To Kill a Mockingbird - Integrity Kill Mockingbird essays

To Kill a Mockingbird - Integrity

Toothpaste: it is made up of so many different ingredients. You can look at a tube of toothpaste, study it, observe the colors of the plastic container and notice the size and shape of it. You can guess all you want what's on the inside, but you will never know until it is squeezed. People: they are made up of so many different things. You can look at them, study their behaviors, and observe their appearances. You can make many assumptions about what they're like on the inside, but you will never know their true character until they are squeezed. When a person is put in a tight position it doesn't make their character, it exposes it. In Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird there are several characters that are present throughout the book, but one seems to appear out of nowhere in chapter eleven. Her name is Mrs. Dubose, and she has a very interesting character. It has several layers that almost need to be peeled away like an onion. Integrity is just one of the numerous layers of her character. Integrity is how a person reacts when they are being "squeezed." Mrs. Dubose has a high standard of morals and she is true to them--she walks her talk. She looks out for people other than herself. She is determined. Mrs. Dubose is unquestioningly a woman of integrity.

Mrs. Dubose displays integrity by standing up for her beliefs. She has self-appointed herself as the "manners police", according to the standards she was raised with. The way she was raised children were expected to respect their parents and other elders. Mrs. Dubose makes a point to call the kids on it whenever they are acting out of line according to her values. She yells at Scout telling her she should be "wearing a dress and camisoles!" Mrs. Dubose also believes that Atticus is wrong for defending a black man. She believes this because she is a product of her environment. In those days black people were considered bad. Because she had been around for so long, she was not able to accept the new values that the Finch family has embraced. She had a high respect for the Finch lineage, even making a comment about Jem and Scouts mother, saying, "a lovelier lady never lived." She wasn't just a mean old lady--Mrs. Dubose couldn't live with herself and silently watch the kids and Atticus throw away their lives "lawing for niggers" or "waiting on tables." These were all horrible things according to her values. She had enough integrity in her to try and influence other people. Whether she was right or not in doing so, she was true to her beliefs.

Mrs. Dubose has integrity in that she looks out for other people. Sometimes she sets her feelings aside to help other people out. She endures vicious, false rumors and doesn't take them out on the kids. Even though she may holler at them as they walk by, it's all in good intent! When Jem ruined her camellias she had mercy on him. She didn't take advantage of the opportunity to make him work hard, and for no good. Instead she had him do something that would help her out at the same time--something that would accomplish a bigger task, the task of breaking her addiction. Atticus obviously knew that she was all talk and that he rumors were false (about her having a gun), or else he wouldn't have sent Jem all alone to go read to her. After Jem had been reading to her daily for some time, she began to just release them instead of them being shooed away when the alarm went off. Even though she could have manipulated them to stay--and Atticus would have made them stay--she let them go. She would correct Jem every time he made a mistake. Jem would get so annoyed by her, but she would correct him anyway like a teacher corrects a student. She was looking out for him. Even though she seems like a strict, old lady, Mrs. Dubose really does have good intentions in all of her actions.

Mrs. Dubose displays integrity in her willpower to overcome her addiction. Earlier on in her life Mrs. Dubose had had an illness. She got put on morphine, a very powerful and addictive painkiller. She eventually became addicted to it, and it was her goal to get off the addiction before she died. She wanted to die "beholden to nothing and nobody." She wanted to die drug-free, and without the withdrawal side effects. When Jem ruined her camellias, she and Atticus agreed for Jem to come read to her everyday. Jem didn't know it, but he was helping her overpower her addiction. Every day she tried to go longer and longer without the morphine, and Jem was helping by reading to her. She was transparent to people, not hiding her insufficiency. She knew she couldn't do it by herself, so she got help. She was determined to die not being addicted to her drug, and she did it. Atticus describes it as true courage, "you know you're licked before you start but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what." Mrs. Dubose did this. No matter how hard it was or how long it took, she had a dream to be independent. She wanted to have control of her life, just once, before she died and she did it. Mrs. Dubose did not give up; she was strong enough to keep going until she got what she wanted.

In this book Mrs. Dubose is in a tight spot. She is right at the end of her life, a time that can be very lonely for a person. In a sense, she is being squeezed, like a tube of toothpaste--yet she stays strong. She still keeps all her values, instead of throwing them out the window. Mrs. Dubose doesn't just sit around and watch the world go on, she tries to make a difference. She doesn't throw herself a pity party, burdening others with her problems. Instead, she decides to make the most out of the time she has left in her life. She decides to improve her life so that she can die having lived life to the fullest. Mrs. Dubose, in all her integrity, is the tastiest kind of toothpaste there is.