In the eleventh chapter of To Kill A Mockingbird, a crucial character was introduced. Her name was Mrs. Dubose.

Mrs. Dubose was an old woman addicted to morphine living in the town of Maycomb. She knew everyone and everything in the town and always made blunt, snarky comments to mostly everyone that passed by her porch. Jem and Scout were hollered by her until they realized that people are more than their looks. They have beliefs and personalities.

Jem runs home after crushing Mrs. Dubose’s award-winning camellias after name calling Atticus. Atticus then orders him to read to her every afternoon for 2 weeks.

Mrs. Dubose cuts her morphine addiction and starts to have fits due to withdrawal. She soon dies and Atticus explains to Jem and Scout that Mrs. Dubose was very brave because she cut off her addiction knowing she could get even sicker than she already was.

“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. It’s when you know you’re licked before yo begin but  you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what. You rarely win, but sometimes you do. Mrs. Dubose won, all ninety-eight pounds of her. According to her views, she died beholden to nothing and nobody. She was the bravest person I ever knew.” (Lee 149)

Atticus’ plan the whole time was to teach Jem and Scout what real courage is by watching Mrs. Dubose on her deathbed. Mrs. Dubose showed a lot of courage when handling her drug addiction and was just misunderstood. All she wanted was for people to respect her.

Written by Gena