Miss Maudie In To Kill A Mockingbird

“Jem’s head at times was transparent he had thought that up to make me understand he wasn’t afraid of the Radley’s in any shape or form, to contrast his own fearless heroism with my cowardice.” (Lee Pg.51) At the beginning of To Kill a Mockingbird, written by the talented and late Harper Lee in nineteen sixty, Jem was seen as a friend and someone you could mess around with, in Maycomb Alabama. Approaching the end of the compelling novel he is viewed as a strong willed yet gentle young man. Through Jem’s interactions with Atticus, Miss Maudie, Mrs. Dubose and his younger sister Scout, Jem grows from a naïve boy to a mature young man who understands the meaning of true courage.
Chapter fifteen is a prime example where Jem learns a valuable …show more content…
She teaches an extremely significant lesson to Jem and Scout, and that lesson aids the children to view their father as she does. Miss Maudie holds a vast amount of respect for Atticus. His honesty and caring attitude are only two things that she observes clearly inside him. Her view of Atticus aids the children in understanding more about the Tom Robinson case by trusting their views of him than listening to all the other children that spread rumors and gossip about him. Later on, when Tom Robinson’s case is being held and Scout and Jem are on their way to watch the trial, they encounter Miss Maudie. She quietly sat on her porch looking out at the empty street when Jem, being the curious little boy he is, asks her why she was just sitting there and not going to the trial. “It’s morbid, watching a poor devil on trial for his life. Look at those folks, it’s like a Roman Carnival. … Just because it’s public, I don’t have to go, do I?” (Pg. 213) Back then, in the nineteen-fifties making trials public was one way of guaranteeing that they were a fair fight. I feel that stressing that importance of a public trial helped show the audience that this trial was a fair fight, yet unfair because of the racial discrimination then. If Tom Robinson was a white man, this problem probably would not have had to be taken to court and his life would have been spared. Given that he was a black man, the trial was made public …show more content…
Dubose. Throughout the novel we are able to imagine the spiteful and wicked old women that lived down the street. One day in retaliation of hearing enough of the hateful comments, relentless Jem destroys all the camellia bushes in Mrs. Dubose’s front yard. As a punishment Atticus creates a well thought-out plan and instructed the children to go to Mrs. Dubose’s house and read to her. Although Mrs. Dubose behaves like a mean-spirited old woman, Atticus wanted to teach the children to recognize her bravery in kicking her morphine addiction despite the pain it caused. “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… You rarely win, but sometimes you do.” (Pg. 149) Jem learns that there is more to people than just what they show on the surface. He also learns the very important value of self control. Jem must control himself, manage his impulses and show kindness even when he may not want to. Jem had to learn physical courage just to mount Mrs. Dubose’s “steep steps” along with learning moral courage, as Atticus tries to teach him by being calm, cool and collected while receiving her insults, “he would gaze at Mrs. Dubose with a face devoid of resentment. … He had cultivated an expression of polite and detached interest, which he would present to her in answer to her most blood curdling inventions.” (Pg.

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