End of Chapter 10/Start of 11

  

    Atticus shot Tim Robinson dead. After Atticus and Heck drive away, Miss Maudie tells Scout and Jem that when Atticus was a boy, he was a very skilled marksman, but some years ago, he decided to only shoot until he had to, such as Tim Robinson. Scout remarks that it looks like he would have been proud of that gift, and Miss Maudie says that people in their right minds never take pride in their talents. After Zeebo drives away with the dog's dead body in his truck, Jem warns Scout not to tell anyone at school when Scout said she wanted to brag about Atticus. Jem said it was something she wouldn't understand, Atticus is kind of old, but Jem wouldn't care if he couldn't do anything, wouldn't care if he couldn't do a blessed thing. In Chapter 11, Scout describes Mrs. Henry Lafayette Dubose, who Scout and Jem hate. She would insult their behavior, say that they would never amount to anything when they grew up, she would call Scout ugly, she would call them sassy and disrespectful mutts. What really had to hurt was when she said things such as it was a shame that Atticus Finch and his wife's children were allowed to run wild, and that Atticus was no better than the African American "trash" he works for. After returning from the store and coming up to Mrs. Dubose's house, Jem takes Scout's baton and basically wreaks havoc on her camellia bushes. Atticus comes home and tells Jem to go apologize to her. While Jem was gone, Atticus tells Scout that when summer comes, she'll have to keep her head high because worse was yet to come. Jem comes back and says that Dubose wants him to read to her every afternoon for a month, which he doesn't want to do. Atticus tells him to just pretend he's in the Radley house.
  For me, I was pretty surprised about Atticus being a skilled marksman. So far in the book, all we've seen him is Scout and Jem's tolerant father with high morals and all, not some kind of hunter or anything. We don't know very much about Mrs. Dubose yet, and maybe Scout and Jem don't either, so perhaps they're being ignorant of why she's treating them that way. Maybe there's a reason why she's so mean, and we don't know yet, but for the moment, it's really easy to hate her. Atticus says that she's sick and Scout and Jem shouldn't be saying things about a sick old lady. It's possible she either wants Jem to read to her for a month out of spite and wants to enjoy his misery, or Atticus is correct and she actually is sick and lonely and all. Again, at the moment, it's really easy to hate her, saying horrible things about Scout and Jem when all they do is try to say good morning to her or pass by her house, and going as far as talking about their mother and Atticus lawing for African American "trash" might be crossing a line. Comment below if you agree that it's easy to hate Dubose, even if we don't know the full story yet, if there is one anyway.