Dubose was strong and unmoving in things she believed in, which is a trait that future generations need to learn. Atticus tells his children that Mrs. Dubose is a great role model: “‘I wanted you to see something about her - I wanted you to see what real courage is’” (Lee 149). Mrs. Dubose’s confidence, strength and courage are traits that are important for people to have, and she will be remembered by the FInches’, along with many others, for her…
Mrs. Dubose’s judgmental and bitter nature gives insight to Lee’s theme that the follies of one’s human nature can lead people to only see the worst in them. As Jem and Scout Finch simply walk past the house of Mrs. Henry Lafayette Dubose, she starts persecuting them on their appearance, actions, and the “wrongs” of their father. She automatically expects the worst of them, speculating that they must be up to no good. Mrs. Dubose even insults their father saying, “Your father is no better than the niggers and trash he works for!”(Lee 102). The spiteful behavior of Mrs. Dubose only offends those who encounter her. Her thoughts are unfiltered; letting her harsh judgements be known whenever she pleases. Mrs. Dubose fails to see the damage her…
Another character from To Kill A Mockingbird who shows courage is Mrs. Dubose. Mrs. Dubose is a grumpy neighbor of the Finch’s who forces Jem and Scout to read to her after Jem destroys her bushes. Later we find out that Mrs. Dubose was trying to wean off of morphine before she died and was using the kids as a distraction from the pain. In fact, that’s one of the ways Mrs. Dubose shows courage, she knew that the weaning process would be extremely painful and unpleasant and yet she was determined to go through with it and rid herself from the addiction. Another reason that this was courageous is because she knew that in the end she was going to die, she knew that she wasn’t helping herself live longer by breaking her addiction yet, she went…
Mrs. Henry Lafayette Dubose, is identified to the Finch children as the cranky old lady down the street who yells insults at the children. She torments them on everything they say and do; one day…
The two protagonists from “The Jilting of Granny Weatherall” and “Miss Brill” have different lives, but still share similarities within their personality and the way they view life and themselves. Granny Weatherall lives an eventful life, unlike Miss Brill who has set a routine. However, both of this characters have a hard time letting go of the past, are easily upset when they are not in control and consequently, they each have developed their own mechanism to protect themselves from emotional pain.…
It is very evident at the beginning when Mrs. Dubose is dying from an illness. The kids think she is a very mean, old woman but Atticus thinks differently and tells the kids "Don't pay any attention to her, just hold your head high and be a gentleman"(135). Atticus understands what’s happening and knows what Mrs. Dubose is going through. She took morphine for a long time during her sickness to ease the pain. One day she went too far according to Jem. She had mentioned something about Atticus defending a person of color and Jem had enough. Later that day he went to her house and destroyed all of her flowers because he was outrageously mad. When Atticus found out what he had done, he made Jem go to Mrs. Dubose’s house and apologize for what he had done. When he was there she said that to serve his punishment he would have to go over there every day for a month and read to her because she was slowly stopping to take her morphine and needed something to help her pass time. By the end of Jem’s readings to her, she was completely off the morphine. Only a brave and courageous woman would be able to completely stop taking her medicine and live the rest of her life without anything making her feel…
When Mrs. Dubose, the mean old woman who lives down the street from the Finch family yells insults at Jem and Scout on her way to town, Jem reacts by returning and cutting up all the flowers in her front yard. His punishment is to read to Mrs. Dubose for a specified time period every day. He complains to Atticus that she is an awful woman, but Atticus tells Jem and Scout to try to understand Mrs. Dubose's point of view. She is an old woman, very set her in ways, and she is entirely alone in the world. Jem and Scout agree to visit her. After Mrs. Dubose dies, Atticus reveals that by reading to her each day, the children were helping her break her morphine addiction. Atticus explains that Mrs. Dubose was fighting to regain sobriety, even as she stood on the brink of death. Because of this, to Atticus, she is the bravest person he has ever known. He explains this to the children to try to make them understand the terrible pain she was experiencing, and how their presence helped her through the process. Although she might have said some…
Scout learns to know people before judging them. When Jem, Scout's older brother, hit the tops of all of Mrs. Dubose's camellias his punishment was to read to Mrs. Dubose, this is Scout's description of her. “She was horrible. Her face was the color of a dirty pillowcase... Old-age liver spots dotted her cheeks... pale eyes with black pinpoint pupils...”(Lee 142). In the beginning Scout though that Mrs. Dubose was a “mean, ugly creature.” It tuned out that Mrs. Dubose was dealing with a morphine addiction and had no control of her looks. Over the time the Jem was there it was to help her cope with the less and less morphine. Dubose died with no addiction and all, and Scout…
He wanted Jem to get to know Mrs. Dubose not as an angry old lady but as a human being who has had a very tough life. Atticus is always polite to Mrs. Dubose, despite her rudeness. He is polite to everyone. The encounter Jem has with Mrs. Dubose’s flowers gives Atticus an opportunity to teach his children responsibility, but after her death he also lets them know why he considers her such a courageous person. After Jem destroys her flowers, Atticus has him go to read to her. He later explains that he wanted his children to see what real courage is. Sometimes courage is mental as well as physical. Mrs. Dubose was addicted to painkillers, and she wanted to wean herself off of them before she died. She was having Jem read to her so that she could have a distraction. Jem did not know any of this until later, but Atticus knew that he could explain it and Jem would understand. “You rarely win, but sometimes you do. Mrs. Dubose won, all ninety-eight pounds of her. According to her views, she died beholden to nothing and nobody. She was the bravest person I ever knew.” (112). Mrs. Dubose was an underdog. She was addicted to morphine, but she kicked the habit. What she did took immense courage. Atticus wanted his children to see that sometimes you can win an unwinnable fight, and sometimes just trying to win when it seems impossible is courageous. Atticus himself was facing an uphill battle that would require courage…
