what chapter does atticus talk to scout about the case
Advisor: Lucinda MacKethan, Emerita Professor of English, North Carolina State University, National Humanities Centre Fellow
©2014 National Humanities Center
Warning: This lesson includes language within the text reflective of the fourth dimension in which the text was written. This language is now considered offensive.
In To Kill a Mockingbird what does Atticus Finch's human relationship with the minor merely of import character Mrs. Henry Lafayette Dubose advise about the quality of his moral vision?
Agreement
In To Impale a Mockingbird Mrs. Henry Lafayette Dubose embodies and gives public vocalism to the values and attitudes of the Erstwhile South. The way the novel's protagonist Atticus Finch responds to her suggests that he lacks the disquisitional perspective needed to acknowledge the depth and pervasiveness of his community'south racism.
Text
Harper Lee, To Kill A Mockingbird, affiliate 11.
Text Blazon
Fiction
Text Complication
Grades xi-CCR complexity ring.
For more than information on text complexity see these resource from achievethecore.org.
Click here for standards and skills for this lesson.
X
Mutual Core Land Standards
- ELA-LITERACY.RI.9-10.3 (Analyze how the author unfolds an analysis or series of ideas or events.)
- ELA-LITERACY.RI.9-x.iv (Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative, connotative, and technical meanings.)
Teacher's Note
(Page numbers refer to the 1982 Grand Central Publishing paperback edition.)
The publication of Go Fix a Watchman in 2015 focused considerable attention on the moral vision of Atticus Finch. Readers who establish him to be an exemplar of tolerance and courage in To Kill a Mockingbird were shocked to hear him voice racist views in Watchman. How could the character who was so enlightened in his original incarnation, set in the 1930s, go so bigoted in his 2d coming, set in the 1950s? Readers and critics scrutinized Mockingbird to see if the Atticus who defended Tom Robinson contained the seeds of the Atticus who twenty years later joined the Klan-like Citizens' Quango. They might profitably accept focused on affiliate eleven, for at that place we acquire that Atticus suffers from a moral bullheaded spot, which prevents him from fully acknowledging his customs's racism. Analyzing that chapter, this lesson offers students the opportunity to develop a critical perspective on Atticus's judgment and character.
At the outset it is critical to emphasize how deeply embedded Atticus is in Maycomb. "He liked Maycomb," the narrator tells u.s. early on in the novel, "he was Maycomb Canton born and bred; he knew his people; they knew him…. Atticus was related by blood or marriage to nearly every family in the boondocks." (p. half dozen) For Atticus the community of Maycomb is essentially a spider web of personal relationships. On i hand, this is commendable because it enables him to know the boondocks's residents as individuals and to make allowances for their shortcomings and foibles. On the other hand, however, it is a trouble because it denies him the critical distance needed to place those shortcomings and foibles in any larger moral context.
We get-go become aware of Atticus'south blind spot when he explains the Robinson instance to his brother. It is essentially a lost cause thanks to "Maycomb's usual disease." "Why reasonable people go stark raving mad," he laments, "when anything involving a Negro comes up, is something I don't pretend to empathize." (p. 117) This is a curious admission for the "Maycomb County born and bred" lawyer who knows his people. It suggests a peculiar innocence in a thoughtful, well-read man who ought to know better. "Maycomb'south usual disease" has many causes, but surely, Atticus must be aware of its historical roots, if for no other reason than that a vocal embodiment of that history holds forth just yards from his own dwelling.
Chapter 11 is a critical department of the novel. It concludes the largely idyllic portrayal of Maycomb we see in part 1 and deepens the foreshadowing of the tragedy we run across in part two. Importantly, withal, it presents Mrs. Henry Lafayette Dubose, a pocket-size but important character in the story. The lesson's text analysis explores her meaning equally a symbol and her function in the boondocks.
Clearly, Mrs. Dubose represents the traditional order of the Amalgamated Due south. I way Harper Lee establishes this association is to give Mrs. Dubose a taste for the novels of Sir Walter Scott, whose romantic visions of aristocracy and gentility shaped the Old South's image of itself. Students are unlikely to recognize that association, notwithstanding, and illustrating information technology would almost require another lesson, then it goes unexplored hither. Most certainly, though, students will connect her to the Confederate South through the CSA pistol she is rumored to hide beneath her shawl, and the lesson does explore that. Peradventure more important, the lesson examines the symbolic import of the camellias Mrs. Dubose proudly cultivates. At one point Lee juxtaposes them with Mrs. Dubose views on race (p. 144). They serve equally something of a stand-in for Mrs. Dubose herself when Jem, in response to her insults, decapitates the Snowfall-on-the Mountains that border her porch. They take on deeper symbolic resonance when we realize that the camellia is not only the state flower of Alabama just is also associated with the Knights of the White Camellia, a Ku Klux Klan-like organization, founded in 1867, to enforce white supremacy in the South. These associations imbue Jem'southward devastation of Mrs. Dubose's blossoms, his admission that side by side time he would pull the bushes upwardly past their roots, and his ambiguous "fingering" of the flower at the end of the chapter with considerable symbolic import.
