How Is Mrs Dubose Different In To Kill A Mockingbird

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Pages: 3

Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird follows the life of a brother Jem, and sister scout, who grow up in a time of racial inequality. Jem Finch is what most people would call a typical young child growing up in a small town, fascinated with sports, and being tough. yet, his upbringing is different from many of his friends that were into the same hobbies. Harper Lee creates the character of Jem to portray the internal and external conflict many young kids encounter when their morals and upbringing clash with the cultural norm. Through Jim's voice and characterization, Lee reveals how an impressionable boy can grow into a mature, and respectful young men. While Jem and scout face many conflicts throughout the novel, jems encounter with Mrs. Dubose is one of the most important comings of ages in the novel. Harper Lee paints a degrading picture of Mrs. Dubose, describing her as so nefarious that the Finch children hate walking by her front porch in fear of “being raked by her wrathful gaze, subjected to ruthless interrogation” and name calling (103). Jem and scout become seasoned to hearing insults due to their father Atticus, defending a black man in court in a broadly racist town. But Mrs. Dubose is one of the few adults that talked down to the children. In fact, Mrs. Dubose says one of the few …show more content…
Dubose passed away and left him the camellia flower inside the candy box, his initial reaction was one of confusion and utter emotion. Atticus explains that she was a morphine addict and her hate and ugliness was often caused by her overcoming withdrawals. Jem never knew this, and his sudden insight overwhelms him. What Jem had seen on the surface as bigotry and racism, was just a thin layer of paint covering what Atticus considers more important -- courage. Jem learned that real courage is not a man with a gun in his hand; “it’s when you know you’re licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what,”