Jem and Scout dread walking in front of the house of old, ill-tempered Mrs. Dubose. She hurls cruel comments at the children, deriding Scout's tomboyish style and denouncing the way their father is raising them. She even uses a racist slur to describe Atticus's client, Tom Robinson. After this incident, Jem gets even by ruining her flowerbeds.
Once Atticus learns about this, he requires Jem to repent by reading to Mrs. Dubose every day. The reasons behind his assignment are mysterious, yet Jem drags Scout along and together they suffer through miserable afternoons reading to the volatile woman.
Mrs. Dubose dies shortly thereafter, at which point Atticus reveals why he made the children read to her— she was addicted to morphine, and her last wish in life was to rid herself of the disease. The daily reading sessions, as unpleasant as they were for the children, helped Mrs. Dubose to be able to kick the habit before her death.
Atticus, who feels strongly about imparting moral wisdom to his children, uses Mrs. Dubose as a chance to teach Jem and Scout about understanding and charity. He demonstrates to them that people battle their demons in silent, and that oftentimes empathy is a stronger weapon than retaliation.
Atticus has Jem read to Mrs. Dubose so that he will "climb into her skin" and begin to understand her. By reading to this ailing neighbor, Jem will witness her "bravery."
Because all that Jem and his sister know of Mrs. Dubose is her irascible personality, displayed as she hurls insults at them and about their father from her porch, they believe her to be "vicious." Often she accuses them of ridiculous things such as "playing hooky" from school on a Saturday and breaking down Miss Maudie's grape arbor, which Scout declares that Jem has not been near since the previous summer. One day Mrs. Dubose insults Scout, saying that she will amount to no more than a waitress at a cheap cafe. Then she derogates Atticus by declaring, "Your father's no better than the n*****s and trash he works for!" After hearing this insult, Jem loses his self-control. He snatches Scout's baton and destroys the lovely blooms on Mrs. Dubose's camellias.
Jem is made to return to Mrs. Dubose's yard to clean up his destruction and apologize to Mrs. Dubose. When he returns home, Jem tells his father that Mrs. Dubose wants him to read to her after school and on Saturdays. Atticus approves of this arrangement. After Mrs. Dubose dies, Atticus tells Jem that he has wanted his son to get to know Mrs. Dubose's courage in withdrawing from morphine so that she could leave the world "beholden to nothing and nobody." This act of Mrs. Dubose's demonstrates an important virtue.
"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. It's when you know you're licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it...
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through no matter what. You rarely win, but sometimes you do. Mrs. Dubose won . . . she died beholden to nothing and nobody. . . . " (Ch.11)
Jem is given a box that Mrs. Dubose ordered for him. He opens the box containing a Snow-on-the-Mountain camellia that is like the ones that he has destroyed. Jem throws away the box, but holds the lovely bloom, fingering the wide petals meditatively.
Atticus makes Jem read to Mrs. Dubose so he will understand the meaning of real courage, because Mrs. Dubose is very ill and is trying to die without morphine.
After Jem ruins Mrs. Dubose’s flowers, Atticus makes him go to apologize although Scout is sure that he will be murdered with a Civil War relic.
Scout is angry at Atticus for sending Jim to Mrs. Dubose. Atticus explains that the summer is going to be difficult for them, and tells her that she will understand when she is older.
[When] you and Jem are grown, maybe you'll look back on this with some compassion and some feeling that I didn't let you down. (ch 11)
Atticus knows that Mrs. Dubose is only the beginning. The children are going to have to face ridicule from both adults and children over Atticus’s defending Tom Robinson. He wants the children to learn courage, and he thinks that Mrs. Dubose is a good example of it.
I wanted you to see something about her- 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. (ch 11)
Atticus wants Jem—and Scout—to realize that courage is more than bravery in the face of danger. Courage is when you have a difficult situation and you still try anyway. Courage is not giving up. He is trying to show them this lesson with his trial.
What lesson do you think Atticus wants Jem to learn by having him read to Mrs. Dubose?
Mrs. Henry Lafayette Dubose was "plain hell," in the immortal words of Jean Louise "Scout" Finch, the narrator of Harper Lee's classic novel, To Kill a Mockingbird. The old woman who lived two doors up the street from the Finches was "the meanest old woman who ever lived." Mrs. Dubose is not a minor figure in Lee's novel. On the contrary, this mean-spirited neighbor who regularly insults Jem and Scout at every opportunity, occupies a special place in Scout's narrative. While the Finch children hold Mrs. Dubose in exceedingly low esteem ("Jem and I hated her"), there is much more to this character than one initially realizes, and it is that hidden detail that Atticus uses to teach his children an important lesson about compassion and courage.
