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Character analysis to kill a mockingbird
Racial Discrimination in Literature
Character analysis to kill a mockingbird
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To Kill a Mockingbird 1. Mrs Dubose lives alone, she is lonely and probably takes out her anger on Jem and Scout because she envious their freedom and loving family. “Don’t you say hey to me, you ugly girl!” (pg. 108) She is also unwell and must move around in a wheel chair. She is addicted to morphine, and it meddles with her moods and views on others and the world “Mrs Dubose was a morphine addict” (pg. 120 Atticus) 2. Even though Jem and Scout routinely receive abuse from Mrs Dubose and often take the advice of their father to be the better person, Jem snaps when the old woman touches on a sensitive topic, their father. Both the children are very protective of their father and he and the family found themselves in hot water because Atticus …show more content…
is defending a black man in a murder court case. Mrs Dubose says to Jem “…a Finch in the court hose defending niggers!” (pg. 110) this is a direct shot to Jem’s stored up anger for her, and he releases it on her camellias. 3.
“Scout I couldn’t go to church and worship god if I didn’t try to help that man” “Before I can live with other folks I’ve got to live with myself. The one thing that doesn’t abide by majority rule is a person’s conscience.” Atticus could not just let the case of tom Robinson pass him. Somewhere inside him his conscience told him that the right, and only thing to do was to try his best to help him, even if that meant certain failure and social …show more content…
unrest. 4. Harper Lee’s description of Mrs Dubose is extremely graphic and provokes powerful imagery of her character. This use of imagery reflects her personality and gives you an insight of her situation and even lifestyle. The way she is described to appear would be scary for Jem and Scout to look at. “Her face was the colour of a dirty pillow case, the corners of her mouth glistened with sweat, which inched like a glacier down the deep groves enclosing her chin…” (pg. 116) She is a very intimidating character and tries to bring Jem and Scout Down with mean and nasty comment whenever she can “we would be raked by her wrathful gaze, subjected to ruthless interrogation regarding our behaviour and given a melancholy prediction on what we would amount to when we grow up” (pg. 108) 5.
Every time that Scout and Jem visit Mrs Dubose to read to her they find themselves seeming to stay a little longer each time. Scout does not realise what is happening until Atticus explains to her that Mrs Dubose was changing the clock and tricking them into staying longer. Mrs Dubose does this because of her morphine addiction. In order to get over the addiction before she dies, she uses Jem’s reading as a distraction. The longer they stayed the longer she could hold on. 6. Jem gets upset by Mrs Dubose’s gift of a perfect Camellia because she is trying to make him feel guilty and he knows it. She was a stubborn, mean but witty old lady and that was her way of having the last laugh against Jem. Jem realises this and is scared of her notion even though she is dead. He was probably thinking he could leave it all in the past after she died but Mrs Dubose had other plans. TEEL
paragraph Throughout the Mrs Dubose episode (chapter 11) Atticus Finch is trying to teach his children a life lesson. In parts of the chapter Atticus explains to Jem that it is better to “Hold your head high and be a gentleman” (pg. 109) this implies that even though people can be wicked and mean to you, if you are the bigger person you will end up on top. Atticus is clearly a pacifist in his teachings to Scout and Jem and encourages them not to use violence as an answer. Scout overhears Atticus talking about her hot head on page 95, which causes Scout to walk away from a fight against Cecil Jacobs. After Mrs Dubose dies, Atticus refers to her as “the bravest person I knew” (page 121). He in turn is teaching Scout and Jem that the greatest form of bravery is when someone knows they are destined for failure but they go ahead and try anyway. “I wanted you to see what real courage is” (pg. 121) In Mrs Dubose’s case she knew she was going to die but wanted to die fighting, clean and with dignity. We later learn Atticus is in a similar situation as he has taken up a court case in which all of the odds are stacked against him. Mrs Dubose uses Jem and Scout to overcome her morphine addiction, but Atticus Finch uses Mrs Dubose to teach his children valuable life lessons.
