Examples Of Coexism In To Kill A Mockingbird

Ms.Dubose was an old lady down the block from Jem and Scout, that would shout out malicious things to them about themselves and their family. One example of Jem being childish and acting immature is, that when Ms.Dubose said Atticus was “lawing for a n******” he teared up her precious camellias. This shows how he was immature and couldn't control his actions and made a rash decision when faced with rude comments. Following this destruction, Jem’s punishment is to read every day, including Saturdays, for two hours at Mrs. Dubose’s house. Which he loathes doing because she is a senile old women, who makes rude remarks every time he comes over. At the end of the chapter, Atticus reveals to Jem that she was addicted to morphine and that the reading was part of her effort to wean off of her addiction. Jem receives a gift from Ms.Dubose which is a single camellia. This revels Jem feels surprised, guilty, and saddened when he sees her gift. The camellia was a reminder for the reasons he spent time with Mrs. Dubose, but it was also was a sign for him to remember her by. Atticus teaches Jem a very important lesson that not all heroes use guns and weapons, but have the real courage and strength to fight for what they want to get. “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 see it through no matter what. We finally see when Jem starts to grow up and give things thought when “He picked up the camellia…I saw him fingering the white petals” This shows how Jem has empathy for Ms.Dubose and realizes that she was fighting and had admiration for her. Jem matures and shows how he can be understanding about

Dubose. She represents racism which is the main point in the book To Kill a Mockingbird, “‘ Your fathers no better than the niggers and trash he works for!’” (135). Here Mrs. Dubose officially describes her ways of thinking. She believes that black people are nothing and that they worthless. She uses strong diction in order to describe her perspective of Atticus and his work. Through her and her symbolism Jem and Scout learn about racism. Racism is a cruel thing and affects the people who encounter it. “ I had become almost accustomed to hearing insults aimed at Atticus,” (136). Scout has become used to the remarks given about Atticus and their family. Although the children are used to it that does not mean they aren’t annoyed by it. Many people took racism as a way of life whereas the Finches saw it as an injustice. Just like this quote, eventually Jem could not handle Mrs. Dubose and destroyed her garden. He did something about what he viewed as an injustice by Mrs.

Atticus makes Jem think about how he would feel if he was in Mrs. Dubose place, and what he would do. Mrs. Dubose really did no damage and because of her illness, Atticus makes it clear to Jem that she represents bravery, and that she was tougher than anyone he knew. Day after day, as Jem kept reading to Mrs. Dubose, he felt empathy towards her and matured as a person.

Mrs. Dubose is an old lady who lives two doors up the street from the Finch's house. Atticus' son, Jem destroyed Mrs. Dubose's flowers because she had said disrespectful things about Atticus which brought out Jem's anger. Even though Atticus was very upset, he does not believe violence is the appropriate way to approach any situation considering it does not teach you valuable lessons. Instead, Jem's punishment was to read to Mrs. Dubose every day for the month and in the end taught him the true meaning of courage. Atticus demonstrates that holding your head up and fists down will save you from more complicated situations. Another example would be when disrespectful Bob Ewell spat on Atticus' face because Atticus made Bob look like a fool during his testimony. Atticus stayed calm during the whole situation. He held his head high and walked away during the scene. Following this further, Atticus sets honorable examples for his children. He believes all people have goodness in their hearts no matter how cruel or heartless they act, even if their status was low, they would have generosity and kindness inside. The first impression of Mrs. Dubose was described as a rude lady. She says to Scout, “Don't you say hey to me, you ugly girl! You say good afternoon, Mrs. Dubose!” (Lee 133). However, Mrs. Dubose is really a kind lady who causes no harm once you get the kindness out of her. In addition, Atticus compliments her and treats her as he would treat any

From her front porch, Jem just sees her as a bitter old lady however, once he gets close up to her he realizes what bad condition she is in and how frail she is. The fact that Jem does not know about Mrs. Dubose’s illness also shows her courage because she is fighting her horrible illness without the support of her community. After Mrs. Dubose dies, Atticus reveals that Mrs. Dubose wanted to die free and that she is the bravest person he has ever known. During a conversation between Atticus and Jem, Atticus says “I wanted you to see what real courage is... It’s when you know you’re licked but you begin anyway...