To suggest further Mrs. Dubose'southward clan with the Confederate South, you might ask students to speculate on her age. If you do, yous will probably get responses ranging from sixty to eighty. For the sake of illustration, y'all might desire to settle on lxx and ask students to calculate the approximate year of her birth. The novel seems to be prepare around 1935 or 36. (The narrator mentions the demise of the National Recovery Administration (p. 336), which was shut down in 1935 when the Supreme Court declared the National Recovery Act unconstitutional.) Based on those dates, Mrs. Dubose would have been born around 1865 or 66, at the cease of or before long after the Ceremonious State of war. Thus you lot might inquire how events she witnessed as she came of age in the South — the defeat of the Confederacy, the impoverishment of the region, Reconstruction, and the imposition of Jim Crow — might accept shaped her attitudes and values, especially on matters of race.
The lesson explores not just what Mrs. Dubose represents merely also how she functions in the town. She "stations" (p. 134), an important word whose connotations the lesson examines, herself on her porch at a key approach to downtown Maycomb, whence she passes judgment not simply on the Finch children but presumably on everyone who passes past. Her judgments reflect the values and attitudes of her heritage. She embodies the quondam Southern order and, as she is presented in the novel, is the chief enforcer of its mores. Frail and passing she may be, but she is all the same a public and vocal communicator of the racist credo that shaped her and the civilization of her region. How Watch, Jem, and Atticus respond to her suggests much about their willingness and ability to acknowledge the depth and pervasiveness of Maycomb's racism.
Upwards to affiliate eleven only children, Cecil Jacobs and cousin Francis, accept called Atticus a "nigger lover," undoubtedly echoing the opinion of their parents. Mrs. Dubose, from her porch, is the first adult to level that insult (p. 136), and she goes beyond information technology with language far more acidic than that which Cecil and Francis utilise. "Your father'southward no improve than the niggers and trash he works for," she hollers at Scout and Jem as they pass her house (p. 135) Upbraiding Jem for mumbling during ane of his penitential reading sessions, she taunts him: "Don't approximate you experience like holding [your head] up… with your father what he is" (p. 146).
Information technology is important to emphasize how vitriolic and wounding her language is. "So y'all brought that muddied trivial sister of yours," she sneers upon seeing Scout with Jem on one visit (p. 141). Moreover, information technology is essential to have students empathise just what Mrs. Dubose does to Picket and Jem in their hours with her. "Mrs. Dubose would hound Jem," the narrator tells us, "on her favorite subjects, her camellias and our father'due south nigger-loving propensities" (p. 144). Hither, solar day afterward solar day, an adult, respected, indeed admired by their father and perhaps by the entire town, seeks to communicate the white supremacist heritage of the Old Due south to Jem and Scout, in effect to a new generation of Southerners. However Atticus cannot bring himself to point out how morally reprehensible that legacy is. He dismisses information technology as a set of views "a lot different" from his own and qualifies fifty-fifty that balmy demur with "perhaps" (p. 149). When he seeks to explain Mrs. Dubose's insults to Jem, his compassion amounts to evasion. "Jem," he says, "she is old and ill. Yous can't hold her responsible for what she says and does" (p. 140). Nearly certainly, he has long been aware of Mrs. Dubose'south views on race. To aspect them now to her age and wellness is, similar his bafflement over the roots of "Maycomb's usual illness," an example of his unwillingness to admit fully his community'southward racism.
In chapter 11 Scout, Jem, and Atticus judge the old woman. "Jem and I hated her," says Scout (p. 132). "She was roughshod" (p. 133). "She was horrible" (p. 142). It is important to remind students that these judgments are not those of the six-year-former Watch or the nine-twelvemonth-old Jem but rather those of the adult Scout, the narrator, who is looking dorsum on her past and offering a considered assessment of it. And her assessment of Mrs. Dubose sharply contradicts that of Atticus who believed Mrs. Dubose to be "a dandy lady," "the bravest person" he e'er knew (p. 149). Upon hearing Atticus describe her that way, Jem throws the processed box that contained her posthumous peace offering into the fire. What does this activeness suggest near his mental attitude toward Mrs. Dubose and his male parent'due south paean to her courage?
