Character Analysis Of Mrs. Dubose In The Day The Sun Came Out, By Harper Lee

“Courage is the most important of all the virtues because, without courage, you can't practice any other virtue consistently,” said Maya Angelou. Fearlessness is one of the most significant necessities of the human race. Without it there is very little humans can accomplish in life. Bravery is in fact what keeps all living things alive. It is the key to survival. In the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, there is a unique character known as Mrs. Dubose. Mrs. Dubose is very mean to the Finch children, but as the chapter goes on she progressed into a better person. She displays courage when overcoming her addiction to a drug called Morphine which helped relieve pain for her sickness. In the story, “The Day the Sun Came Out” by Dorothy

Dubose’s courage was for only herself, but Mary displayed grit for her family. Mrs. Dubose’s addiction problems were because of herself. In fact, she only wanted to become unaddicted so she could die feeling accomplished. The chances of Mrs. Dubose doing something for the benefit of others is very low due to the fact that during the chapter she shows that she has little to no impactful relationships. To Kill a Mockingbird states ‘She[Mrs. Dubose] was very old; she spent most of each day in bed and the rest of it in a wheelchair’(Lee 132). Mary, on the other hand, is very different. Her family is starving because they had not eaten for many days. Mary eats the possibly poisonous mushroom for her family. Because the mushroom was not poisonous it was safe to eat which would make the family not have to starve. Mrs. Dubose’s personality and Mary’s personality juxtaposes how different their courage was, and also shows that one was a hero for themselves and one was a hero for others. Many think that Mary’s fearlessness was only for herself because she did not let the kids have any of the mushroom at first. However. Mary was only making sure the kids did not eat a poisonous mushroom so she ate it first. The Day the Sun Came Out also states,’My stepmother was wonderful person’(Johnson 104). This means that Mary really was a great person throughout her life, and she did not say the kids could not eat just so she could have the whole mushroom for

Dubose. Mrs. Dubose was dying from cancer. She had been sick for a while, and to help relieve her pain she took a drug called morphine. Her ultimate goal was to die unaddicted to morphine. This is exactly what she accomplished. Mary was only eighteen and had a long life to live. She took a risk of eating a mushroom that had a great potential to be poisonous. Mary ate it first because she wanted to save her younger siblings from the possible poison that would kill them all. She was a true hero because the mushroom was not poisonous and the family did not have to starve, for they had not eaten in many days. Mrs. Dubose displays courage in a very different way because of the fact that she did not help anyone else. She died feeling accomplished of herself. Some may argue that life was still an option for Mrs. Dubose and that she died because she stopped taking Morphine. However, this is not true due to the fact that Morphine is only a painkiller. Morphine does not have an affect someone's