As the predominant idol to Jem and Scout over the course of the novel, Atticus demonstrates that the ambitions people achieve deserve commemoration, even if their activities and stances are contentious. After vandalizing the entirety of Mrs. Dubose’s camellia bush garden, Jem attempts to justify his stunt to Atticus. Citing Mrs. Dubose’s appalling insults directed towards his father, Jem firmly believes that he is vindicated from any form of punishment. Consequently, Atticus makes it mandatory for Jem to read for Mrs. Dubose for over a month. After Jem finished his exercise, Atticus informs his children of Mrs. Dubose’s death roughly one month later. Revealing that Mrs. Dubose had an addiction to morphine, Atticus highlights that she retained

Jem learns from visiting Mrs. Dubose that not everything is how it seems at first glance. He also learns the value of courage and how it will later affect him as he matures into an adult. From what is described, the readers can draw a conclusion that Mrs. Dubose is impolite and bitter towards the children and is not afraid to speak her thoughts about Atticus defending Tom Robinson. As a result, Jem carries out his anger by destroying her flowers. He is later punished by Atticus by having to read to Mrs. Dubose certain days of the week for a period of time and work on her flowers. Through this process Jem is able to control his impulses and show kindness to those around him even if he does necessarily want to. This shows that Jem is becoming more of a young adult rather than a child. He also realizes that Mrs. Dubose is actually a woman of

In the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, there are several external and internal conflicts. The most common conflict throughout the book is character versus character. For example, when Scout finally entered the first grade her teacher, Miss Caroline, is not happy with Scout because she already knew how to read which created a battle between Scout and Miss Caroline’s opinions. Scout also had a spark of conflict with Atticus when she demanded that she will not attend school anymore because of Miss Caroline; Atticus disagreed. Character versus nature is another external conflict demonstrated in the novel. For example, Miss Maudie is conflicted with fire as exemplified when the narrator says, “We stood watching the street fill with men and cars while

Atticus’s son, Jem, finds trouble with Mrs. Dubose; this caused a change in her character. Jem becomes angry with Mrs. Dubose because of her comments about Atticus to him and Scout; out of anger Jem “cut the tops off every camellia bush Mrs. Dubose owned, until the ground was littered with green buds and leaves” (103). When Atticus became aware of Jem’s actions he sent him down the street to apologize to Mrs. Dubose for what he had done. As a punishment, Mrs. Dubose asked that Jem to come to her home and read to her every day for a month. As asked Jem did bringing Scout along each day. After a month had went by Jem was asked to continue coming to read to her. Jem was not a fan of the idea but he did not want to disappoint Atticus so he did as he told him. Later, after Mrs. Dubose passes away, Jem is informed of why the reading was important to Mrs. Dubose. She had a morphine addiction and reading to her was helping her to break her habit. Jem

Dubose through the author’s use of Conflict, Irony, and Imagery. Jem’s coming of age experience develops when he gets furious with Mrs. Dubose’s attitude towards him and his family, but then realizes why she’s always been a rude, old lady through Atticus’s explanation. It also develops when Jem is asked to read to Mrs. Dubose which is something that was very unexpected. His coming of age experience develops when Jem and Scout are with Mrs. Dubose closer than they ever have been with her. The point, though is Jem and Scout think of Mrs. Dubose as an old, horrible lady and they don’t really like her for what she has done to them and their family. After they discover an explanation from Atticus saying that the things she does is all because of her morphine addiction, they start to understand why does so. If people knew about Mrs. Dubose’s problem and her addiction, then maybe they wouldn’t think of her as the old lady they think of

