If Calpurnia was the narrator of To Kill a Mockingbird, how would she change the universal theme?

There are several main themes in To Kill a Mockingbird, but it is safe to say that if Calpurnia were the narrator instead of Scout, that each of the themes would still be significant, yet told from a completely different perspective. Let's take a look at one of the most prominent themes, racism and tolerance.

In the book, racism is portrayed as the view of ignorant and often hypocritical people. Tolerance is portrayed as something that educated and fair people practice. Yet, it is important to note that although the Finch family is more forward- and fair-thinking than many in Maycomb, the book itself is still told from a white perspective.

If Calpurnia were to narrate this story, it would be told from the Black perspective. In the South of the 1930s, this would have been a far different perspective than even that of the forward-thinking whites. The events shared would, no doubt, have been completely different for large parts of the book. In the book we hear Scout's story about moving from innocence to knowledge, but Calpurnia is an adult whose innocence was lost long ago. Much of Scout's shock and confusion at racist behavior may be met with anger and frustration and even resignation by an adult, Black Calpurnia. Therefore, the theme of racism and tolerance would be told from the perspective of a victim of that racism rather than someone who was not.

We get a small snapshot about how Calpurnia did feel all of those years when we read Harper Lee's second book, Go Set a Watchman, which looks at Scout's adult life. In that book she goes back to visit a now retired Calpurnia and finds her to have a very different attitude than the one we see in Mockingbird.