Over a couple of weeks Jem had been harassed by an old woman called Mrs. Dubose. Jem had remained calm and had proceeded for weeks to ignore her, however, on one day she insulted his father Atticus for defending in court a negro man named Tom Robinson. This insult outraged Jem, and on that day he returned to Mrs. Dubose’s house and cut the heads of her roses.…
Atticus was always kind to Mrs. Dubose, a vicious, old woman who was ill, however, she was extremely rude to him and his family (133). Despite her rude behavior toward Atticus, he excused her actions by saying that she was “the bravest person I ever knew” and crediting her poor health and addiction of pain medicine. Afterwards, Atticus showed compassion by taking the time out of his own day in order to show respect to Tom Robinson’s wife by personally telling her that her husband had died after being shot dead after trying to escape jail (315). Atticus could have just sent someone else to notify Tom’s wife of his death, but he took time out of his day to do it himself and show respect for Tom and his family. Heroes must be compassionate in order to help others…
Dubose fights to win over her drug addiction and when Miss Maudie’s house burns down. After Mrs. Dubose dies, Atticus tells Jem: “I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It’s when you know you’re licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what” (Lee 116). Mrs. Dubose takes on the challenge to overcome her drug addiction even though it will be very painful and she will soon die. She dies a brave old lady knowing she accomplishes the tough goal to be free of morphine addiction. It takes incredible courage to overcome a lifelong addiction. Great strength and will power is needed to overcome something that someone is battling over for years. In addition, after her house burns down Miss Maudie says to Jem: “Always wanted a smaller house, Jem Finch. Gives me more yard. Just think, I’ll have more room for my azaleas now!” (Lee 77). After a horrible fire, some people might be very mad and pity themselves. One must admire Miss Maudie for her fantastic attitude, humor, and bravery during a very tragic time. Clearly it takes courage to win over an addiction and to start over after a great…
Dubose’s flowers. Mrs. Henry Lafayette Dubose lives two houses up the street from the Finch family. There are several rumors about her, including that she keeps a “CSA pistol concealed among her numerous shawls and wraps” (132). Jem and Scout hate her because she is rude to them, and scolds and insults them every time they go by her house. One time, Mrs. Dubose calls Atticus a ‘n-lover’. Jem gets furious and in retaliation, snatches Scout’s baton, running “flailing wildly up the steps into Mrs. Dubose’s front yard. … He [Jem] … cuts the tops off every camellia bush Mrs. Dubose owned, until the ground was littered” (137). When Atticus gets home that evening, he steps one foot in the door and yells to Jem to see if he was responsible for Mrs. Dubose’s yard. When Jem responds that he is, Atticus berates him and says he has to go over to her house and read to her for two hours everyday for a month. Atticus wants to make sure his kids have a consequence for when they do something not scrupulous/unethical, so they will learn from it and not do it again. As Jem reads to Mrs. Dubose, he and Scout witness the old, dying woman’s battle against her morphine addiction and learn the true meaning of courage. “It’s when you know you’re licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what”, Atticus tells them (149). Even if Jem did not cut her flowers, Atticus would have still made Jem and Scout go read to her because Atticus vicariously wanted them to see the true meaning of courage from the bravest person he knew before she…
Dubose. In the book Miss. Dubose reveals herself as a nasty old lady,but in reality she showed real signs of courage leading up to her death. When she died Atticus sits down and explains what happened to Miss. Dubose to Scout and Jem. “She said she was going to leave this world beholden to nothing and nobody. I wanted to show you what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hands”( 148). Atticus reveals to both Scout and Jem that Miss. Dubose showed real courage because even though she was addicted to morphine she wanted to live the rest of her life clean. Miss. Dubose wanted to not let the addiction of morphine have a hold on her entire life;this showed Jem and Scout what the true meaning of courage is. In addition, Atticus is a living example of courage not only through his work with the Tom Robinson case,but also his reaction to Bob Ewell’s threats. During the trial Atticus had been encountered by Mr. Ewell and was harassed by him. When Mr. Ewell accosts Atticus in the street and spits on him Atticus simply responds,“ I wish Bob Ewell wouldn’t chew tobacco”(217) He again demonstrates to Scout that it is not proper to act in the same manner as Bob Ewell. He does something much more courageous by walking away from Bob’s threats. Though his understanding of which battles to fight and always doing the right thing no matter what it costs…
With Jem destroying her flowers he reads to her and so does Scout. Seeing Mrs. Dubose lying in bed, looking unhealthy, Scout states that she feels sorry to Mrs.Dubose. Feeling sympathetic, but this is related to empathy:”In the corner of the room was a brass bed, and in the bed was Mrs. Dubose. I wondered if Jem’s activities had put her there, and for a moment I felt sorry for her”(141). In the first impression of Mrs.Dubose Jem and Scout view her as woman with no boundaries to her words and is the most racist woman. But once Scout sees Mrs.Dubose to the brink of death she starts to feel sorry for her. Later long in the story Scout and Jem learn that Mrs.Dubose was a mouthing addict and was battling her addiction with Jem reading to her. This shows how Scout moral education changed over time and how she is now starting to see racism and ignorance in Maycomb…