To kill a mockingbird who is lula

Or is the novel itself just committed to showing black people as harmless and docile? It's hard to say from Lula's brief appearance, but she does make the novel's portrayal of African-Americans more complicated. Parents Home Homeschool College Resources. Study Guide. By Harper Lee. Previous Next. He treats Jem and Scout this way because they are white. In chapter 12, Calpurnia takes Jem and Scout to church with her. There, the children meet Lula. Lula, rather than being friendly, becomes angry that white children are in their black church.

When Calpurnia sees this, she and Lula have a conflict. In July , Lula was convicted on charges of money laundering and corruption in a controversial trial, and sentenced to nine and a half years in prison. In November , the Supreme Federal Court ruled that incarcerations with pending appeals were unlawful and Lula was released from prison as a result.

Chapter 12 provides a brief moment where students can see the reaction of one African-American character, Lula. She is described in the play as loud lipstick, bright, and skimpy summer clothes, with sandals, and sunglasses. How many times has your English department grappled with the question of teaching the same old texts?

Some educators think every book should be from the canon of Western literature. Others advocate for multicultural novels that reflect our contemporary world. But when it comes down to it, no one can part with teaching To Kill a Mockingbird. It always stays.

While the novel is written by a white woman, told from the perspective of a young white girl, and holds up a white male as its hero, I maintain that this book offers myriad opportunities for anti-bias teaching. To this end, I created a lesson that allows teachers to use To Kill a Mockingbird to teach from the perspective of a female African-American character: Lula.

The New York Times education blog inspired this lesson. Doing so opens classroom space to talk about the brutality of lynching. The lesson that this post inspired me to develop focuses on Chapter 12, which offers another rich opportunity to turn the lens. African American characters dominate the narrative in Chapter 12, allowing readers one of the only opportunities in Mockingbird to see the African American characters as three-dimensional people with full lives of their own, positive roles in their communities and in positions of power.

Lula, a young African American parishioner, makes Scout and Jem feel unwelcome and gives Calpurnia a hard time about bringing them there. Lula represents the African Americans in Maycomb who are starting to voice their outrage about the unjust treatment their community members endure.