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”.
Posts Tagged ‘addiction
Song: Stand (10-12)
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.