Through her determination to die free of morphine, Mrs. Dubose suffers tremendously from withdrawal showing that mental courage is more difficult to obtain than physical courage. Mrs. Dubose is a morphine addict who appears to be a racist based off of her interactions with Jem and Scout regarding Atticus’ defense of Tom Robinson. In a state of anger, Jem destroys Mrs. Dubose's camellias, and has to read to her for a whole month as a punishment. During this time, the children witnessed the pain that Mrs. Dubose has to endure from not using morphine, yet they could not see her goal and considered her to be disgusting, rather than to show her sympathy for her decision. By the end of her life, Mrs. Dubose has “died beholden to nothing and nobody” (149), she experienced true freedom before she passed away. Mrs. Dubose did

Dubose to teach a lesson of courage and strength in a form that is not immediately clear to the reader. While most of the town sees Mrs. Dubose as a crotchety old woman it later becomes clear to the reader that she was never a truly bad lady. After her death Atticus explains to his children, “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… She was the bravest person I ever knew” (128). Mrs. Dubose’s addiction affects only her temporary behavior. While she does not approve of Atticus, most of the insults said to his children are not sincere. If she truly believes her words, she will not allow them into her life. Atticus does not want his children referring to his shooting of the mad dog as a courageous act. The “real courage” he is speaking of is facing a situation with knowledge that negative consequences will occur. Mrs. Dubose knows that ending her addiction will cause pain in her life, but she continues to do what she believes is right. As a result, her fortitude is passed on to Jem and Scout. She was born as a good person, and she died as a good person. Additionally, Mrs. Dubose is an example of determination and tenacity. Atticus explains to Jem, “She meant to break herself of it before she died, and that’s what she did” (127). When she realizes she is addicted to morphine, it is Mrs. Dubose’s intention to free herself of it before her death. She recognizes a flaw in her life that needs to be fixed. Jem and Scout provide distraction to help achieve this. With their assistance, she is able to survive longer periods of time between each administration of her addictive painkiller. Most people would choose to surrender and die relatively free of suffering, but Mrs. Dubose continues to fight until she reaches her end goal. She pays little attention to her physical pain, but more to following her moral values and overcoming something she believes

Dubose to show that people are essentially good. “You know, she was a great lady….She was the bravest person I ever knew” (Lee, 115-116). Despite her ugly and outspoken racism Mrs. Dubose is a courageous and strong woman. She forgave Jem for ruining her flowers even though the flowers were very meaningful and special to her. “She was a lady. She had her own view about things, a lot different from mine, maybe...son, I wanted you to read to her because I wanted you to learn something from her. 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. You rarely win, but sometimes you do. Mrs. Dubose won, all ninety-eight pounds of her. She broke her addiction to morphine, which was a very hard thing to do. She was the bravest person I ever knew.” (Lee, 149). She could’ve taken the easy way out and died pain free, but she decided that she was going to reach her goal no matter what. Atticus showed his integrity by not responding back with hateful comments back to Mrs. Dubose whenever she insulted him. Despite Mrs. Dubose’s racist comments towards the Finch family, she was a forgiving and kind lady till the

The motif of black and white is shown through the vast differences between the racist, not racist, and Scout. Lee’s complexity is shown in a conversation between the children, “I ain't ever heard of a nigger snowman, I said, he won't be black for long, he grunted” (55). This quote uses juxtaposition to compare Scout and Jem's morals,

Conflict in To Kill a Mockingbird Both internal and external conflicts are heavily prevalent throughout Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, whether it be Atticus vs. himself, Atticus vs. society, Tom Robinson vs. the jury, or even Scout vs. Boo Radley. As the novel progresses, each of these conflicts is revealed or intensified. In the case of Tom Robinson vs. Maycomb’s jury, each testimony from an outside force intensifies the trial to a new standard, and brings a new perspective to it. In the courthouse, Tom Robinson responds to Mr. Gilmer’s question as to why he helped Mayella with chores for free, “ Yes suh.