In Chapter 11 of To Kill a Mockingbird, Jem and Scout, but the former in particular, have had enough of their elderly neighbor's verbal abuse. It is when Mrs. Dubose attacks their father, Atticus, because of the lawyer's willingness to defend the African American, Tom Robinson, in his trial for allegedly raping a white woman, though, that pushes Jem over the edge. Defying his father's repeated admonitions about taking the low road in response to Mrs. Dubose's provocations, Jem attacks her flower garden, decimating many of the flowers with Scout's baton. Atticus had urged patience upon his children, advising them that Mrs. Dubose is an old and sick lady, and that, Jem "can’t hold her responsible for what she says and does.," but the young boy lacks the self-restraint that will presumably come with age. And so, at the old lady's command, Jem is required to visit her everyday for two hours and read to her. Atticus, of course, is only too willing to compel Jem's compliance with this arrangement.
So, what lesson does Atticus want Jem to learn from his having to read everyday to an old woman he loathes? After Mrs. Dubose passes away, Atticus explains his rationale:
"I wanted you to see something about her—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. It’s 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. Mrs. Dubose won, all ninety-eight pounds of her. According to her views, she died beholden to nothing and nobody. She was the bravest person I ever knew.”
Mrs. Dubose had been very ill and had become addicted to the morphine she was prescribed for pain. She refused to continue to use the powerful pain medication, however, choosing instead to live out her remaining days in discomfort rather than die an addict. Atticus knows this from his meetings with her, during which he was tasked with drawing up Mrs. Dubose's will. Atticus wanted his children to learn the meaning of compassion and of courage -- compassion for a frail, deathly-ill old woman, and the courage that woman displayed in spite of indescribable pain.
What lesson do you think Atticus wants Jem to learn by having him read to Mrs. Dubose?
In chapter 11, Jem loses his temper and destroys Mrs. Dubose's camellia bush after she calls Atticus a "nigger-lover." When Atticus returns home from work, he makes Jem apologize to Mrs. Dubose and tells Jem that he must read to Mrs. Dubose for two hours each day after school and on Saturdays for an entire month. Jem ends up reading to Mrs. Dubose each day for an entire month and notices that she pays attention to his reading at longer intervals of time each session. After Jem serves his punishment, Mrs. Dubose ends up passing away, and Atticus tells his son that his reading helped Mrs. Dubose conquer her morphine addiction. Atticus also tells Jem,
"I wanted you to see something about her—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. It’s 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. Mrs. Dubose won, all ninety-eight pounds of her. According to her views, she died beholden to nothing and nobody. She was the bravest person I ever knew" (Lee, 115).
Overall, Atticus wants Jem to learn about "real courage" by reading to Mrs. Dubose and helping her conquer her morphine addiction. He wants Jem to see how Mrs. Dubose handles adversity in hopes that her courage will leave an indelible impression on his son.
Why does Atticus insist that Jem read to Mrs. Dubose? What does Atticus want the children to learn from the experience?
Atticus may have had a few lessons in mind when he asked Jem to read with Mrs. Dubose. Firstly, it's important to note that Jem was asked to read to Mrs. Dubose when he went to apologize to her for intentionally destroying her beloved flowers (camellias). He was upset with her for insulting Atticus a bit earlier in the story. Mrs. Dubose had shouted to Jem and Scout, "Your father's no better than the niggers and trash he works for!" (ch. 11).
Jem allowed his anger to grow (instead of dealing with his frustration in a healthy manner.) He utterly destroyed Mrs. Dubose's treasured flowers, as Lee states:
"He did not begin to calm down until he had cut the tops of every camellia bush Mrs. Dubose owned, until the ground was littered with green buds and leaves" (ch. 11).
Jem later went to apologize to Mrs. Dubose, after Atticus "strongly advise[d]" him to go and talk with her. He apologized and cleaned up his mess. He explained to Atticus, "I cleaned it up for her and said I was sorry, but I ain't, and that I'd work on 'em ever Saturday and try to make 'em grow back out" (ch. 11).
She asked him to read to her, as well, when he was talking with her. This time, rather than strongly encouraging Jem, Atticus told him he would read with her:
"'Atticus, do I have to?' 'Certainly.' 'But she wants me to do it for a month.' 'Then you'll do it for a month'" (ch. 11).
I think that Atticus wanted Jem to get to know Mrs. Dubose more and to understand some of the struggles that she endured. Perhaps he wanted Jem to see more of her life so that he could understand why she might be so angry. Though Jem didn't feel sorry when he first apologized, I think that Atticus knew that Jem would grow to feel sorry when he understood more about her. Atticus wanted Jem to see what a strong and brave woman Mrs. Dubose really was. As Atticus explained to Jem at the end of the chapter,
"I wanted you to see something about her -- 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. . . . She was the bravest person I ever knew" (ch. 11).
Why does Atticus insist that Jem read to Mrs. Dubose? What does Atticus want the children to learn from the experience?
Well, he says that he wants them to learn what real courage is, and we can assume that is true. Atticus was a man of his word. However, since it was a difficult experience, and the children had to continue to read and visit despite that, we can assume he was also wanting to teach them to hold to virtue under difficult circumstances. Finally, he might want to teach the effects of addiction (but that's least important here).
Greg