Mrs. Dubose is a woman solely composed of hatred and utter disgust for the world and those around her. Jem and Scout are in the crossfire of a society's unified prejudice and the deteriorating Mrs. Dubose’s opinions on such. Using Scout’s point of view, a child’s perspective sees the horribleness of Mrs. Dubose in a way that illustrates what her personality is largely based on. Through the use of figurative language, and sentence characterization author Harper Lee develops the idea of human deterioration and it’s effect on one’s personality and existence.
Mrs. Dubose’s physical depletion has left her in a world of her own. One that is lonely and withering away before her. Her deterioration is shutting her into a trapped mindset where only …show more content…
As Mrs. Dubose perishes, she is left trapped in her own body, powerless to her decline. This passage explores that idea, centring around Scout’s narrative view and what, as a child, she perceives deterioration as such. With a child’s narrow scope of the world, a deteriorating woman that is “like a clam hole at low tide” perfectly illustrates what Scout and the reader witness for themselves. Mrs. Dubose is completely overtaken by a metaphorical tide, that being her body, is left completely helpless, as she is left to struggle with what little she has left. Her body has withered away to almost nothing, to the point where robotical movements of a clam, is a better representative of her, compared to a person. When Scout sees this situation expresses as a simile, a full understanding occurs, for the realization of her horrid personality is understandable. Mrs. Dubose is not just deteriorating, but she is helpless in her fight against it, something that understandably warrants her horribleness. It is a realization in which the idea of horribleness might not be a persona, but a way that one is forced to live in. For when a tide has taken over oneself, it is not just the body that is gone, but life all the
Mrs. Dubose’s physical depletion has left her in a world of her own. One that is lonely and withering away before her. Her deterioration is shutting her into a trapped mindset where only …show more content…
As Mrs. Dubose perishes, she is left trapped in her own body, powerless to her decline. This passage explores that idea, centring around Scout’s narrative view and what, as a child, she perceives deterioration as such. With a child’s narrow scope of the world, a deteriorating woman that is “like a clam hole at low tide” perfectly illustrates what Scout and the reader witness for themselves. Mrs. Dubose is completely overtaken by a metaphorical tide, that being her body, is left completely helpless, as she is left to struggle with what little she has left. Her body has withered away to almost nothing, to the point where robotical movements of a clam, is a better representative of her, compared to a person. When Scout sees this situation expresses as a simile, a full understanding occurs, for the realization of her horrid personality is understandable. Mrs. Dubose is not just deteriorating, but she is helpless in her fight against it, something that understandably warrants her horribleness. It is a realization in which the idea of horribleness might not be a persona, but a way that one is forced to live in. For when a tide has taken over oneself, it is not just the body that is gone, but life all the