Drugs and Alcohol Through Society’s Eyes
` Sometimes society is wrong. Drugs and alcohol possess a certain stigma that can skew an observer’s perception of someone associated with either substance. The society which lives within the Great Depression of the 1930s and today are guilty of biases and standards that don’t always coincide with the truth. In Harper Lee’s novel To Kill A Mockingbird, the characters Mrs. Dubose and Dolphus Raymond, both connected with drugs or alcohol, are used to make the point that someone’s vices don’t define them, and that society’s perception of those around such substances are biased and present double standards. One interesting victim of society’s biases towards alcohol in To Kill A Mockingbird is Mr. Dolphus …show more content…
Addiction “can be defined as a state where an organism behaves compulsively, even if the consequences of the behavior do not benefit the organism” (“Drug Addiction”). The character Mrs. Dubose is addicted to morphine, and “[a]t the turn of the nineteenth century, opium was an important part of medical practice … By the late 1800s, one in 25 Americans used large amounts of opiates. No laws limited their use. People simply went to the local druggist for morphine, no prescription required. Abuse was considered a vice or a weakness, not a crime. But doctors did begin to recognize and criticize their own profession 's ability to create a lifelong servitude to the drug … Older people receive prescriptions at three times the rate of the rest of the population … The sexes are known to react differently to opiates. In humans, women are more likely to misuse opiates” (“Morphine”). Her drug addiction was “compulsive” and seemingly considered a “vice or a weakness, not a crime” by those in the book. In contrast to when the reader first learns about Dolphus’ alcohol use, the reader feels bad for Mrs. Dubose when her addiction is revealed. The fault of her addiction isn’t assigned to her. Atticus even calls her a “lady,” and Jem responds with “‘After all those things she said about you, a lady?’ ‘She was’ … ‘It 's when you know you 're licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what’ … ‘She was the bravest person I ever knew’” (Lee 149). Atticus attributes Mrs. Dubose’s addiction to her character in a positive light by making the case that her addiction didn’t make her so much as her fight did when he says “It’s when you know you’re licked before you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what.” Scout feels as if “[s]omehow, [she] didn’t think Atticus would like it if [they] became friendly with Mr. Raymond,” yet Atticus sees Mrs. Dubose
` Sometimes society is wrong. Drugs and alcohol possess a certain stigma that can skew an observer’s perception of someone associated with either substance. The society which lives within the Great Depression of the 1930s and today are guilty of biases and standards that don’t always coincide with the truth. In Harper Lee’s novel To Kill A Mockingbird, the characters Mrs. Dubose and Dolphus Raymond, both connected with drugs or alcohol, are used to make the point that someone’s vices don’t define them, and that society’s perception of those around such substances are biased and present double standards. One interesting victim of society’s biases towards alcohol in To Kill A Mockingbird is Mr. Dolphus …show more content…
Addiction “can be defined as a state where an organism behaves compulsively, even if the consequences of the behavior do not benefit the organism” (“Drug Addiction”). The character Mrs. Dubose is addicted to morphine, and “[a]t the turn of the nineteenth century, opium was an important part of medical practice … By the late 1800s, one in 25 Americans used large amounts of opiates. No laws limited their use. People simply went to the local druggist for morphine, no prescription required. Abuse was considered a vice or a weakness, not a crime. But doctors did begin to recognize and criticize their own profession 's ability to create a lifelong servitude to the drug … Older people receive prescriptions at three times the rate of the rest of the population … The sexes are known to react differently to opiates. In humans, women are more likely to misuse opiates” (“Morphine”). Her drug addiction was “compulsive” and seemingly considered a “vice or a weakness, not a crime” by those in the book. In contrast to when the reader first learns about Dolphus’ alcohol use, the reader feels bad for Mrs. Dubose when her addiction is revealed. The fault of her addiction isn’t assigned to her. Atticus even calls her a “lady,” and Jem responds with “‘After all those things she said about you, a lady?’ ‘She was’ … ‘It 's when you know you 're licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what’ … ‘She was the bravest person I ever knew’” (Lee 149). Atticus attributes Mrs. Dubose’s addiction to her character in a positive light by making the case that her addiction didn’t make her so much as her fight did when he says “It’s when you know you’re licked before you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what.” Scout feels as if “[s]omehow, [she] didn’t think Atticus would like it if [they] became friendly with Mr. Raymond,” yet Atticus sees Mrs. Dubose