How Does Harper Lee Use Foreshadowing Examples In To Kill A Mockingbird

Atticus considers Mrs. Dubose to be one of the most courageous people he has ever met. The children see her as the old neighbour lady who never has anything nice to say. Atticus explains to the children that Mrs. Dubose is a struggling morphine addict and is trying her best to break that addiction, even if it kills her. He tells them, "I wanted you to see what real courage is... It’s when you know you’re licked before you begin but you begin anyway and

The theme that courage is persevering through every challenge is shown when Mrs. Dubose dies free from her addiction to morphine. Jem Finch had been reading to Mrs. Dubose, a mean, old neighbor of his, to make up for ruining her garden. Jem had always thought of Mrs. Dubose as a sick, scary lady, but Atticus Finch, Jem’s father, informs him that Mrs. Dubose was actually a very brave and strong person. During her life, she became addicted to morphine; Mrs. Dubose promised herself she would die clean. When Mrs. Dubose did pass away, she was no longer taking morphine. Atticus explains Mrs. Dubose’s courage when he states, “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” (Lee, 61). Atticus is explaining that courage isn’t just “a man with a gun in his hand”. Courage is much more than that. Atticus is stating that courage is never giving up even if you encounter struggles and difficulties. Atticus’s words prove that courage is when you know you might not succeed but you don’t stop trying. Mrs. Dubose knew it would be difficult for her to stop using morphine, but she swore she would. She ended up dying clean from the drug because no matter what, she never gave up and never stopped trying. Through it

Through her determination to die free of morphine, Mrs. Dubose suffers tremendously from withdrawal showing that mental courage is more difficult to obtain than physical courage. Mrs. Dubose is a morphine addict who appears to be a racist based off of her interactions with Jem and Scout regarding Atticus’ defense of Tom Robinson. In a state of anger, Jem destroys Mrs. Dubose's camellias, and has to read to her for a whole month as a punishment. During this time, the children witnessed the pain that Mrs. Dubose has to endure from not using morphine, yet they could not see her goal and considered her to be disgusting, rather than to show her sympathy for her decision. By the end of her life, Mrs. Dubose has “died beholden to nothing and nobody” (149), she experienced true freedom before she passed away. Mrs. Dubose did

Harper Lee’s novel To Kill a Mockingbird is a study in the way people’s view of the world changes as they grow older. To Kill a Mockingbird is from the point of view of a six year old girl, Scout, the daughter of a lawyer. She is forced to grow up quickly when Atticus defends an innocent black man in the South, much to the dismay of most of the white citizens. Lee uses similes and personification in To Kill a Mockingbird to show the challenges and discoveries that children make while transitioning from a child to an adult.

Everyone has the potential for courage, however, not everyone takes advantage of it. Imagine the nerd taking advantage of talking to the pretty girl in the lunch-room and compare it to not taking the chance. Similarly, in Harper Lee’s story,”To Kill a Mockingbird”, characters employ their wits in order to overcome adversity. Frankly, when used, courage can help with the impossible.

The idea of foreshadowing is shown at certain scenes in the book to explain how the characters developing through difficult circumstances. According to the book Lord of the Flies, “Ralph made a step forward and Jack smacked Piggy’s head. Piggy’s glasses flew off and tinkled on the rocks. Piggy cried out in terror; ‘My specs!’” This scene foreshadows the death of Piggy by showing how the glasses break. This incident helps Ralph realize how harsh he behaved towards Piggy. From the text of The Color of Water, “ We had to meet at city hall to get our marriage license on a Saturday…”. This part of the book foreshadows the beginning of Ruth’s new life with the black community. This helps her grow through her life because Dennis gave Ruth a new life helped her through her hard times. Both the novels use a great amount of foreshadowing to show how the characters grow by learning lessons from their difficult

Dubose insults atticus ruthlessly but he finds a way to have empathy for her. Ms. Dubose says that Atticus is ruining the Finch family name and is a disgrace. In ch 11 Ms. Dubose brings her insults to an extreme as she tells Scout “[her] father’s no better than the… trash he works for”(134). Ms. Dubose’s insult highlights how terrible of a person she is and how hard it is for Atticus to empathize with her. Atticus knows Ms. Dubose is ill but many people taking this extremity of an insult in Atticus’s place would retaliate and not empathize with Ms. Dubose. However, Atticus still does not hate her, and by not hating her Atticus is able to empathize with her and find out how courageous she really is, which shows Scout that she can empathize with even the most racist people in the world. Atticus praises Ms. Dubose and says: “ 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”(Lee 149). Atticus’s quote on how Ms. Dubose displayed real courage is very significant. The quote is extremely ironic as Ms. Dubose is portrayed as a racist and someone who is not very courageous. Atticus not hating Ms. Dubose is a very important demonstration for Scout, who again is forced to empathize with people she does not like. Overall, Atticus shows that by not hating people, you can find much more about them and even empathize with

In the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee shows Ms. Dubose’s certainty and doubt. In chapter 11, Atticus is talking to Jem and Scout about Ms. Dubose’s death and said, "She said she was going to leave this world beholden to nothing and nobody. Jem, when you're sick as she was, it's all right to take anything to make it easier, but it wasn't all right for her. She said she meant to break herself of it before she died, and that's what she did." Even though she was a morphine addict and slowly dying, she was certain to die her way. She could have doubted her strength against the drug, yet she fought through it. Jem read to her everyday as a punishment for losing his head and helped her focus to stay awake. It was because of her certainty that she obtained her goal of dying in her own way.

