To Kill A Mockingbird Values

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

Atticus has the choice to defend Tom Robinson. Atticus accepts the case and the town of Maycomb shames him. In the novel, Atticus says “But do you think I could face my children otherwise? … I hope and pray I can get Jem and Scout through it without bitterness, and most of all, without catching Maycomb’s usual disease. Why reasonable people go stark raving mad when anything involving a Negro comes up… I just hope my children come to me for their answers instead of listening to the town.”(117).

Jem proves Mrs. Dubose’s courage when he describes her after seeing her up close for the first time by saying: “but she’s so nasty. She has fits or something. She spits a lot” (124). This quote describes Mrs. Dubose’s will-power; she perseveres through the negative side effects of quitting her addiction even though she is very close to dying anyway. Jem does not know about Mrs. Dubose’s sickness yet but learns that everything is not always what it seems.

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

The significance of Jem and Scout attending church with Calpurnia is large because the church that they are going to is for colored people. During this time period segregation was in play, so the blacks and whites each had their own separate facilities for events. Jem and Scout usually go to the church for white folks, but due to the fact that Atticus is currently away they accepted Calpurnia’s offer to attend her church. The kids willingly going with Chalpurnia on their own accord shows that Atticus taught Jem and Scout to not judge people on the color of their skin. Although the people at the church welcome the siblings, there is one particular black woman that is against having them there. As an effect of Reverend Sykes threatening to church her, Lula is contentious towards other people. After Zeebo reassures Jem, Scout, and Calpurnia that there was nothing to worry about with Lula, Calpurnia leads the two to the church door, where they eventually begin mass inside. This is significant because although most white and colored folks don’t get along, the people of First Purchase and Jem and Scout get along just

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 wants Jem to come read to her even though Mrs. Dubose clearly despises him. However through Mrs. Dubose Lee provides the reader with evidence as to why it is incorrect to form impressions of people hastily without thought and consideration. Lee does so by revealing that Mrs. Dubose was not necessarily as vicious as the reader first thinks. In fact she asks that Jem read to her, and he does so every day for an entire month. However Jem continues to strongly dislike her because she still continues to criticize him and his family; however, he persists. Despite his personal hatred for Mrs. Dubose, Jem battles his emotions and continues going to read to her. Jem learns from Atticus that Mrs. Dubose passed away and she had left him a camellia flower inside the candy box she gave him; his initial reaction is one of utter confusion and he is unable to understand the reason behind her actions because he had always believed that Mrs. Dubose disliked him. He is surprised when she leaves him something. Atticus explains to Jem that Mrs.Dubose was a morphine addict and her erratic behavior was a result of withdrawals. Jem never knew this, and this information overwhelms him both physically and emotionally. What Jem thought he had seen on the outside as bitter hate and anger was in reality just a thin layer of pain, which was hiding the true strength and courage, which she had within her. Mrs. Dubose had

In the book "To Kill a Mockingbird" one of the main characters Atticus Finch defends a black man named Tom Robinson in court for good reasons even though everyone thinks he is wrong to do so. The book is by Harper lee and is written from the first person perspective of the main character who is a little girl named scout. The court case is between the Ewell family and Tom Robinson who they are accusing of beating and raping their oldest daughter Mayella Ewell. Atticus is defending Tom Robinson as his lawyer and I think it makes sense. Even though there are some reasons Atticus shouldn't be defending Tom Robinson but the reasons to are far greater.

