The conflict between Mrs. Dubose and Jem and Scout is similar to the schoolyard fights Scout faces when Atticus makes the decision to defend Tom Robinson. All of these conflicts parallel the most significant and dramatic conflict of the novel which is the one between Atticus, who is defending Tom Robinson, and the Ewells, who represent the racist members of the Maycomb community.

Mrs. Dubose, the children who challenge Scout at school, and the Ewells have little in common except for their racist attitudes; the wide range in their descriptors is the whole point: no matter how old or how young, how well-off or how impoverished, some individuals in Maycomb, Alabama are just plain racist. Racists do not have a particular look or a particular age, but their attitudes are dangerous no matter how the individuals who live by them appear to the outside world.