Why does Atticus hold Mrs. Dubose in such esteem? The answer lies, maybe, in the blazon of courage he attributes to her. According to Atticus, "existent courage" is beginning a struggle "when y'all know you're licked before you begin" but commencement anyhow and seeing it "information technology through no thing what" (p. 149). It is, in short, persisting in a lost cause. This is precisely the aforementioned sort of courage Atticus displays in his defense of Tom Robinson. "The jury," he tells his brother, "couldn't possibly be expected to take Tom Robinson'south word confronting the Ewells'" (p. 117). Atticus may place with Mrs. Dubose, seeing in her struggle with morphine addiction a reflection of his struggle with the Robinson case.
Who is right about Mrs. Dubose, Atticus or his children? Was she a "not bad lady" or an "old hell-devil"? The lesson asks students to determine. The conclusion of affiliate 11, richly ambiguous, offers little guidance. What does Jem'southward "fingering" of the gift camellia correspond? Is he simply trying to calm down afterwards his confrontation with his father? Is he reconsidering his opinion of Mrs. Dubose in the light of Atticus'south defense force of her? Is he questioning the moral judgment of his male parent who seems to evince an like shooting fish in a barrel, conceited acceptance of the racist views that stung him into a rage? And what about Atticus? When he settles back to read the local paper, is he only resuming his bookish ways, or is he evading the truth about Mrs. Dubose and the community of Maycomb past distracting himself with the comforting minutiae of life in his little town?
This lesson is divided into two parts, both accessible beneath. The teacher'due south guide includes a background note, a text analysis with responses to close reading questions, and an optional follow-upwardly consignment. The educatee version, an interactive PDF, contains all of the above except the responses to the close reading questions and the follow-upwardly assignment.
Teacher's Guide (continues below)
| Student Version (click to open)
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Teacher'southward Guide
Background
To Kill a Mockingbird is i of the nearly popular novels ever to be published in the Us. Since it appeared in 1960, millions of copies have been sold, and in 1962 it was made into an laurels-winning movie. Readers have embraced its protagonist, lawyer Atticus Finch, as a hero, a brave man who follows his conscience in the pursuit of justice even though about of his neighbors oppose him, and he knows his cause is lost.
Even though the racism of the Atticus who appears in Go Set a Watchman, the showtime draft of To Kill a Mockingbird published in 2015, has disappointed many, there is much to admire in him every bit he was portrayed in 1960. Nonetheless, equally careful readers we must seek to sympathise him fully. This lesson follows suggestions in chapter 11 that raise questions well-nigh the scope and depth of his moral vision.
Chapter xi, which concludes part one of the novel, ends the largely idyllic portrayal of Maycomb and deepens the foreshadowing of the tragedy we come across in office ii. Chiefly, yet, it introduces Mrs. Henry Lafayette Dubose, a modest only of import graphic symbol. This lesson examines what she represents; how she functions in the novel, and how Sentry, Jem, and Atticus respond to her. The children's view of her is very unlike from that of Atticus, and that sharp difference raises questions well-nigh Atticus's power and willingness to acknowledge the racism of his customs. Scout, Jem, and Atticus approximate Mrs. Dubose, and this lesson asks you lot to approximate their judgments.
Text Assay
Mrs. Dubose and the Town
Scout and Mrs. Dubose, from "To Kill A Mockingbird," 1962.
i. At the kickoff of chapter xi the narrator tell us that it was "impossible to get to town without passing" the habitation of Mrs. Henry Lafayette Dubose. What position does Mrs. Dubose'south home occupy in Maycomb?
If it is incommunicable for the Finch children to become to town without passing Mrs. Dubose's home, it must exist impossible for many others, too. Thus her habitation is located at a key entry point to the heart of Maycomb. One might say that she controls the approach to the town from one direction.
2. "It was rumored," the narrator says, that Mrs. Dubose keeps a "CSA pistol" nether her shawls. What does CSA stand for?
Confederate States of America, the official proper name of the government that attempted to secede from the United States in 1861.
iii. What does the fact that Mrs. Dubose concealment of a pistol is "rumored" advise?
Obviously, it suggests that no one knows for sure if she is concealing a gun, only information technology also suggests that she is plenty of a public presence in the town to be the bailiwick of the sort of speculation and discussion that spawn rumor.
