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Strong Women In To Kill A Mockingbird

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How could two young children’s lives be influenced so greatly by a handful of strong women? These answers can be found in Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird. The novel is set in Alabama in the 1930’s. Although the book is fiction, it gives many good lessons, which are enclosed deep within the meaning of the text. Throughout the story, Jem and Scout Finch are greatly influenced by the strong women around them in the novel. One of these strong women was Calpurnia, a black maid paid by the Finches to do cooking and cleaning around the house. For example, when Aunt Alexandra stated that Atticus should get rid of Calpurnia, Atticus explained how Calpurnia was a good influence on the kids, and in a way, the mother the kids never had. Why would you …show more content…

Dubose, the old civil war veteran, with the white camellias, that lived down the street. In the later stages of Part One in To Kill A Mockingbird, Jem got mad at Mrs. Dubose and destroyed all of her white camellias. Jem had to fix the flowers along with further punishments. The punishments taught him that he had to take responsibility for his actions, a valuable lesson in life. Another example would be when Jem had to read to Mrs, Dubose after chopping up her beautiful white camellias. Jem didn’t understand this punishment, but it ended up teaching him empathy. He saw Mrs. Dubose more personally than he had before and he ended up feeling bad for her. Yet another example; after Mrs. Dubose died, Atticus stated, “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. When you know you’re licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what. You rarely win, but sometimes you do.” (Lee, page 149). This quote illustrates how Mrs. Dubose silently taught Jem and Scout bravery. Mrs. Dubose was battling a morphine addiction. Instead of dying on morphine, she beat the addiction and died clean. It was a tough road, but she did it; Atticus really believed that Mrs. Dubose was brave for that. Mrs. Dubose was the last of the women to influence Scout and

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She was hired to be the Finch’s families cook but she had put more into that job then required, she built a close relationship with these kids over the years of her working there, she became a parental figure to them. This was not very common in this time because most families had mom and a dad and if a white family both were white and if it were a black family both were black. Calpurnia was a black worker and was the closest thing the kids had to a mom in the family. During the time of preparation for the trial Atticus was gone a lot and was not able to take the kids to church one Sunday, Calpurnia decided she would take them to her church.

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The theme of an ever present coexistence of positive and negative in all aspects can be seen when Mrs. Dubose knows that she will die, but she chooses to fight herself through her inner conflict and emerges victorious. Her story teaches the children that through every negative situation, a balance of positivity is possible through their personal resolve. In Atticus’ words, “‘She was the bravest person I ever

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As he is starting to grow, Jem is changing the way he acts, such as him, visiting Mrs.Dubose’s grave and being “grateful for [Scout’s] company when he read to her [Mrs.Dubose]”. Earlier, when he was small, he disliked Mrs.Dubose because she would insult him and Scout. But it went far to an extent where Mrs.Dubose insulted Atticus for defending an African American, causing Jem to kill her favorite flowers. Atticus made him go to Mrs.Dubose’s house to read to her, every day for a month. Eventually, after a month, Atticus received the news that Mrs.Dubose has died.

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Dubose is introduced. Jem, having cut the tops off of every one of Mrs. Dubose’s (Who was terminally ill) camellias in retaliation for her insults, was reluctant to read to her as a sort of apology, not knowing the purpose of it. Little did he know, it would keep her distracted from her pain. It was the right thing to do, but Jem was disgusted by her.

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She said she meant to break herself from it before she died, and that’s what she did” (148). Mrs. Dubose pushed through the pain; she could have made it easy on herself, continued on the path she was on, and just let go, but she didn’t. Because she wanted her dignity – she wanted to like herself – she kept fighting all the way through when many would have given up long before. Atticus also told Jem and Scout, to explain the courage of Mrs. Dubose after her passing, that he “wanted [them] 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 you begin

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Additionally, when Calpurnia, The Finch household’s Black maid, brought Scout and Jem to the Black church, they were instantly accepted by the congregation members. Calpurnia brought them over the tracks to the Black portion of the town because no one was able to accompany the children to church. In preparation to bring Jem and Scout over, Calpurnia made sure they were fitted with the finest clothes in order to represent her well in front of her friends. Once the children were finally at the church, all heads turned to them, but only one man made judgements about them being there.

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That lead to Jem overcoming their fear of Boo and even become friends with him. Boo later begins to leave them little trinkets in a tree, returns Jem’s pants, and puts a blanket over Scout’s shoulders at the fire. Later in the story, Atticus holds up Mrs. Dubose as the ultimate definition of bravery, she shows us bravery throughout the book as she battles her addiction to morphine. As mentioned in the story, "Her head moved slowly from side to side. From time to time she would open her mouth wide, and I could see her tongue undulate faintly.

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(Lee 128). Atticus explains that even though Mrs. Dubose lost her life, the fact that she was able to fight the inevitable is an admirable trait. It may seem like a loss, but she most certainly

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It’s your job not to let her make you mad. ”(page 100). Jem was far more civilized than Mrs.Dubose. Their relationship was not a good one, especially after Jems anger caused him to “...cut the tops off every camellia bush Mrs.Dubose owned. ”(page 103).

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