He advised Jem not to pay attention to ugly talk at school about his decision to defend a Negro. He told Scout that, no matter what circumstances, she was forbidden to fight anyone who was making fun of him. Jem and Scout thought that they just had about enough when their neighbor, Mrs. Dubose, had said to the children that "your father's no better than the niggers and trash he works for! " (102). They tried to ignore her, as their father had said, and walked away. One day when the pressure got too much for Jem, he went into Mrs. Dubose's yard and destroyed all her flowers.
What does Mrs. Dubose say about the children’s mother? How does Jem feel about this?
In the novel, there is a quote about when Jem destroyed Mrs. Dubose’s camellias when Mrs. Dubose called Atticus Finch a n*****-lover. Jem was furious and thus destroyed her flowers, leading inevitably to his actions backfiring against him. In this quote, it shows Atticus returning home with the camellia buds clenched in his hand asking Jem why he pulled out her flowers, and Jem also has to go apologize and tell Atticus what punishment Mrs. Dubose gave him: “Atticus switched on the ceiling light in the living room and found us there, frozen still. He carried my baton in one hand; it's filthy yellow tassel trailed on the rug. He held out his other hand; it contained fat camellia buds. ‘Jem,’ he said, ‘are you responsible for this?’ ‘Yes sir.’ ‘Why’d you do it?’ Jem said softly, ‘She said you lawed for n****** and trash.’ ‘You did all this because she said that?’ Jem’s lips moved, but his, ‘Yes sir,’ was inaudible. . . . . . ‘I strongly advise you to have a talk with Mrs. Dubose,’ said Atticus, ‘Come straight home afterward’ . . . . . . When Jem returned, he found me still in Atticus’s lap. ‘Well, son?’ said Atticus. . . . . ‘I cleaned it up for her and said I was sorry, but I ain’t, and that I’d work on ‘em every
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”
Throughout the novel, Jems perspective and character is revealed in many different ways. He is a role model for Scout and does anything possible to help and protect her. When Aunt Alexandra declined Scouts suggestion of allowing Walter to visit and scolding Scout by calling her trash we are shown Jem reacting by responding “ ‘Have a chew, Scout ‘ Jem dug into his pocket and extracted a tootsie roll. It took a few minutes to work the candy into a comfortable wad inside my mouth” ( Lee 23). Jem creates a role model/supportive figure for Scout since he comforts her and acknowledges her problems; he puts himself in her shoes. This also proves that he cares enough about his little sister by cheering her up. Jem values Scouts happiness and wellbeing. Jems actions demonstrate that being there for others is one of his many principles. He has also represented a role model when he lost his pants on the Radley Fence after running out of the Radley property and getting the pants stuck on the way
... of bravery and courage in the eyes of Atticus, and both Jem and Mrs. Dubose applied to his meaning. Mrs. Dubose strongly played the role of the courageous woman that fights for her dignity ignoring what other people do, and represented the person who fights alone without asking for help. Jem went through the process of growing that led him to be a responsible man who stands for his word no matter what, despite the fear that he might face by doing that or despite the bad results that could occur to him. By understanding what courage and bravery truly are, positive results could occur in society as a result of that. In the book “To Kill a Mockingbird” Mrs. Dubose was a great example of fighting addiction, and Jem was a great example of the true form of maturity, and if these examples were used well they could be set as a solution to most of the problems in the world.
