This song by Rascal Flatts represents true inner courage in a hopeless time when all odds are against you. Mrs. Dubose was morbidly addicted to morphine and had been suffering from drug withdrawal for many years. The addiction turned her into a woman angry at everything, living her life in hate. Mrs. Dubose could’ve chosen to take the morphine for the rest of her life, but chose to try to live without the drug. However, she could no longer feel normal without the morphine the doctor gave her for whatever happened to her. She knew she had a microscopic chance of curing the addiction, but she tried to anyway. She was devoted to leaving the world cured of the addiction and did anything to distract her from it. Near the end of her life she even had Jem Finch read to her for hours and hours every day, trying not to focus on her addiction to morphine. When she died a little later, she had accomplished her goal of leaving the addiction behind. Atticus stated that she died “as free as the mountain air” and that she showed real courage, which was “when you know you’re licked before you begin but you begin anyway and see through it no matter what”.
Archive for May 13th, 2009
Song: Stand (10-12)
Jem said this right after Atticus shot the crazy dog in one shot. It is found in chapter 10, page 98. This is an important quote because its part of a very important part of the book but it also shows us something about Atticus that wasn’t expected, but it also shows Scout and Jem that their dad isn’t as old as they think he is. It’s important to show Scout and Jem that Atticus isn’t as old as they think because it make them look at him in a different perspective. I believe that if he had never shot the dog, Scout and Jem would still think that he is old and not want to be around their own dad. To me, this quote is what starts to form the structure for what is going to happen in the rest of the book.
At long last, the title of the book actually does make sense. “Mockingbirds don’t do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don’t eat up people’s gardens, don’t nest in corncribs, they don’t do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That’s why it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.” (pg 119) This picture is of a sad mockingbird. All the mockingbird tries to do is make somebody happy… anyone. However, the characters in the book (much like almost every human at some point) are too busy focusing on flaws of everything to actually stop and listen to the mockingbird’s song. It’s a sin to kill a mockingbird, and the mockingbird to me represents good intentions but ignorant people. It’s wrong to point fingers at people… to be judgmental without knowing the whole picture. Yet in the book, there are various cases of this ignorance (with Atticus, with Boo, and possibly with Tom Robinson). We’re all human, but sometimes we need to stop and think… there’s two sides to every story.
image credits: http://sahallquist.wordpress.com/
Once Miss Maudie explained why it was a sin to kill a mockingbird, it became clear why the book had that name. One of the big themes in this book is the gradual loss of innocence during one’s life and the discovery of evil in the world or the destruction of their lives by the evil in the world. Many people in the novel are like a killed mockingbird, average citizens who were destroyed for no good reason. A huge example of a mockingbird in the novel is Boo Radley, who used to be a polite young man until his family isolated him from the world due to their religious beliefs, now perceived as an evil monster by the children of Maycomb. A small example of a mockingbird is Tim Johnson, the mad dog that Atticus shot in chapter ten. Tim Johnson was just a normal dog living his life when he turned ill and got rabies or something, making it necessary for him to be killed. Mrs. Dubose is another example, a woman who was put on morphine by the doctor and got hopelessly addicted to it. When she wasn’t given anymore of the drug, Mrs. Dubose spent the rest of her life suffering from severe effects of withdrawal and it prevented her from living a fulfilled life.
Ol’ One-Shot (10-12)
The main thing that stood out to me about this section was the mad dog scene. When I began reading I remember thinking, “What does any of this random talk about other people’s fathers have anything to do with anything?” To Kill a Mockingbird does jump topics pretty quickly after all (not saying it’s bad, seeing as it all relates eventually). It surprised me that Atticus was the one to take down the dog, especially with one shot. I also liked how Scout wanted to brag, but Jem told her not to. Jem was right in saying that Atticus would’ve told them if it was that important, although I don’t exactly think he should’ve hid it from them. The scene did sort of disappoint me in a way though… I mean, couldn’t it have been just a little more dramatic? THE MAD DOG LUNGED TOWARD ATTICUS, AND WITH A SINGLE FIRE FELL LIFELESS TO THE GROUND. Sure, it wouldn’t make that much of a difference, but reading about how a dog was half-limping snail slow only to be finally put out of its misery isn’t exactly “exciting”. Having some crazy foaming-at-the-mouth dog would’ve been about just as relevant as the boring snail-slow dog, seeing as the main point of the scene was to show Atticus’ hidden “gift”. Oh well. That was just what I thought.
