Atticus switched on the ceiling light in the living room and found us there, frozen still. He carried my baton in one hand; it's filthy yellow tassel trailed on the rug. He held out his other hand; it contained fat camellia buds. “‘Jem,’ he said, ‘are you responsible for this?’ ‘Yes sir.’ ‘Why’d you do it?’ …show more content…
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