Wednesday, April 20, 2011

What is True Courage?

At the end of chapter eleven (p149 in student books), Atticus explains to Jem that courage is not just the stereotypical "man with a gun in his hand", but it's about someone seeing through a bad situation, continuing on, and holding their head up high. The initial reason for Atticus having to share his thoughts with his son is because of a recent death in the neighborhood. Mrs. Dubose just passed away from an illness. She was addicted to the pain killer, morphine. Mrs. Dubose made a promise to herself that "she was going to leave this world beholden to nothing and nobody", and "she wanted to break herself of it before she died". So the only way for her to accomplish her goal was to slowly wean herself off of the medication. Because Jem ruined Mrs. Dubose's yard, he was ordered to read to her two hours a week, for a month. Little did he know he was helping distract the old woman from rousing with another dose of morphine. Once Mrs. Dubose was free, and Jem was no longer required to provide her company, she met her end.

Before she died, she asked Jessie, her house assistant, to fix Jem a box to show thanks. Inside the box were Snow-on-the-Mountain flowers, which were the flowers Jem killed in Mrs. Dubose's yard. Jem was infuriated with the gift and thought it was an insult. It was then that Atticus went to Mrs. Dubose's defense. Atticus explained that she was a great lady. Jem immediately disagreed with his father's statement because she had enormously offended the Finch Family. But Atticus continued on to say that Mrs. Dubose was courageous. He wanted to open up Jem's mind and make him see that not just men can have courage, but women too. Their neighbor had won a battle against herself, and not against someone else. Atticus also added, "She was the bravest person I ever knew".

Even though immediately after Atticus explained true courage to his son, Jem went right on as if he wasn't listening to a word he just said, and threw the present in the fire. Meanwhile, “Atticus was reading the paper”. This whole passage explains a few traits about Atticus. It shows that he is wise because he oversees the entire situation. It also shows that he is not a pushy father, that he gives his children freedom to create their own path, and that he doesn’t follow the norm. It shows that Atticus lives by his own self, and that he will only share and preach what is necessary.

2 comments:

  1. Agreeing with Ally, Atticus tried to teach Jem what courage really is in chapter 11. He shows him that that to be courageous, you don’t have to be the stereotypical "man with a gun in his hand". Bravery, courage, and strength are measured by other things that you do. For example when Mrs. Dubose passed away, Atticus explained to Jem why he considered her so brave. She was severely ill and was taking too much morphine. But she wanted to die free of morphine and I think that she wanted to be happy with herself.

    Atticus also teaches Jem that you may think you know someone by the things they say, but in reality, there's so many things that you wouldn't know. In Mrs. Dubose's case, it was her pain medication. Atticus implies to Jem that people aren't always what they seem.

    In chapter 11, Atticus says to Jem, "If you hadn't fallen into her hands, I'd have made you go read to her anyway." This quote expresses how Atticus is wiser, and understands more about people than Jem does. Jem starts to understand that reading to Mrs. Dubose was an important aspect of her death. She died free "as the mountain air". One reason is because Jem and Scout read to her.

    Courage isn't knowing how to shoot an animal. It's having the bravery and strength to face the challenges that life throws at you. And that's exactly what Atticus taught Jem.

    Nicole

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  2. I agree with both girls, but the reason Mrs. Dubose had courage because she knew that she was going to die, with or without the morphine, yet she still had the courage to get off the morphine. She died trying. In this case Mrs. Dubose showed courage because she went head first into something she knew she wouldn't win. This was also shown in Atticus' court case. He knows that he will not win, yet he is willing to try anyway. Atticus and Mrs. Dubose are similar in this way.

    Eliza

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