Dialouge Donna Wylie

Dialogue:      Donna Wylie

          Dialogue is a conversation, or speech between characters in a novel. How a character talks can sometimes tell the reader more than is actually said. In To kill a mockingbird, there is a certain point in this book Calpurnia takes Jem and Scout to First purchase, and all African American church. When Calpurnia is there she talks improper English by dropping the ‘ing’ at the end of words or saying “Chillun” instead of children, whereas when she is at the Finch house her diction is a proper as any other white person in Maycomb, that is except for the Ewells. 

          Scout describes Calpurnia as leading some sort of double life, she also asks Calpurnia why she talks like that at First purchase when she knows it’s wrong but then changes her speech when she is with her and Jem.

Calpurnia tells Scout that it isn’t polite to showcase your knowledge to others. When Calpurnia is at First Purchase she is also addressed by a woman, Lula, who asks Cal why she brought Jem and Scout, being white, to a ‘Nigger’ church.

          The switch Calpurnia goes through represents acceptance and role playing. Calpurnia talks like she does when she is with the Finch’s or white people, partly because she knows proper English, and partly because if she talked how she did at First Purchase she would give white people in Maycomb the chance to say she is just a typical ‘Nigger’. 

          Calpurnia talks like she does at First purchase because she wants to assimilate with them, and to not look she is trying to be better than the others, she is also playing the part of how a typical African American spoke in Maycomb back then, and she wouldn’t fit in if she spoke otherwise.

                                                      

                                         Calpurnia