To Kill A Mockingbird - Lula

  In the novel To Kill A Mockingbird, Lula is the black woman at the First Purchase African M.E. Church, which Calpurnia brought Scout and Jem to in Chapter 7. Upon seeing the two children, Lula confronted Calpurnia for bringing them to the church, saying, "they've got their church, we have ours". This parallels the way most white people in Maycomb treat the black people.

  Lula is the only African American that protested of the presence of Scout and Jem at the church, while most of the congregation welcomed them and respected them because their father, Atticus Finch, is trying to prevent one of them, Thomas Robinson, from being convicted of rape, a capital offense. However, Lula objected to their presence and rudely demand that they be removed. This is possibly because she had been a victim of racism since her youth, and is bitter towards all white people for this. She felt unfair that she could not go to the white people's church, but white people could go to her church, and thus wanted the whites and the blacks to be segregated, and thus took her anger out on the two innocent children. I feel that this is cowardly behavior, as taking her anger out on the children will not achieve anything (and resulted in her being asked to leave the church), and if she really wanted to object, she should take it up with the white men that gambled in the church on weekdays.

  Lula's single appearance in the novel is memorable, as she is the only African American that is openly hostile towards white people, while all others are more docile and appeared resigned to their social status. I do not think that this is very likely, as it is more likely that a significant chunk of African Americans will protest such unfair treatment at the hands of the whites, and some of the more aggressive ones, like Lula, may even form anti-white terrorist groups.

  Therefore, Lula is a complicated figure in the novel that complicated the role of African Americans, in which she seemed to be the only person that dared to speak her honest (albeit twisted and wrong) views.