Atticus shows true courage by doing what is right and not what is easy. He sticks up for Tom Robinson even when the whole town is against him. This affects his social life and even the life of his children, but he realizes that believing in what is right is still important. But sometimes, holding a gun is not always true courage, true courage is working your whole life to fulfil your goals. Atticus says, “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 through it no matter what” (149). Mrs. Dubose was hated by Jem and Scout but when they realize the truth, they feel extremely guilty. She tried to get over her morphine addiction by having Jem and Scout help read to her. Atticus understood the truth, and he saw Mrs. Dubose’s courage. He knew she was extremely close to death but that didn’t stop her from trying to die

The literary terms that I chose are Foreshadowing, Flashback and Prologue. The Documentary series that I have picked is about the witch trials that took place in the 1500’s to the 1600’s. In the series Dr. Lipscomb tells us about how the witch-hunts began in Europe, she also talked about how King James came to believe the stories about the witches. In the series she talked about the torture that most woman, who did not confess to being a witch endured, some of the torturing included the thumbnail that crushes the bones until the bones in the fingers were crushed. I chose foreshadowing because the title gave away some of the information that the audience has yet to see. Flashback took the audience back to the beginning of the whole trails,

For example, when they are all running away from the mad dog because it is scary to them. Calpurnia is running around trying to get everyone away from the mad dog. She says,” You stay inside that house!” (Lee 93). This reveals or could foreshadow in one’s own opinion that the community will run from what is really happening in the Ewell house and convict a non-guilty man because they think that every black man is guilty just because of their skin color. Another example could be when, Atticus is getting home from the courthouse after losing the case Jem asked him, “How could they do it, how could they?” (Lee 213). And Atticus response was, “I don’t know, but they did it. They’ve done it before and they did it tonight and they’ll do it again…” (Lee 213). This shows the reader that Maycomb County has learned nothing from this case and will continue to be racist and convict men that are not guilty of the crime accused of just because they are a different color than the ones that sat upon the

In chapter 3, Scout states; “Jem and I hated her. If she was on the porch when we passed, we would be raked by her wrathful gaze, subjected to ruthless interrogation regarding our behaviour”. When Jem, cuts Mrs Dubose camellias, in chapter 11 for insulting Atticus, his punishment was to read to her every day. When he read to her he found it disturbing that she had fits and after a month Mrs Dubose dies. It was only known to Jem later that she had these fits because she was seriously ill and had become addicted to morphine. By Jem reading to her, it was distracting her from her addiction and she would be able to die clear from utilizing painkillers. Atticus later states that “I wanted you to see what real courage is...You rarely win, but sometimes you do. Mrs. Dubose won...she died beholden to nothing and nobody. She was the bravest person I ever knew."(Chapter 11) This was significant as, even though the children thought of her as a spiteful woman, she was going through a personal time in her life that made her that way. Mrs Dubose relates to the quote as even though she came across as horrible, other people needed to put themselves in her position and perceive how badly she was struggling with her

In To Kill a Mockingbird, Mrs. Dubose was very mean and said very bad things about Atticus Finch. When Atticus talks about Mrs. Dubose to his children, he says, “I wanted you to see what real courage is… She was the bravest person I ever knew.”(149). Now was Mrs. Dubose really a brave person. While some people might argue that she is because she wasn’t scared to talk about Atticus the way she did, others will argue that Mrs. Dubose is not a very courageous person. First, Mrs. Dubose does talk about Atticus in a very bad way. She even said “Your father’s no better than the niggers and trash he works for!”(135). That could show some courage, but if people were true to themselves, they would realize that anyone can have the courage to say something

Mrs. Dubose displays acts of personal courage in her honesty and strength. When Jem and Scout walk past her house to go meet Atticus on his way home,

Dubose insulted Atticus because he was defending Tom Robinson in trial. I was furious at her and cut the tops off every camellia bush Mrs. Dubose owned. As a punishment, she made me read to her everyday for a month. At first, I resented her and the reading but I got used to it and eventually enjoyed reading to her. Around a month after I finished reading to her, Atticus told me she passed away. He told me Mrs. Dubose was a morphine addict and was trying to quit because she wanted to die obliged to nothing and nobody. She was in pain due to not taking morphine for her sickness and wanted me to read to her to distract her from the pain. I had a newfound respect for Mrs. Dubose after I heard that. What she did was one of the most courageous acts I’ve heard