“Strength and growth come only through continuous effort and struggle.” (Napoleon Hill) Napoleon Hill demonstrates that in times of crisis, people’s ethics change, and they become susceptible to malignant ideas, poisoning their thoughts. In her novel, To Kill A Mockingbird, Harper Lee creates Mrs. Dubose, an old, strong-minded woman who doesn’t mentally destabilize and lose those valuable qualities while fighting an addiction. In To Kill a Mockingbird, Mrs. Dubose doesn’t fall a slave to pressure, and keeps her grumpy personality and appearance, but shifts greatly in her moral compass..
Throughout the beginning of the novel, Mrs. Dubose’s appearance resembles a witch; her personality creates unpleasant vibes, and her moral compass becomes
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thrown off because of her morphine addiction and illness. “She was very old” (132), her “arthritic finger” (135), and “her wrathful gaze” (132) flaunt her negative and rather unattractive self. “She was vicious” (133). Mrs. Dubose had a grouchy, rude, and snarky attitude, constantly criticizing the children for their actions and making harsh comments- including uncalled for language against Atticus, such as, “‘Your father’s no better than the niggers and trash he works for!”(135). The lady kept a vulgar personality which makes her all but a pleasure to keep in people’s presence. “She’s an old lady and she’s ill’” (133). The commonly repeated line from the book lays down the supposed reasons for Mrs.Dubose’s actions. Atticus often tells Jem this to warn him of the war she faces. The fact that she says these things because of her illness proves her ethics disappear due to her battle. The middle of To Kill A Mockingbird portrays a Mrs.
Dubose that has changed very little. She doesn't undergo any notable shifts in appearance, personality, or moral compass. The elder displays a consistent presentation of herself. “She was horrible. Her face was the color of a dirty pillowcase, and the corners of her mouth glistened with wet, which inched like a glacier down the deep grooves enclosing her chin. Old-age liver spots dotted her cheeks, and her pale eyes had black pinpoints pupils. Her hands were knobby, and the cuticles were grown up over her fingernails. Her bottom plate was not in, and her upper lip protruded…” (142). Harper Lee paints a picture of Mrs. Dubose and how she doesn't lose her rather disgusting looks; when the children try to explain this to Atticus, he justifies the comments as, “‘She can’t help that. When people are sick they don’t look nice sometimes”’(143). Lee also suggests how Mrs. Dubose continues her spree of unrelenting rudeness. “‘So you brought that dirty little sister of yours, did you?’ was her greeting” (141) explains how her charisma went unchanged because she kept a verbally abusive lifestyle. The phrase “she's old and ill” (140) repeats throughout the chapter by Atticus. He uses the excuse to explain why she looks the way she acts. She gripes about Atticus “...and… [his] nigger-loving propensities,” (144) constantly. The father quickly says that she is mentally unstable and that she doesn't understand what comes out of her …show more content…
mouth. Mrs.
Dubose experiences no developments through the book in appearance and personality, but greatly in moral compass. Mrs. Dubose experiences no developments through the book in appearance and personality, but greatly in moral compass. “‘She’s dead, son,’ said Atticus. ‘She died a few-minutes ago’” (147). At the end of the novel Mrs. Dubose dies; her appearances do not technically change, but she likely loses color to her body. The elders personality still doesn’t change. “‘Don’t you mutter at me, boy! You hold up your head and say yes ma’am. Don’t guess you feel like holding it up, though, with your father where he is’” (146). The author demonstrates how she remains consistent in her personality because she still makes rude comments which are unnecessary. Unlike personality and appearance Mrs. Dubose’s moral compass turns around completely after removing the drugs she became addicted to from her life. “‘She said she was going to leave this world beholden to nothing and nobody. Jem, when your 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’... ‘Did she die free?’ asked Jem. ‘As mountain air,’” (148). Mrs. Dubose struggles with a morphine addiction “...for years…” (147) which screwed up her moral compass. The passage explains that the lady died independent, and that she had enough sense to know that a addiction to drugs was wrong and that
she should fight the enslavement before she died; this makes clearer her ethics and morals. Throughout Mrs. Dubose’s appearance, she experiences no changes in appearance and personality, but a large transformation in moral compass. Lee creates a character which only appears in one chapter, but builds Jem as a person later in the novel. Mrs. Dubose, unlike others, had the strength to fight her illness and keep those morals while battling her addiction. Her ethics do not change, nor personality, and neither appearance. People like Mrs.Dubose set an example of the mental strength we should, as humans, develop and the mind-sets needed for a mentally strong individual.
