Atticus asks why Scout's asking for a definition if she understood it well enough to make it the reason for a fight, and Scout says that it was the way Francis said it that got on her nerves.
Atticus tells her that the term doesn't mean anything, but it's something "ignorant, trashy people use […] when they think somebody's favoring Negroes over and above themselves" (11.107), and that even higher-class people use it sometimes when they want to put someone down.
It's not actually an insult; it just shows you how …show more content…
Dubose says that Jem has to come for a week longer, even though the original month is up, and Atticus says he has to do it.
Finally the last day of reading is over. Hooray! Now Jem can turn to more important things, like college football.
One evening, Mrs. Dubose dies. Atticus comes home with a box and an explanation: Mrs. Dubose was a morphine addict and wanted to kick the habit before she died as a matter of personal pride.
Her fits were caused by withdrawal, and the reading helped keep her mind off the cravings till the alarm clock went off and she could have a dose (which also explains why the reading periods got longer and longer).
By the end of the reading afternoons, she was free of the drug habit.
The box Atticus brought home is for Jem. When he opens it he finds a camellia.
Jem is angry at this needling from beyond the grave, but Atticus tells him that he thinks it's a message that everything's all right.
If Jem hadn't gone on an anti-camellia rampage, Atticus might have made his son go read to Mrs. Dubose anyway, in order "to see what real courage is" (11.153)—not using a gun, but fighting for a cause you believe in even if you know you probably won't