How is Calpurnia’s identity shown in Ch12 of too kill a mocking bird

Calpurnia’s identity is shown in Ch12 as something that is confused and lost. We learn basic information about her which would seem normal to know of anybody else, Calpurnia life seemed to be alive with the finches we didn’t know how she was outside the finches. We learn that she’s older than Atticus Finch , she doesn’t know her own birthday so she chooses to celebrate it on Christmas. “I’m older than Mr. Finch, even.” “I just have it on Christmas, it’s easier to remember that way—I don’t have a real birthday.” She’s from Finches landing and has been with Finches or the Buford’s all her life, ‘‘were you from the Landing?” Jem asked. “I certainly am’’, ‘‘I’ve spent all my days workin’ for the Finches or the Buford’s’’. Zeebo was her son and the eldest.

She acts in a different way when around the ‘Negros’ and talks ‘nigger talk’ , “What you want, Lula?” she asked, in tones I had never heard her use. She spoke quietly, contemptuously. Again I thought her voice strange: she was talking like the rest of them. Calpurnia says ‘‘you can do but keep your mouth shut or talk their language.” She says ‘‘their language’’ not ‘ours’ or ‘my’ which I thought was great example of how she’s missing her identity and is confused. When Jem asks her why she talks ‘nigger talk’ when you know it’s wrong “That doesn’t mean you hafta talk that way when you know better,” said Jem. Calpurnia Says “Well, in the first place I’m black”

Calpurnia tilted her hat and scratched her head, then pressed her hat down carefully over her ears. “It’s right hard to say,” she said. “Suppose you and Scout talked colored-folks’ talk at home it’d be out of place, wouldn’t it? Now what if I talked white-folks’ talk at church, and with my neighbors? They’d think I was puttin‘on airs to beat Moses.”