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Mrs. Lafayette Dubose is conniving because she knows how to hurt people with her words. Mostly everything that Mrs. Dubose says to Scout and Jem is very hurtful. She says exactly what she knows will hurt them the most. As she gets to know the kids better, she learns what they’re proud of or what they strive for, she does her very best to defeat their pride and make them feel ashamed or embarrassed. When Mrs. Dubose was first introduced she started yelling at the kids. Before she even knew them or could understand what amazing kids they were, she judged them and got mad and made them resent her. Jem and Scout were heading to town to buy Jems birthday present. As they walked past Mrs. Dubose’s house, she yells at them and thought they were skipping school and they were way too young to go to town alone. They disagreed and she yelled at them. “Don’t you lie to me!” she yelled. “Jeremy Finch, Maudie Atkinson told me you broke down her scuppernong arbor this morning. She’s going to tell your father and then you’ll wish you never saw the light of day! If you aren’t sent I reform school before next week, my name’s not Dubose!” (Lee, 135) Scout and Jem were doing absolutely nothing wrong. They were just walking to town and minding their own business. Mrs. Dubose on the other hand was sitting on her porch. She had nothing better to do then to pick on two little kids. She knew who they were and how badly they wanted to make their daddy proud. She knew that if she threated to tell their father, they would be so embarrassed and that they messed up. Due to this, Mrs. Lafayette Dubose is very conniving, even though it didn’t affect her at all; she just wanted to hurt the kids. How conniving and intelligent she is also shown when Mrs. Dubose te... ... middle of paper ... ...“Don’t you mutter at me boy! You hold your head up and say yes ma’am. Don’t guess you feel like holding it up, though, with your father what he is” (Lee, 146) She is trying to leave Jem and Scout off with a good impression. Giving Jem a lecture about being polite, Mrs. Dubose is trying to let out the things she thinks the kids need to know before she is gone and thinks that those things are so very important. Even though she is telling Jem not to mutter and to keep his head up, she says it rudely, she’s so conniving that she thinks that by ending their relationship by being semi nice and respectful, she will gain their appreciation. She is wrong. Scout and Jem are so sick of hearing her yell at them and judge them and be mean to them. They want nothing to do with her ever again. Mrs. Dubose is conniving as revealed by her repeated confrontations with Scout and Jem.
What does Mrs. Dubose say about the children’s mother? How does Jem feel about this?
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
On several occasions, Scout gets into a fight with people who make unpleasant comments about her father. Atticus continuously tells her that this is wrong and that she needs to learn to control her anger, “You might hear some ugly talk about it at school, but do one thing for me if you will: you just hold your head high and keep those fists down. No matter what anybody says to you, don’t you let ‘em get your goat. Try fighting with your head for a change” (Lee 101). The day after this discussion with Atticus, Scout is approached by a fellow student who had previously made a mean comment about her father. “I drew a bead on him, remembered what Atticus had said, then dropped my fists and walked away...it was the first time I ever walked away from a fight” (Lee 102). Although she struggles at first, Scout develops a higher level of maturity which allows her to control her temper and simply defend her father with her words, without being rude. Jem is also faced with these type of situations and struggles with his anger, for instance when he attacks Mrs. Dubose’s flowers. Atticus goes to great lengths to teach his children that in life, they must learn to stay calm and be kind to everyone, despite how cruel those people may be. Scout and Jem face several situations in which their control is tested, which leads them to “come of age”
Harper Lee uses the character of Atticus Finch to teach values and beliefs from seeing things from another point of view, to doing what is right all the time and to being integrative to yourself. Mrs. Henry Lafayette Dubose is an old woman who is ill and battles a morphine addiction. Jem and Scout believe that she is just a mean old lady that talks bad about her father all day, but doesn’t know she is fighting a morphine addiction. After Jem finds out about the death of Mrs. Dubose and the gift she left him, he doesn’t appreciate the perfect camellia and Atticus tells him that it was her way of telling you everything is alright now. “A lady?”
...n you know that you’re licked before you begin, but you begin anyway…She died beholden to nothing and nobody. She was the bravest person I ever knew” (149). This description of Mrs. Dubose’s bravery served as a sharp contrast to Jem’s view of courage. He saw it as the sheer defiance of fear and the strength to overcome every obstacle. Atticus’ description provided a new, more realistic assessment of bravery. Witnessing the immense will and courage of Mrs. Dubose inspired a complete change in Jem’s attitude about courage. At the beginning of the story, Jem believed the courage was merely the absence of fear. At the conclusion of Part One, however, he gained a new perspective on bravery, identifying it as the ability to endure in the face of inevitable failure. In discovering this fact, Jem not only gained a new attitude towards bravery, but also grew as a character.
