it, Miss Cal?” All are human yet they act like despite each other and have no respect at all. Not only affect to how people think around but those words also affect to the children. They’re still young and naive. Imagine if they’re not Atticus’ children, not being educated well in Atticus’ way: treating everyone equally, what would happen to them later in the future? There will be more racism people and this thing will keep going on and on, seems like never stop. This situation related a lot to what is happening nowadays. The racism has been decreased and people already treated well between one another, yet it still exists. It’s like an ancient thing running through everyone’s blood. This part is really meaningful and need deeply understanding. Harper Lee has done a great job sharing it down on

Many characters have foils. A foil is a character that opposes another character, quite often the protagonist. Character foils are similar to the main character in some ways but often have one key difference. Sometimes, at some point the foils develop traits characteristic to the other. Often times, there is a factor, whether it be physical or psychological, which aids in the apparentness of the foils. In Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad, Marlow and Kurtz represent foils driven by the wilderness.