Atticus Finch Monologue

I’m dying and I know it. I also know there ain’t nothing I can do about it. That’s why I have this morphine. Keeps me from feeling the death coming for me. Knowing it’s coming and not having control over makes me hate everything. And those wild kids Jeremy and Scout always running around don’t help any. Scout don’t even act like a lady. She runs around like one of the boys. I hate it all. Then one day, that father of theirs, Atticus, changed things for me.

I was sitting on my front porch when Jeremy and Scout walked by presumably on their way to town. Thought they were playing hooky. Then talking to Scout I said, “What are you doing in those overalls? You should be in a dress and camisole, young lady! You’ll grow up waiting on tables if somebody doesn’t change your ways-a Finch waiting on tables at the O.K Café.” I laughed a little then continued yelling at them. “Not only a Finch waiting on tables but one in the courthouse lawing for niggers! Yes indeed,

what has this world come to when a Finch goes against his raising? I’ll tell you! Your father’s no better than the niggers and trash he works for!” I suppose that Atticus had raised them a little better than I had first thought ‘cause neither of them did anything. They just walked on.
After a while of no one else that I could yell at walking by, I went back inside. I just sat in my wheelchair trying to decide how much closer to death I was now and deciding what other harsh things I could yell at those darn kids. Then out of nowhere, I hear yelling and screaming right outside my front door. I didn’t think nothing about it at the moment. Figured it was just those stupid kids playing some game. Some few minutes later the screaming finally stopped. I waited a while just to make sure that the kids were gone, then went outside to see if they had done anything to my yard since it sounded like they were a lot closer to my door than just on the road. I opened my door slowly. There was nobody out there but as soon as I saw my yard I knew I was going to have to call Atticus. Those kids had destroyed my camellia bushes. They were going to pay for this. I wheeled myself back into my house and called Atticus.
That night when Atticus was on his way home from work, he stopped by my house. I heard him knock on my door and I let him in. “You got to do something ‘bout that boy Atticus.” I told him simply. “He’s a nuisance.” “Yes ma’am. I will see that he is punished.” I wheeled myself to the door and watched him leave. Right before he got out of my yard he picked up a piece of a destroyed bush. I watched him walk down the road and soon he was out of sight. I assume Jeremy’s “punishment” was just coming to talk to me ‘cause that’s all that Atticus told him to do that night, so I laid out the punishment instead. I had him clean up the mess in my yard then told him he would have to work on them every Saturday. I knew some of the rumors about me and I knew by the way Jem was shuffling his feet that he was nervous being in my house and being around me. With that in mind, I told him that I wanted him to come read to me for two hours every afternoon for a month. I missed having a kid around and I couldn’t see well enough to read anything. I figured this was enough punishment for the poor kid. Then he left.
The next day I didn’t feel too great so I just laid in bed. I was so much closer to death than I wanted to be. It was a harsh truth to except. I heard Jessie, my nurse, open the door and say “Is that you, Jem Finch? You got your sister with you. I don’t know-“ I cut her off by yelling at her to let them both in. They came in and sat down in a couple of chairs that I have in my room. “Come closer.” I told him. He did then started the book I had set out for him, Ivanhoe. It had only been twenty minutes and I started to feel again. I knew they would be rushed out by Jessie soon since she would have to give me morphine, but I was enjoying Jeremy read to me. Then the alarm clock went off and I hoped that Jessie didn’t hear it. Unfortunately, she did.
The next month was the same.

Everyday Jeremy and Scout would come by. I would question them and talk bad about their father. Then Jeremy would read to me until the alarm clock went off. One day was different though. Atticus came by while Jeremy was reading. “I was coming home from the office and didn’t see the children. I thought they might still be here.” “Do you know what time it is, Atticus? Exactly fourteen minutes past five. The alarm clock is set for five-thirty. I want you to know that.” Every day the alarm clock was set for a few minutes later. I was trying to not be dependent on the morphine before I died so I was slowly taking myself off of it with Jessie’s help of course. I knew I was extremely close to death and I wanted Jeremy to read to me every day until I died. “I have a feeling that Jem’s reading days are numbered,” said Atticus. He knew too. He knew I was close to death. So I told him just how close I thought without letting the children know. “Only a week longer, I think just to make

sure.”
Before I died, I had Jessie call Atticus because I had something I wanted to give to Jeremy. I had grown quite fond of the boy. He wasn’t so much of a nuisance to me anymore. I had Jessie put a part of a camellia bush in a box for him. I wanted him to know that I forgave him and that it was all ok. When Atticus got there and I made sure that Jeremy would get the box, I let go.