Mrs. Dubose was sitting on her porch when Jem and Scout went by. She stopped them on their way for playing hooky. “It is noon and hot outside, so both of you go inside your house otherwise I will call you principle” # said, Mrs. Dubose. Jem and Scout told that they have been alone to town, but she never believed them. In a sense, Mrs. Dubose worried for the children and at the same time, she was angry at them. She came to know in the morning that Jem broke down Ms. Maudie’s
They saw Mrs.Dubose more as Tom Robinson’s case outbreaks into court. Tom Robinson is the black man Atticus is defending, so every work day Atticus walks past Mrs.Dubose house. Which is “two doors up the street… with steep front steps and a dog trot-hall.” It was not until Jem needed to read to her, when him and Scout got to go inside of her house. “An oppressive odor met us when we crossed the threshold… In the corner of the room was a brass bed and in the brass bed was Mrs.Dubose… There was a marble-topped washstand by her bed.” In her house, Jem begins to leave his safety at home and face society's disapproval, which is symbolically represented as Mrs.Dubose. She represents the racism of the Old South, and Jem had to face his problems as he begins to come of age as a mature man.
Dubose had some racist ideals, Atticus wanted Jem to see that Mrs. Dubose was brave in trying to end her morphine addiction. Even though it was difficult, Mrs. Dubose worked hard to do what she felt was right and to achieve her goals.
Dubose won, all ninety-eight pounds of her. According to her views, she died beholden to nothing and nobody. She was the bravest person I ever knew” (Lee 149). I think that it shows the courage that even though morphine is extremely addictive Mrs. Dubose tried her hardest to be free of it even when she knew it would be hard. She seems like a strong woman and that she was grown up on the principle to always try your hardest and never give up. She knew she couldn’t do it right away so she was clever enough to do it slowly. Finally, in this quote Scout is fighting with Francis even though she was not supposed to; “This time, I split my knuckle to the bone on his front teeth. My left impaired, I sailed in with my right, but not for long. Uncle Jack pinned my arms to my sides and said ‘Stand still!’” (Lee 112) This shows courage because even though she was told not to fight even if it is to protect someone. I think this shows that she will not tolerate people talking bad about the people she cares about and that she is extremely loyal. Based on my findings I can see that Harper Lee uses Scout, Atticus, and Mrs. Dubose in these ways to show courage by showing that they will fight for what is right no matter if they get in trouble or will have problems along the
Even Scout and Jem’s aunt, Aunt Alexandra, displays racist tendencies. In Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, it is shown that a town consists of both good and bad. Mrs. Dubose is overtly racist, representing the ‘bad’ part of the town. In chapter 11 of To Kill a Mockingbird, Mrs. Dubose repeatedly insults Jem and Scout because their father, Atticus Finch, is defending a black man, Tom Robinson, accused of rape.
Atticus tells Jem to just ignore Mrs. Dubose. He tells Jem that he has to hold his head up, be a gentleman, and not let her make him angry.
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
sudden disconnect she has with her brother. One reason why this is the most challenging conflict for Scout is that days prior her brother treated her like an equal, but then stopped. Another reason that this is a key conflict is because it hits her with something that she had never needed to deal with before. For example, after some time had passed from the Ms. Dubose incident, “This change in Jem had come about in a matter of weeks… Overnight, it seemed, Jem had acquired an alien set of values and was trying to impose them on me: several times he went so far as to tell me what to do. (Lee 150)” this shows that Jem had undergone some sort of paradigm shift after Ms. Dubose’s death, and thought himself more
Dubose. Initially, she intimidates Scout and Jem for her repulsive actions and words, although they do not understand that she struggles with a morphine addiction. This leads to her being criticized. Scout states, “Jem and I hated her. If she was on the porch when we passed, we would be raked by her wrathful gaze, 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,” (153). Mrs. Dubose verbally ignites anger and terror, towards Scout and Jem. She mentions rude comments towards the children and they criticize her in return, but they do not understand or even make an effort to understand what she is facing. By the same token, after Jem reacts by cutting Mrs. Dubose’s camellias due to her disapproval of Atticus taking on Tom Robinson’s case, Atticus gets Jem to read for her as a distraction so she can overcome her morphine addiction. Atticus explains to Jem, “I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of 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… she died beholden to nothing and nobody. She was the bravest person I ever knew,” (153). Until the death of Mrs. Dubose, Scout and Jem did not understand why she wanted Jem to read for her. After every reading session, they gradually notice that Jem reads longer. Atticus helps Jem and Scout see through her repulsiveness and explains that reading longer is to help keep her off the drug for longer periods of time. This is a lesson for Jem and Scout; real courage is fighting when you are already losing. The addiction Mrs. Dubose has, caused her to throw wild fits and utter rude comments. Scout and Jem do not realize it is her sickness which made her rude, until Atticus explains this to
Another character in this book named Mrs. Dubose was an old lady who had nothing better to do but say cruel and unkind comments about other people. She would sit on her front porch and shout rude things about people as they walk by. One day Scout and Jem walked past her house on their way home from buying a baton for Jems birthday. Mrs. Dubose shouted a disrespectful comment about their dad and Jem became furious. He came back later and destroyed her bushes with the baton that he bought. As a punishment Atticus made them read to her. The kids were no looking forward to this. After a couple of reading sessions the kids noticed that Mrs. Dubose started to look ill and the days went on she kept getting worse. They later found out that she was a morphine addict and those symptoms were from her withdrawing it. Later she dies and asks Atticus to give Jem a gift from her. The gift was a petal from the flower bush that Jem had destroyed. This gift was to show Jem that she was thankful for everything that he had done for her. Both of the kids then realized that she is actually a very kind-hearted person. In conclusion you never know someone until you walk in his or her