Jem’s internal conflict to obey his father’s wishes bursts through in his attack on the flowers, which symbolically represent Mrs. Dubose. This action marks a natural reaction, especially from a boy who cannot yet control or even understand his emotions. Out of a perceived good intention of sticking up for his father, he does something destructive and negative. Lee creates this scene to show how hate can easily breed more hate; however, she uses Jem’s father and even Mrs. Dubose to illustrate how finding the good in others can lead to a positive end. Jem’s punishment was perplexing and causes the reader to question why Mrs. Dubose would actually want Jem to come visit her. While seemingly ironic, Lee soon reveals that Mrs. Dubose was not necessarily
Many people go through many harsh, different obstacles in life that morph them into the kind of people they are today. In the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, the author, Harper Lee uses literary elements to showcase how a child grows into who they are and the contributing factors that may fall into their path and their learning experiences. Lee uses the scene where Jem destroys the flowers of Mrs. Dubose to portray a coming of age moment. He does this because she is racist and constantly nags at them about their father. His punishment is to read to her everyday for a month.
In Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, there are many dislikeable characters. But there is one character that is anything but that. His name is Jem Finch. Although at times Jem can be unkind, for the most part he is very generous.
As the novel progresses more and more problems arise. Don’t kill what is innocent and harmless. Throughout the text of To kill a Mockingbird the character of Jem Displays levels of empathy which challenge his definition of courage and his views regarding the difficulty of parenting. After realizing that Mrs. Dubose successfully parted ways with a morphine dependency, Jem burst into tears and began to scream “Old-hell devil,
As punishment, Jem is forced by Atticus to go to her house every day and read to her for an entire month. Under the conditions of Jem reading to Mrs. Dubose, he gains a glimpse of her real life for the first time. After a month of Jem reading to her, Scout and Jem discover that Mrs. Dubose has died. Jem does not seem to care at first until Atticus reveals Mrs. Dubose's unfortunate truth, ‘“Mrs. Dubose was a morphine addict, [. . . ] she took it as pain-killer for years.
Mrs. Dubose put Jem to the test when she stepped out of line with remarks about Jem’s father, Atticus. Atticus had told Jem “ You just be a gentleman, son” (102). Atticus told him this in hopes Jem would be mature enough to see the sometimes you have to be the bigger person or in this case a gentleman. After one too many rude comments from Mrs. Dubose, Jem finally snapped and what Atticus had told him, did not matter anymore. “He did not begin to calm down until he had cut the tops off every camellia bush Mrs. Dubose owned, until the ground was littered with green buds and leaves” (103).
These comments severely anger Jim. Lee plants a loss of innocence in Jem’s reaction to Mrs. Duboses heckles toward his father. In retaliation, he “cut the tops off of every camellia bush Mrs. Dubose owned.” (118). This retaliation Lee shows gives a large loss of innocence toward Jem.
Jem acts inappropriately toward Mrs. Dubose and destroys her camellia flowers. So she picks him to help her battle her morphine addiction. Although he ultimately did not know he was helping her for that reason until she dies. Jem let Scout tag along as he reads to Mrs. Dubose every day for two hours. Jem questions Mrs. Dubose
This is when he went out of control and lost all of the maturity he had. He could no longer take Mrs.Dubose’s insulting comments. This was a terrible decision yet others would have been tempted to do the same thing. As a punishment, Jem is forced to read to
“In the corner of the room was a brass bed, and in the bed was Mrs. Dubose. I wondered if Jems activities had put her there and for a moment I felt sorry for her.” The reason why Jem and Scout were at Mrs. Dubose’s house, was because Jem and Scout were walking by her house when Dubose started yelling at the kids saying that Atticus is not any better than the “niggers and trash he works for.” Jem lost his temper and takes Scouts baton he bought for her and snaps it in half. Jem destroys all of
Jem loses his temper and breaks Scout’s baton while using it to smash and destroy Mrs. Dubose’s camellia bushes. What Mrs. Dubose said was very out of line and disrespectful. However, Atticus warns Jem about her
One day Mrs. Dubose was insulting Atticus in front of Jem and Scout, his children. Jem grew aggravated and threw a tantrum. He stomped and tore up Mrs. Dubose’s flowers. Therefore, as a punishment for Jem ruining her flowers, she had him read to her every day after school. Jem would have an alarm that indicated
He cries because he knows that Tom Robinson is innocent and so does the whole courtroom. He not only cries over the verdict, but over his childhood. Jem now understands the world and its prejudice. Jem also learns from Mrs. Dubose that she may not be what she appears to be. “‘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…
In To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, Jem grows from a little boy to an intelligent young man. Throughout the book, he discerns many things that shape his personality. As Jem grows, he learns how bad society is and that not everyone is perfect. Fortunately for Jem, this ends up helping him and he finds out that Atticus is a hero and that he should look up to Atticus. Through Atticus and the trial, Jem loses his innocence by learning about prejudice, bravery, and that the justice system is crippled.
As the novel progresses, Jem becomes less defiant and more understanding of adults. Jem witnesses the physical and moral courage of his father before and during the trial of
Jem was stunned, but even more so when he received a parting gift from Mrs.Dubose. It was a camelia from her garden. His initial reaction was negative, but Scout later sees him holding it with care. Jem learned through this experience that showing regardless kindness to everyone is important because every person is fighting a battle of their