4. When Scout and Jem pass her house, Mrs. Dubose is not simply sitting on her porch; she is "stationed" there. What connotations does the word "stationed" comport?
It has military connotations, suggesting the placement of soldiers in strategic locations.
five. Considering that Mrs. Dubose's firm controls a key arroyo to Maycomb'due south business district, that she may exist armed, and that she "stations" herself on her porch, how does Harper Lee nowadays her in the opening pages of chapter 11?
She presents her as a sentinel or guard who is on sentinel to protect the town in some mode.
6. What does Mrs. Dubose do from her outpost on the porch?
She questions people who pass by, rather in the way a guard might. She likewise passes judgment on their behavior.
7. What does information technology suggest virtually Mrs. Dubose's opinions that she sometimes delivers them in a voice so loud the entire neighborhood can hear them?
It suggests that her judgments take a public dimension, that she is speaking to the town. Considering what we learn about Maycomb's general mental attitude toward Atticus's defense of Tom Robinson — Spotter tells him most folks think he is wrong — she is apparently speaking for the boondocks equally well.
viii. When Jem and Lookout man laissez passer her house, Mrs. Dubose insults their father. What is her main complaint against Atticus?
That he has gone "against his raising," in other words, that he has betrayed his class, his family unit, and the traditions of the boondocks in which he grew up, traditions that Mrs. Dubose represents and upholds in the public judgments she renders from her porch.
9. How exercise we know that Mrs. Dubose is trying to be deliberately hurtful with these remarks?
When she sees Jem's response to her insult — "Jem stiffened" — she knew that her "shot had gone home," and she continues her taunting.
10. Why is it significant that the narrator tells us that Mrs. Dubose'due south insults "aimed at Atticus" were the first she had heard "from an adult"?
Up to this point in the novel, only children, Cecil Jacobs and cousin Francis, have insulted Atticus. Their attacks bear less weight than those of adults, fifty-fifty though they may echo the opinions of adults. With Mrs. Dubose, however, an quondam and possibly revered figure has passed judgment on Atticus'due south behavior. Given the role that she plays in Maycomb — that of town sentinel and public enforcer of its traditions — it is clear that she speaks for much of the community of Maycomb. Her words acquit substantial weight.
Mrs. Dubose and Her Camellias
"Snow-on-the-Mountains" camellias
Annotation: To understand fully the symbolism of the camellias, it helps to know that the camellia is the state flower of Alabama and that information technology is associated with the Knights of the White Camellia, a Ku Klux Klan-like arrangement, founded in 1867, to enforce white supremacy in the post-Civil War South.
11. When Jem and Sentinel visit Mrs. Dubose to read to her, she "would hound Jem" on her "favorite subjects." What are they?
Her camellias and Atticus'southward "nigger-loving propensities."
12. Equally we accept seen, Harper Lee links Mrs. Dubose'due south camellias with her views on race and her insulting behavior toward Atticus and the children. How do these associations explain why Jem attacks the flowers?
When Jem cuts the heads off the camellias, he is responding to the insults Mrs. Dubose she has delivered against his male parent and the Finch family unit. He cannot assault her, then he does the adjacent all-time thing: he goes after her prized flowers. The camellias are a stand up-in for the old lady herself.
13. After Jem attacks the flowers, Mrs. Dubose taunts him by saying that the blossoms have re-grown. Considering the associations that cluster around Mrs. Dubose's camellias, what does their re-growth symbolize?
Information technology symbolizes the resilience of the attitudes and values held past Mrs. Dubose.
14. In symbolic terms, what does Jem's admission that he would pull the camellia bushes up by their roots advise?
Together the camellias and Mrs. Dubose symbolize the old Confederate South whose attitudes toward race still deeply inform the community of Maycomb. Jem's admission that he would pull them up by the roots suggests that he stands in profound opposition to those attitudes. He is likely to be far less accepting of the tradition represented by Mrs. Dubose than his father is.
Judging Mrs. Dubose
xv. What causes does Atticus cite to business relationship for what Mrs. Dubose says and does?
He attributes her views and her behavior to her historic period and sick-wellness.
16. What other causes might he accept cited?
If, in preparing for the lesson, you lot had your students explore the events Mrs. Dubose experience growing upwards in the postal service-Civil War Due south, yous might refer to that discussion here. She came of historic period when the ideology of white supremacy dominated Southern civilization, and undoubtedly that culture had a powerful shaping event on her. Harper Lee presents her as a living embodiment of it. She is frail and passing but nonetheless a potent public spokeswoman for the racism she grew upwards with.
