typical – The New Conventional Way

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

Summary of Chapter 25

Chapter 25 is a recap of the Summer Tom Robinson was shot. Scout is narrating what Jem had told her happened when Atticus broke the news to Helen, Tom Robinson’s wife. She passed out before Atticus could even tell her that Tom was shot. After Helen woke up, Atticus, Calpurnia, and Helen stayed inside and talked for a while, presumably about Tom’s death.

Because of Mr. Underwood, the news spread and everyone in Maycomb knew about Tom Robinson’s death. In his editorial, Mr. Underwood explains that Tom Robinson was in fact, innocent. The book says,

“Mr. Underwood didn’t talk about miscarriages of justice, he was writing so children could understand. Mr. Underwood simply figured it was a sin to kill cripples, be they standing, sitting, or escaping. He likened Tom’s death to the senseless slaughter of a songbirds by hunters and children, and Maycomb thought he was trying to write an editorial poetical enough to be reprinted in The Montgomery Advertiser.” (Lee, 323)

This quote shows the perspective of a person other than Atticus, Scout, or anyone that widely shared their opinion throughout the novel. It shows that people care about others no matter what their race because when Mr. Underwood stated that Tom Robinson was an innocent man just because he was crippled he didn’t bring his race into it, he implied that Tom Robinson was not able to take advantage of Mayella Ewell even though he can carry heavy things. The book explains that Mr. Underwood writes mainly for the children of Maycomb to understand what is happening in their town.

The theme of racism comes back in this chapter when the author states,

“To Maycomb, Tom’s death was typical. Typical of a nigger to cut and run. Typical of a nigger’s mentality to have no plan, no thought for the future, just run blind first chance he saw” (Lee 322).

This excerpt from the novel contains a literary device called repetition. These sentences each include the word “typical”.

This quote also showcases racism around the citizens of Maycomb because they think the African Americans of their town are wild and don’t think twice. This is why mostly everyone thought that Tom Robinson’s death was bound to happen incredibly soon.

Written by: Gena

Tag: typical

Mrs. Dubose

The Mourning Period