Scout and Jem are very close. They are very protective of each other and worry about each other often. When Jem, Scout , and Dill went to the Radley house at night Jem’s pants became stuck on the fence. Jem went to retrieve his pants and Scout wanted to come with to help and protect him, but Jem did not let her because he was protecting her making sure that she would not hurt herself. When Jem was gone Scout waiting for him to return because she was worried he would hurt himself. Another example is when Jem and Scout were attacked by Bob Ewell. Before they were attacked Jem thought he heard someone following them so Jem walked with his hand on Scout’s head worried about her and trying to protect her. When Mr. Ewell attacked them, they were trying to help each other and protect each other. After the attack while Jem was unconscious Scout was even more worried about Jem then she was before. Scout learns from Jem as well. An example is that Jem taught Scout and Dill the history of the Radleys and the superstitions that the town has of Boo Radley. The actions of Jem and Scout reveal the close relationship that they have with each
Dubose as she does to Boo. At the beginning of the book she agrees with the town’s consensus, “neighborhood opinion was unanimous that Mrs. Dubose was the meanest old woman who ever lived” (46), and that she sleeps with a Confederate pistol under her pillow, ready to shoot. Scout initially believes this. Later in the book, after Mrs Dubose dies, Atticus tells them that Mrs Dubose “was the bravest person I ever knew” (149) because she was able to break free of a morphine addiction before she died. After spending so much time with Mrs. Dubose and listening to Atticus, Scout is now able to understand that while Mrs. Dubose may have been mean, she wasn’t evil. She was just a sick old lady who was in a lot of anguish and pain; through this understanding, Scout learns not to judge so
Jem’s loss of innocence begins with Mrs.Dubouse’s constant harrasment of Scout and Jem when they walk past her property. Scout recalls when Jem becomes fed up with Mrs.Dubouse and takes action, “...Jem snatched my baton and ran flailing wildly up the steps into Mrs. Dubose’s front yard...He did not begin to calm down until he had cut the tops off every camellia bush Mrs. Dubose owned..” (Lee 106). Jem’s actions completely contradict his past behaviour and personality. Jem is levelheaded and his actions are something that Scout would do, not him. Mrs.Dubouse’s slandering of their father was Jem’s first preview of what Maycomb was truly like. The court trials had the most severe impact on Jem’s loss of innocence. During the trial Scout
Dubose, a prominent racist as well as an owner of White Camellias, looks down on Scout and Jem, who often walk by because Atticus is in charge of Tom Robinson’s case. At one point, Jem loses it and destroys the White Camellias, showing that Jem would advocate for the destruction of racism. Afterwards, the same kind of flowers returned to Jem from Mrs. Dubose as her parting gift. Scout narrates, “Inside, surrounded by wads of damp cotton, was a white, waxy, perfect camellia. It was a Snow-on-the-Mountain.
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.
’s taunts. If Scout would have fought Cecil, she would’ve let Atticus down and got into trouble. Instead, she left without any trouble and feeling noble; which is much more rewarding and has a better effect than bruised knuckles. Even though Jem was very upset with what Mrs. Dubose said, he still apologized and made up for his actions.
To demonstrate, after Mr. Radley ceals up the knothole, Scout describes, “He stood there until nightfall, and I waited for him. When we went into the house I saw he had been crying” (Lee 84). One way Boo Radley extends his friendship to Jem and Scout, is by giving them gifts in a knothole inside a tree in the Radley yard. When Mr. Nathan Radley puts cement in the hole, Jem begins to cry because he realizes that Boo’s gifts were an act of friendship, and Boo’s ability to communicate with Jem becomes impaired when the hole is filled with cement. To illustrate, when Atticus speaks with Jem about Mrs. Dubose's death, “‘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… Mrs. Dubose won, all ninety- eight pounds of her’” (Lee 149). Jem extremely disliked Mrs. Dubose throughout the novel, and was infuriated when Atticus made him read to Mrs. Dubose everyday, after he whacked all of her camillas down. When Jem becomes curious about why he was forced to read to Mrs. Dubose, Atticus says he wanted Jem to learn that someone who possesses true courage is a person who can overcome such a strong addiction to a drug like morphine, and not someone who can hit a rabid dog with a rifle. To conclude with, Jem learns to respect Boo Radley through his acts of friendship, and to respect Mrs. Dubose because she possesses true
Jem destroys Ms. Duboses roses because she was criticizing Atticus for defending a black man. When Atticus finds out Jem did this he told Jem “... to do something like this to a sick old lady is inexcusable.”
The other people in the town just thought of her as anoother negro. So she took the Finch kids to church to show them what it was like to go to an all black church. Some of the black people were nice to them so that showed them that all black people aren’t as bad as people make them sound or seem. In chapter 11, Jem and Scout walk past Mrs.Dubose’s when she starts saying racist comments about Atticus.