Symbolism and foreshadowing are literary techniques used in Chapter 11.
Symbolism is a technique where one thing stands for something else. Author’s use it to make a thematic statement. In this chapter, Mrs. Dubose is a symbol, and so are her camellias. The chapter also uses foreshadowing, because the incident with Mrs. Dubose and Atticus’s explanation of her courage foreshadow trouble to come from the Finches.
Mrs. Dubose has previously been introduced as a mean...
Symbolism and foreshadowing are literary techniques used in Chapter 11.
Symbolism is a technique where one thing stands for something else. Author’s use it to make a thematic statement. In this chapter, Mrs. Dubose is a symbol, and so are her camellias. The chapter also uses foreshadowing, because the incident with Mrs. Dubose and Atticus’s explanation of her courage foreshadow trouble to come from the Finches.
Mrs. Dubose has previously been introduced as a mean old lady. In this chapter Scout and Jem have their first significant encounter with her. She is horrible to them when she attacks their father for his defense of Tom Robinson.
“Yes indeed, what has this world come to when a Finch goes against his raising?
I’ll tell you!” She put her hand to her mouth. When she drew it away, it trailed a long silver thread of saliva. “Your father’s no better than the niggers and trash he works for!” (Ch. 11)
Jem gets upset when he hears this, and loses it. He has had enough of people insulting their father, and Mrs. Dubose’s racist comments send him over the edge. He takes Scout’s baton and destroys her flowers. She thinks that he has gone crazy.
Mrs. Dubose becomes a symbol of racism and intolerance. This is why Jem attacks her flowers. He can't really attack her, after all. Atticus’s reaction is to send Jem and Scout to read to Mrs. Dubose every day until she tells them not to come anymore. As time goes on, they read longer and longer. One day, Atticus tells them she has died. She was trying to wean herself off of a morphine addiction. He explains that he wanted them to go there so they could learn the real meaning of courage.
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. You rarely win, but sometimes you do. (Ch. 11)
Mrs. Dubose winning the struggle is meaningful to Atticus, but also to the story. The struggle and Atticus’s explanation of it foreshadow the problems that Atticus will have with the Tom Robinson trial. He is telling his children that they will need courage, and he will too. The courage Atticus will display at the trial is not the physical kind. It is the moral kind, like Mrs. Dubose standing up to her addiction.
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