Hi, I’m Calpurnia (Cal, for short). I work as a cook for the Finches, and am a mother figure to Scout. Yes, I’m colored, but am more literate than my friends. I taught Scout to write, which she got in trouble for in her first year of school. I have worked for the Finches for a long time, and am basically family to them. I learned to read from Miss Maudie’s aunt. I am very strict towards the kids, and act as a bridge between the white world and my own colored community. I took the kids to my own black church once, and Lula didn’t like the fact I had brought white children to a colored church.  The rest of the church members were very welcoming, though.

Quotes:

 “It’s not necessary to tell you all know. It’s not ladylike-in the second place, folks don’t like to have somebody around knowin’ more than they do. It aggravates ‘em. You’re not gonna change any of them by talkin’ right, they’ve got to want to learn themselves, and when they don’t want to learn there’s nothing you can do but keep your mouth shut or talk their language.”

 “Calpurnia was something else again. She was all angles and bones; she was nearsighted; she squinted; her hand was as wide as a bed slat and twice as hard. She was always ordering me out of the kitchen, asking me why I couldn’t behave as well as Jem when she knew he was older, and calling me home when I wasn’t ready to come. Our battles were epic and one-sided.”

Dr. Reynolds is the Maycomb doctor. "Had brought Jem and me into the world, had led us through every childhood disease known to man including the time Jem fell out of the tree house, and he had never lost our friendship. Dr. Reynolds said that if we were boil-prone things would have been different...” He is well known to Jem and Scout. He has a strong bond with the Finches.