I believe that Atticus did the proper thing by defending Tom Robinson during the trial. Though it was controversial throughout Maycomb County, he served as an exceptional example for his children by accepting the case and genuinely defending a black man. There were many downsides when Atticus agreed to take the case appointed to him. Initially, his reputation and social status took a blow from this incident. This lead to backlash and insults from people across the community. The Finchs' had one of the highest social statuses in the town, for Atticus had a suitable job with a reputable name. (Lee PAGE) When word about this incident spread, many people disapproved. This was evident when many of Scout's classmates taunted her about her father being "a nigger lover", which they unmistakably picked up from their parents. (Lee PAGE) Atticus' family members were not too pleased with this decision as well. In the text, Francis repeats what his grandmother said, saying "[Atticus] ruinin‘ the family, that’s what he’s doin’". (Lee PAGE) Additionally, Mrs. Dubose had several degrading comments to say about the

“Scout, simply by the nature of the work, every lawyer gets at least one case in his lifetime that affects him personally. This one's mine, I guess.” (Lee, 101) The following quotation establishes the reason why Atticus has chosen to defend Tom Robinson during the trial. Atticus explains to his children that he knows he doesn’t stand a chance, but he will try anyways, encouraging Scout and Jem to stand up for what they believe is right. “‘Lemme tell you somethin' now, Billy,’ a third said, ‘you know the court appointed him to defend this nigger.’ ‘Yeah, but Atticus aims to defend him. That's what I don't like about it.’”(Lee, 218) Despite what people might think, Atticus continues to go along with what he believes is right even when people are judging

Atticus should have defend Tom Robinson because he was being a good example, he knew Tom was innocent, and he wouldn't be able to live with himself if he didn’t defend him. This matters to Tom Robinson because he could go to prison if Atticus didn't help

Atticus accepts the Tom Robinson case fully aware of the prejudice, but he finds that if he did not try he would lose important qualities that make up who he is. “...if I didn’t [defend Tom Robinson] I couldn’t hold my head up in this town, I couldn’t represent this town in the legislature, I couldn’t even tell you or Jem not to do something again.” (Lee, 100) Atticus proves that ignoring the case would change who he was and make him a disgrace his to profession and the family. His integrity, pride, and honor would be jeopardized, something he cared more about then what other people

The first part of To Kill A Mockingbird introduces the Finch family and their daily lives. The father in the family is an attorney whose only care is the moral rights of others. His views aren't biased or prejudice, he only sees humans who deserve as much respect as they should. He gets a case of a black man being accused of rape towards a white woman. He explains to Scout as this, “..but there’s been some high talk around town to the effect that I shouldn’t be defending this man (Lee 75).” Ever since Atticus has been appointed to the Tom Robinson case, most of the conservative white people in Maycomb County found it a little dishonoring since the defendant was an African American. "Simply because we were licked a hundred years before we started is no reason for us not to try to win," Atticus said (Lee

Dubose, one of our neighbors, certainly was a very peculiar woman. She was very old, and seemed very mean and stingy to Jem and I. She also insulted Atticus on numerous occasions for his standing in the trial, and that made Jem so furious that he “cut the tops off every camellia bush Mrs. Dubosed owned”(103). Of course, when Atticus found out about this, there were consequences. Jem was to “come every afternoon after school and Saturdays and read to her aloud for two hours”(105). I chose to go with Jem, just so that he wouldn’t be alone, but that was not the only reason as I soon would find out. I realized that “each day we had been staying a little longer at Mrs. Dubose’s, and that she was well into one of her fits by the time it sounded”(109). At the time, I didn’t understand why this was the case, and neither did Jem. However, Atticus later explained to us that Mrs. Dubose “was a morphine addict”(111). That drug was supposedly for pain, but before Mrs. Dubose died, “she said she meant to break herself of it”(111). Her effort of getting clean of the drug was not a useless one and she “die[d] free”(111). To this day, I still believe that Mrs. Dubose was a great woman, and that she truly knew what it meant to be

"No matter who tries to teach you lessons about life, you won't understand it until you go through it on your own." Lessons are an important part of everyday life. They help people learn through tough times or teach them how to avoid terrible situations. Lessons can be passed down from adults to their children, or other important people in their lives. In the book To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Scout understands not everyone is fortunate, there is more than meets the eye, and that you can not trust rumors.