Catherine Rayment 11,0
The Finch Family have several neighbours, write about one of them Mrs. Dubose and how:-
- She is a good or bad neighbour to the Finch family
- How the writer shows the reader her good or bad equalities
The character Mrs. Dubose is met by the reader in chapter 11 of the novel, and is used as a dramatic device through out that chapter. This technique from the author of Mrs. Dubose helps the reader to fully comprehend how much of a good neighbour she is to the Finch family, and also her true good qualities.
From the beginning of chapter, Scout makes her feelings towards Mrs. Dubose very clear, by stating that “she was vicious”, and that “Jem and I hated her”. They “could do nothing to please her”, and when Scout tried to please her she would reply by hurling abuse at them. Although Jem and Scout do not fully understand why she was such a cruel person, Atticus would always remind his two children of how they should be polite to her, as “she’s an old lady, you just hold your head high and be a gentleman”. However, it all becomes too much for Jem, when Mrs. Dubose starts throwing abuse at him, but about Atticus saying that “your father’s no better than the niggers and the trash he works for”. This for Jem, was not only the final straw, but was the worst possible insult to him. In the novel Atticus is very influential to Jem and so fully respected and admired by him. This insult painfully hurts Jem and to get even, he decides to kill all of Mrs. Dubose’s valuable flowers. But when Atticus finds out about his actions, his punishment is to read to Mrs. Dubose (at her request) every day apart from Saturdays for two hours. Jem reluctantly agrees to do so, and Scout agrees to join him, out of sheer boredom. Whilst Jem reads to her, Scout realizes how sick and ill she was as “her face was a colour of a dirty pillow case, and the corners of her mouth glistened with wet, which inched like a glacier down the deep grooves enclosing her chin”. At this point Scout “felt sorry for her. She was lying under a pile of quilts and looked almost friendly”. After reading to her for a couple of days Scout and Jem realized that there was a gradual pattern with her “that is Mrs. Dubose would hound Jem for a while on her favourite subjects, her camellias and our fathers nigger-loving propensities; she would grow increasingly silent, then go away from us. The alarm clock would ring, Jessie would shoo us out, and the rest of the day was ours”. It is only when Mrs Dubose dies that Atticus reveals the mystery behind the alarm clock and why each day, Scout and Jem were staying a little longer. “She was a morphine addict”, and knew she was dying but wanted “to leave this world beholden to nothing and nobody”. After dying she leaves a “white, waxy, perfect camellia”, to Jem who is both upset and angry at her for doing this, questioning “why can’t she leave me alone?” Atticus answers him by saying that she “was a great lady” and that because of her courage and bravery to fight her addictions to the pain killers “she was the bravest person I ever knew”.