People are always influenced by family members. Sometimes this influence is positive and sometimes it is negative, yet no matter what, it will change a person’s life. Change can be caused by that person fitting into the ways of a household, or be forced to act differently in the presence of others. Either way, that person will never be the same again. In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, characters are constantly being influenced by family members. Aunt Alexandra, started off as a rude and bossy woman, but as she became closer to Atticus, Jem, and Scout, she changed into a more loving and compassionate person. In To Kill a Mockingbird, Aunt Alexandra is influenced by the Finches during her stay at their home.
Frances O'Grady, the first woman to be General Secretary of the Trades Union of the UK once said "You just wish sometimes that people would treat you like a human being rather than seeing your gender first and who you are second." To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee was about how evil human behavior can change people for the worse in many different cases for example Boo Radley and Tom Robinson. Both were hurt by the evil doings of others around them. Boo by his own father and Tom by the Ewells and their supporters. Scout and Jem's father Atticus was a young black man named Tom Robinson's lawyer in the trial after he was falsely accused by the Ewells who said the he raped 19 year old Mayella Ewell. Sadly he was charged with rape and sentenced
Mrs. Dubose is a bitter, old lady that is extremely rude to Scout and Jem, yelling dirty thing at them everytime they pass by her house. Jem hatred for that woman was so short, that one day he grabbed Scout’s baton and lost his temper, Scout explains that “He did not begin to calm down until he had cut the tops off every camellia bush Mrs. Dubose owned…” (137). As a punishment for his sudden outrage, Mrs. Dubose asks that he read for her everyday and they learn things about her along the way. They described that “...From time to time she would open her mouth wide...cords of saliva would collect at her lips...Her mouth seemed to have private existence of its own” (143). Later on in the chapter, Atticus reveals that she was a morphine addict
By fighting with her head, it can save Scout from a lot of trouble. One of the most valuable life lessons in To Kill a Mockingbird is about courage. Courage is not always physical, it can be mental too. After Mrs. Dubose passes away, Atticus tells Jem she was the bravest person he knew. Atticus says," According to Mrs. Dubose views, she died beholden to nothing and nobody” (page 149).
Jem starts to understand the true meaning of courage after Mrs. Dubose dies. Although Mrs. Dubose despised Atticus, Jem had seen past her negativities and considered her a very brave woman. This is because she died of a morphine addiction and decided to leave the world not belonging to anyone or anything. She had stopped taking her morphine, which meant her death would be slow and extremely painful, but she persevered. Atticus wanted to remove the image from Jem’s head regarding courage as a “man with a gun” and described it in chapter 11, page 112 as, “Courage...it’s when you know you’re licked before you begin but you begin anyways and you see it through no matter what.” This incid...
Atticus Finch demonstrates both moral and physical courage through his decisions of taking on and fighting Tom Robinson’s case, despite all the critics and setbacks, by putting his own life at risk to protect his client and doing all in his power to bring justice. In conclusion, true courage is the ability to confront something even if one is “licked” from the start. Tom Robinson, Mrs. Dubose, and Atticus Finch all display real courage throughout Harper Lee’s novel To Kill a Mockingbird. Tom Robinson, being an African-American, living in a prejudiced town and having a crippled arm, still helped Mayella, gave a truthful testimony and tried to escape prison. Mrs. Dubose courageously overcame her morphine addiction despite her age and pain.
Dubose was not very important in the grand scheme of things but her actions towards the children taught them a lesson. Near the end of Mrs. Dubose's life, she made Jem read to her for varied amounts of time even though Jem did not want to because he felt as though Mrs. Dubose was not a very nice person. It was told to Jem later that, “Mrs. Dubose was a morphine addict” (Lee 147), and that Jem reading to her was how, “she meant to break herself of it before she died” (Lee 148). This dishonest deception in the novel was how Jem came to realize that what his actions with Mrs. Dubose were not a punishment but a safe haven for Mrs. Dubose. She may have deceived Jem but it was for a good reason. It would have made her death a lot harder on Jem if he would have know about her addiction and how his actions were affecting
He tells Scout that “you never really understand someone until you consider their point of view” and that if she does “[she will] get along a lot better with all kinds of folks” (Lee 39). This quote shows his kindness, because it displays that he is always trying to look at the other’s points of view. This validates his kindness since he takes the effort to not offend people. In the eleventh chapter of “To Kill a Mockingbird” Mrs. Lafayette Dubose, an old lady living in the Finch’s neighborhood, insults at Scout and Jem whenever they pass by. After one of these incidents Atticus just tells her that she “[looks] like a picture” (Lee 133). Even though Mrs. Dubose is insulting his children, he replies with good manners, and compliments her. Because of Atticus’s decisions his children have an outstanding role model to look up to, which leads them to becoming more
As a child grows, many people influence their development as a person. Some people impact more than others, and a select few really leave their mark. In Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird,” several characters play this role. Among them, Miss Maudie Atkinson, a woman who proves herself a strong character, prevails as the one who has the greatest impact on Scout Finch, the protagonist of this novel. As Scout matures and grows up, her views on the world around her change. Through subtle yet effective ways, Miss Maudie teaches Scout many life lessons about being humble, judging, and attitude, all of which ultimately have a great effect on the kind of person Scout develops into and her outlook on the world.
From the first interactions with the young children, the governess's infatuation with their uncle, her employer, eventually proved to be her own failure in every fashion. In talk with the head maid, Ms. Grose, the governess explained her meeting with her employer and how she had fallen in love with him on their first meeting. Ms. Grose then began to explain that that was the nature of the her employer, to draw a women he could entrust his estate to, and that the governess was not the only one so taken by him to leave the infatuated governess without further communication.
Honesty is very brutal in the character of Mrs.Dubose, one of the subtle more challenging characters Lee uses to show the topic of honesty. Mrs.Dubose shows the theme that brutal honesty is better than no honesty at all. On her inevitable death bed Mrs.
... situation from their perspective, and in this case, Atticus reveals Mrs Dubose being a morphine addict. She wanted to die without having to rely on the drug and her escapades were what it easier. Jem and Scout understood the situation and learnt the importance of tolerance.
Mrs. Dubose, who lived down the street from Atticus, often yelled insults at his children when they walked by. One day, she criticized Atticus for defending a black man in court. This finally put Jem over the edge, and he sought revenge by ruining her flowers. When Atticus learned what had happened, he explained to Jem that “she’s old and ill. You can’t hold her
People are not always who they seem to be. Mrs. Dubose is an old lady who seems to not care for other people and is very disrespectful. She sits on her front porch and says rude comments about the people who are walking by. One day when Jem and Scout were walking by Mrs. Dubose said a rude comment about their dad. Jem later came back at destroyed her flowers with a baton that he had bought with his birthday money. He was then punished and had to read to Mrs. Dubose. Later on in the book Mrs. Dubose passes away and Jem realizes that she is actually a kind and caring person. Jem came to that conclusion about Mrs. Dubose because she had gave him a flower petal from one of the flowers that he had destroyed. At first Jem thought that she was being
So after Scout had found out Mrs. Dubose's reason for be snappy all the time, the reason was she was sick and on the drug Morphine.