How Does Mrs Dubose Change Throughout The Novel

Improved Essays
Mrs Dubose is introduced, she isn’t very kind to Jem and Scout. She finds herself telling Scout how she should be raised and talks trash on Atticus. One day Jem, fed up with Mrs. Dubose’s crap, cuts off all the camellia bushes and proceeds to break Scout’s baton. Atticus finds out and makes Jem apologize for his wrong doing, as punishment Jem had to read to Mrs Dubose everyday for one month.
Jem follows through with his punishment and Scout decides to tag along with him. Scout and Jem see Mrs. Dubose in her critical condition, sicker than she ever was. Scout said that the days felt like they got longer and longer as the weeks progressed. One day Mrs. Dubose passes away and Atticus reveals that he helped write her will and that ever since she

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Dubose, a previous morphine addict, is judged, mainly on the way she treats Jem and Scout. Most people of Maycomb see Mrs. Dubose as a mean, old, morphine addict; however, Atticus Finch sees what most people do not see in her, a woman who had a difficult life trying to die with a shred of dignity. When talking to Jem, Atticus explains, “I wanted you to see what real courage is… it’s when you know you’re licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what,” showing that who Mrs. Dubose made herself out to be was the not they same person she actually was (Lee 149). Atticus also indicates, “you rarely win, but sometimes you do. Mrs. Dubose won……

    • 768 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    He replies that it's because of his conscience. When Jem returns, he explains that Dubose wants him to read to her and Atticus agrees he must do so for a month. During these sessions, Dubose goes through several "fits." A little over a month after these sessions are over, Dubose is announced dead. The children discover that she was a morphine addict and attempting to break free of her addiction before she died.…

    • 1570 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Atticus Finch Changes

    • 1182 Words
    • 5 Pages

    When she passed away, Atticus explains to the bitter Scout and Jem how Mrs. Dubose showed true courage; She battles her morphine addiction by listening to Jem read until a timer goes off. As the timer increases everyday, she waits to take the drug for a longer time. Mrs. Dubose was licked before she began but she began anyway; she was free as the mountain air, “she died beholden to nothing and nobody”(112). Scout learns how Mrs. Dubose had two completely different sides to her. Another important example is Aunt Alexandra who has an overbearing commitment to propriety and tradition, but shows her bravery by staying calm in the missionary circle.…

    • 1182 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Journal Three I am reading To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. So far the book is about a girl named Scout and a boy named Jem, and the adventures that they get into. The book takes place in the 1930s. They have a father named Atticus who is a lawyer. Atticus is defending an African American man named Tom Robinson.…

    • 634 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Dubose is another example of a dynamic character. When she is first introduced she is seen as a bitter old woman who has nothing else better than to ruin the lives of Jem and Scout. Jem is enlisted to read to Mrs. Dubose after destroying her camellias in a fit of rage. This past time served to occupy her mind from her addiction withdrawals. Not until her death do the children learn of the true courage of the fragile woman.…

    • 504 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Mrs.Dubose In the book To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee the readers will learn about the character Mrs.Dubose’s. Throughout chapter 11 Mrs.Dubose calls Jem and Scout’s dad, Atticus a “N****r-lover” and in turn Jem rips up her Camellia flower garden because he loses his temper. After Mrs.Dubose finds her garden ripped up she tells Atticus and They both decide to make Jem read to her over the next month plus an extra week. Chapter 11 reveals the character Mr.Dubose is critical and brave.…

    • 439 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    As a punishment, Atticus made Jem go to her house and read to her every day after school for a month. Jem does this reluctantly, even with her yelling meant things at him and looking gross since she was sick. Scout goes with him, and when Mrs. Dubose sees her…

    • 530 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    To continue, Mrs. Dubose was not nice to Jem and Scout in anyway, she was fast to judge them and Atticus without any reason. Often Jem and Scout would find themselves walking by her house on their way to somewhere and if she was on her porch, she was there firing off mean and hateful things about their behavior or what they would end up like. Though it wasn’t Jem or Scout fault that she was doing this, they still tried to stop her prejudice: “We could do nothing to please her. If I said as sunnily as I could, ‘Hey, Mrs. Dubose,’ I would receive for an answer, ‘Don’t you say hey to me, you ugly…

    • 669 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    To Kill A Mockingbird Essay In To Kill A Mockingbird, Harper Lee Suggest that a just person is a wise person. This is shown throughout the book with the three characters. They are Ms Dubose with being the definition of courage and using reading to achieve that. Mr Ewell and how he can only write his name while being shown the rape and beat his daughter.…

    • 707 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Harper Lee's characterizes Mrs. Dubose as an unpleasant old woman who takes out her unhappiness on the children. This sets the readers against her from her introduction, and it only gets worse when she says terrible things about Atticus. However, in Chapter 11, Atticus returns from Mrs. Dubose's and tells Jem of her passing. Atticus also reveals that Mrs. Dubose had an addiction to morphine and how it has caused her to become sick. She only had a few months to live so she wanted to break her morphine habit with the help of Jem’s reading before she died.…

    • 839 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Themes in To Kill a Mockingbird To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, is a story about two innocent children, Jem and Scout, growing up in Maycomb, a town that is accustomed to racism. However, To Kill a Mockingbird is not just a story about racism. It is also a novel about courage, integrity, and empathy. First, Harper Lee shows that courage is when people fight battles even when they know they might not win.…

    • 1430 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Superior Essays

    The use of Equality, Respect, and Integrity in To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee is a book set in the 1930s that centres around Macomb County. This book follows the story of Scout and her childhood adventures. Her father Atticus Finch is Scout’s single surviving parent and he tries to teach her several values. Atticus Finch teaches Scout equality, respect, and integrity through direct and implied conversations. Scout learns equality when Atticus repeatedly teaches her that all people are equal and only their actions set them apart, she learns respect when he shows kindness even to those he disagrees with, and she learns integrity as he repeatedly teaches her a set of values.…

    • 1075 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    (Lee 131) Later in the book, though, it is shown that true courage comes in forms such as Ms. Dubose, and Atticus defending Tom. Scout and Jem dislike Ms. Dubose very much, and think she is merely a cranky old lady. Once she dies, it is revealed that she was a courageous morphine addict overcoming her addiction. Atticus mainly makes Jem read to her so she would have a distraction, and so that he could show Jem what real courage was.…

    • 1002 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Foils are defined as characters that contrast to another character, however, the importance of the foil character is much more complex than the simple definition it is first given. Character foils are often used to demonstrate differences between characters,To Kill a Mockingbird has many examples of foils, all being used to bring the story contrast to the main viewpoint. Examples of a character foils would be the protagonist and the antagonist. Both characters contrasts each other, and brings out different aspects of each other. Without the use of foils in a literary piece, the piece would be flat with no conflicting characters or views.…

    • 855 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    His character begins to develop towards the end of Part One after an incident involving the elderly Mrs Dubose. At the beginning of chapter 11, Jem ruins Mrs Dubose’s garden in an impulsive fit of anger after she makes rude comments about Atticus defending a black man. As punishment for destroying her garden, Mrs Dubose demands that Jem read to her regularly for a month. Jem resents having to visit Mrs Dubose and is relieved when the time is…

    • 456 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays