Although the children of Maycomb fear the acid-tongued
Mrs. Henry Lafayette Dubose, Atticus treats her with neighborly respect when he passes
her house.
... Atticus would sweep off his hat, wave
gallantly to her, and say, "Good evening, Mrs. Dubose! You look like a picture this
evening."
I never heard Atticus say like a picture of
what.
Mrs. Dubose obviously
respects Atticus as well, since we find out later in the chapter that she has entrusted
him with making out her will. You would never know it, however, from the way she speaks
of him when she screams at Jem and Scout from her front porch.Referring to Scout as "you
ugly girl," Mrs. Dubose then "terrified" her, warning that she will end up waiting on
tables at the O. K. Cafe. But Mrs. Dubose had saved her biggest insult for
Atticus.
"You're father's no better than the niggers and
trash he works for!"
Her
racist language is not really surprising, since she had grown up during the Civil War
and probably remembered the days of slavery in ante-bellum Alabama. She was from an
older generation not ready to accept the changing ways of the times. But the insulting
manner in which she spoke to Atticus is surprising, considering his own mannerly
disposition toward her, and her own decision to hire his legal services. Of course, as
Atticus explains to Jem later, it was only the morphine talking--the terrible addiction
which she had not yet kicked when she angered Jem and Scout.
No comments:
Post a Comment