Dubose passed away and left him the camellia flower inside the candy box, his initial reaction was one of confusion and utter emotion. Atticus explains that she was a morphine addict and her hate and ugliness was often caused by her overcoming withdrawals. Jem never knew this, and his sudden insight overwhelms him. What Jem had seen on the surface as bigotry and racism, was just a thin layer of paint covering what Atticus considers more important -- courage. Jem learned that real courage is not 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,”