17. Is Atticus letting Mrs. Dubose off too easily? Explain your respond.
Some students will agree with Atticus that the former adult female — ill, addled past morphine, and dying — should not be held responsible for her views or her behavior. But judging from what we see of her, neither her views non her behavior is a recent development, resulting from the deterioration of her health. Apparently, she has launched her opinions from her front porch for some time, and Atticus himself acknowledges her long-continuing racist views. Atticus'due south exoneration of Mrs. Dubose could exist interpreted as an evasion, a deliberate refusal to acknowledge her complicity in sustaining the boondocks'south racism.
18. When, at the finish of the chapter, Jem opens Mrs. Dubose's souvenir, he calls her an "quondam hell-devil"? Why?
Jem has felt the direct sting of her racist insults.
19. Atticus is quick to translate Mrs. Dubose'southward gift as a peace offering and to assure Jem that "everything is all correct." Is "everything all right"?
For Atticus it is. He sees the community of Maycomb as a web of personal relationships, and when Mrs. Dubose mends hers with Jem, everything is, indeed, all right. But for Jem everything does not appear to be all right.
20. By presenting Jem with the gift of a camellia, what, in symbolic terms, is Mrs. Dubose asking Jem to practice?
Symbolically, she is request Jem to accept the heritage she and her camellias represent.
21. Atticus defines "real courage" as persevering in a lost cause, seeing a struggle though even though y'all know you are going to lose. Why would this definition of backbone be especially appealing to him, and why would information technology cause him to adore Mrs. Dubose?
This is the sort of courage he is displaying in his defense force of Tom Robinson. He knows he will not convince the jury to take Robinson'due south word over that of the Ewells, but he is forging ahead anyway. Assertive that Mrs. Dubose displays the same courage, he may come across his struggle in the Robinson case reflected in her struggle against drug addiction.
Scout and Atticus Finch, from "To Kill A Mockingbird," 1962.
22. What does Jem do after his father praises Mrs. Dubose?
He throws the box that contained her gift into the burn.
23. What does this activity suggest well-nigh his response to Mrs. Dubose, her gift, and his father's view of the old lady?
Information technology suggests that, at least to some degree, he rejects all three. It is important to note, however, that he does keep the flower.
24. What does Jem's "fingering" of the camellia propose?
The meaning of this act is cryptic. Jem may simply be trying to at-home downwards after his confrontation with his father, or he may be reconsidering his opinion of Mrs. Dubose. Then, likewise, he might be critically questioning what seems to exist his father's easy, complacent credence of Mrs. Dubose'south virulent racism.
25. How do you interpret Atticus's return to his reading of the local newspaper?
The significant of this deed is cryptic, too. Atticus may simply be resuming his academic ways, just students may sense some smugness or complacency on Atticus'due south part every bit he settles in to read while his son broods. Clearly, he has non convinced Jem that Mrs. Dubose was a "great lady." The male child is in some mode processing his confrontation with his male parent. Atticus seems unaware of the seriousness of what simply happened. His retreat to his paper may amount to an evasion of the truth about Mrs. Dubose and near Maycomb itself.
26. In chapter 11 Jem, Scout, and Atticus gauge Mrs. Dubose. "Jem and I hated her," says Scout. "She was vicious." "She was horrible." However Atticus considers her a "groovy lady," the "bravest person" he ever knew. Do y'all agree with the children or Atticus? Explain your answer.
(Note to teacher: Yous may want to make the response to this question a follow-upwardly written assignment.)
Follow-Up Assignment
Choose one of the following themes explored in affiliate eleven of To Kill a Mockingbird: racism, the generation gap, the role of history in the present, or another theme equally designated by your teacher. In what means can you lot run into this same theme present either in other literature or in our world today? Use specific examples to develop a comparison between chapter 11 and literature or the earth today. Organize and construct a short (2 minutes) oral presentation on your findings and share with your classmates. Equally yous speak, be sure to begin with a clear thesis and give specific examples to bear witness your points.
Text:
- Harper Lee, To Kill A Mockingbird, HarperCollins: 1960 (Grand Central Publishing edition: 1982), chapter 11.
Images:
- Watch (Mary Badham) and Mrs. Dubose (Ruth White) in "To Kill A Mockingbird," 1962. Universal International Pictures, Silver Screen Collection.
- Scout (Mary Badham) and Atticus Finch (Gregory Peck) in "To Kill A Mockingbird," 1962. Universal International Pictures, Argent Screen Collection.
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Source: https://americainclass.org/the-moral-vision-of-atticus-finch/
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