Mrs Dube In To Kill A Mockingbird

Ms. Dubose assumes the worst about Scout from the clothes she wears. For Scout, the sexism of every other woman around her could have made her become a girl who just followed other people’s ideas, instead of thinking for herself. Along with being sexist, Ms. Dubose is racist. She even says ‘Not only a Finch waiting on tables but one in the courthouse lawing for n*****!’ (Lee, 101). Everyone else in the town seems to have the same opinion about Atticus defending an African-American and doesn’t hesitate to use the same offensive words to express their opinion. Ms. Dubose could have offended both women and African-Americans with one simple statement that showed both of her prejudices. She certainly offended one person, Jem, one of the few people in the town who isn’t racist. The way that their opinions clashed was also a factor of how they were raised. Both Jem and Scout were raised by their father, pretty much the only person who was raised in his generation that didn’t have biases against African-Americans. Ms. Dubose was one of the many in this generation who felt like she had a prerogative to think that African-Americans were less than her, and because of her insult, Jem destroyed her flowers, causing even more

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.

Dubose. Jem and Scout hated Mrs. Dubose, she was always disrespectful when they passed by her house. She would yell at them about many different things like their behavior, their father, what they would be when they grew up, them walking to town, and them not having their mother around anymore. Most of her comments were about how Atticus was defending a man of color in court. One day Jem went mad, he grabbed Scout’s baton and ran into the front yard and cut the tops off every camellia bush in sight, he didn't begin to calm down until the ground has green buds and leaves everywhere. Once he was finished trashing Mrs. Dubose’ yard he snapped the baton in half, threw it down, when Scout saw she started screaming. Jem pulled her hair, and kicked her down. When Atticus got home he was disappointed that Jem would do something like that, he told him to go to Mrs. Dubose’ house and talk to her. When Jem came back he said he cleaned for her, said sorry, and said that he would help them grow back. Mrs. Dubose told Jem to come to her house everyday after school and on Saturdays and read to her out loud for two hours for a whole month. On the first day they weren't there for a long time because about half way through it was time for Mrs. Dubose’s medicine, Jessie kicked them out because she had to get the

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

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

The word “n-----” connotes a lesser social status because during this time period an African American was considered a lesser person compared to a white man. This means Mrs. Dubose is saying that Atticus has the same social status as an African American. This made Scout think that Mrs. Dubose is evil just by the way she talked to them. Jem became angry and he destroyed Mrs. Dubose’s flowers, and as a punishment from Atticus, Jem had to read to Mrs. Dubose daily for a month. At the end of every reading session, Ms. Dubose gets a fit, which ends the reading session daily. Comparatively, towards the end of the month, Mrs. Dubose had fewer fits. After Ms. Dubose died, Atticus explains to the kids that “ ‘She said she was going to leave this world beholden to nothing and nobody. Jem, when you’re sick as she was, it’s all right to take anything to make it easier, but it wasn’t all right for her. She said she meant to break herself of it before she died, and that’s what she did’” (148). This quote proves that people should not judge a person evil or innocent without genuinely knowing them. This is shown when Scout first thinks Ms. Dubose is evil just because she yelled at Scout and Jem daily. After the reading sessions, Scout truly understood Ms. Dubose and realized she is a lady that does not back down from a fight. Atticus truly understood her and respects her courage even though they have different ideas. All in all, Ms. Dubose was first judged as evil because

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

In chapter ten of To Kill A Mockingbird, Jem gets angry at what Mrs. Dubose said about him and his family, so takes scouts brand new baton and chops off the top of her camellia buds and then he snaps her baton in half. As Jem and Scout make their way to town Mrs. Dubose who raked them by her wrathful graze, subjected to ruthless interrogation regarding our behavior, and given a melancholy prediction on what we would amount to when we grew up, which was always nothing She criticized how Scout dressed, how Atticus was defend tom, a black man, and how Atticus let them run wild. When Atticus found out that Jem had chopped the top of her bushes off, he made him go apologize to her. Mrs. Dubose then made a request for Jem which was for him to read

Jem hates Mrs.Dubose because of the mean things that she says about Atticus and the trial. After she dies they all learn that she was a morphine addict and that’s why she was always so hostile and negative (for the most part). “ … Son, didn’t you know know what here fits were?’. Jem shook his head ‘Mrs.Dubose was a morphine addict,” (Lee 147). Atticus helps Jem step into Mrs.Dubose shoes as he tries to understand what she was going through. “She said she was going to leave this world beholden to nothing and nobody. Jem, when you’re sick as she was, it’s all right to take anything to make it easier, but it wasn’t all right for her. She said meant to break herself of it before she died, and that’s what she did,” (Lee 148). Now that Jem has this information, he has a chance to really internalize it. Next Atticus’s influence helps Scout to empathy for Mayella during the

In the novel To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Mrs.Dubose gets upset with the Finch’s multiple times. She gets upset with Atticus for sticking up for Tom Robinson. Mrs.Dubose also reacts rudely to Scout for not wearing a dress. This excerpt reveals that Mrs.Dubose is an old fashioned and quite nosy neighbor. Mrs.Dubose is revealed as an old fashioned neighbor because she was raised to dress nicely growing up.

Mrs.Dubose roared out “Your fathers no better than the n***** and the thrash he works for”. ( Chap. 11) This revels that Mrs. Dubose doesn’t give attention to Jem and Scout on what she says Even knowing the fact that she is very disrespectful and teaching them bad words. It becomes clear that Jem and Scout were exposed to this incident

Mrs. Dubose displays acts of personal courage in her honesty and strength. When Jem and Scout walk past her house to go meet Atticus on his way home,

Harper Lee’s Mrs Dubose is scary and rough to the children, especially in chapter 11 (pp. 114-128,) when she not only yells “don’t you say hey to me, you ugly girl! You say good afternoon, Mrs Dubose! (pp. 115)” to Scout but also disapproves of the children referring to their father as Atticus (pp.115,) doesn’t like that Scout wears overalls (pp. 117,) and wants Jem sent to reform school since she believes he had “broken down Maudie Atkinson’s scuppernong arbor (pp.116.)” Her impact is extreme on the children as she has old-fashioned values and believes they need to still act like children should, example being telling Jean-Louise or Scout “you should be in a dress and camisole young lady...what has this world come to when a Finch goes against his raising (pp.117,)” explaining the old town values of

The audacious actions executed by Mrs. Dubose are used to illustrate how she is a fundamental character when it comes to demonstrating true courage. Throughout the years Mrs. Dubose was alive she was unafraid to speak her mind knowing that others had their own views and opinions they would later express. The readers are made aware of this during the time when Mrs. Dubose was speaking to Scout and Jem saying,