These days its very hard to find a woman who is grouchy or mean, and have nobody say anything to her. Mrs. Dubose demonstrates an offensive, yet somewhat honest opinion on the world around her, without anybody saying anything to her face to put her down or stop her statements.
She Isn’t Afraid To Speak Her Mind
Mrs. Dubose has a strong voice and opinion, and she ain’t afraid to tell you! She has a demeanor about her that i find very intriguing, yet at first you may find her HIGHLY offensive. Her opinions are meant to be heard by everyone and anyone around her, and that’s exactly what happens. Even though her words are aggressive and insulting to your feelings and morality, its her complete and utter honesty that makes people really think about their lives. (Except when she insulted Atticus and his being as a whole but that’s beside the point)
She isn’t Afraid Of Anybody’s Opinion
Now, you don’t see Mrs. Dubose staying in her house all day because she doesn’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings do you? NO. You don’t. Why? Because she is a strong independent woman who doesn’t need anybody to tell her otherwise! She says what she means and means what she says, and that is inspiring. I wish that I had the confidence of a woman who looks nearly dead. The fact that she can say what she wants when she wants is amazing, because she could literally be on her porch at five in the morning waiting for a by passer, and she would tell them it’s too early to be disrupting her. Which yeah, I mean they would be disrupting her, because she is obviously deep in thought (Thinking of hard truths), and walking by would be SUCH an annoyance. I get it Mrs. D. #Yareudisturbingme
She’s Old
Yes, in case you didn’t know, Mrs. Dubose is as old as time itself. No, like she’s REALLY old. She can really say anything she wants because if somebody was to get her in a tizzy, she would probably just crumple up and have a heart attack. This woman has experience in offending people, and now, she knows how to do it without people attacking her. (Physically. Jem’s attack doesn’t count, he’s a child) Having all those years to perfect the insults anybody can take is admirable. She should make a book called: “To Find The Perfect Insult“.
Nearly Flushed
7 o’clock on Tuesday morning and my brand new iPhone 6 is sitting on my bedside table. I’ve had this phone for almost 72 hours and the slow motion tool is basically all I’ve used. I still have to get up, and my alarm clock reads 7:06am. I get dressed and head downstairs for some Eggo waffles. My mom doesn’t have the toaster out like she normally does; I take it she hasn’t even gotten down here yet. My phone buzzes; I pull it out of my jean pocket and head to the bathroom while reading:
“ Hope your new phone is nice, love dad :)”
I smile, and put my phone back in my pocket. Just as I get in the bathroom, I freeze when I hear a loud sploosh and a clank from behind me. I look down, and- oh no. OH NO. My BRAND NEW iPhone 6 with black and pink sparkles on the case is drowning before my eyes, and the only thing I can think of doing is just going in and reaching for it. My hand is soaking; I’m almost in tears, I pull out a bag of rice, zip it shut, and shove it in my purse before turning around and seeing my burnt waffles. I hear my sister from upstairs asking to use a curling iron. What?
“I don’t HAVE a curling iron!” I yell back.
“GOD IM NOT TALKING TO YOU EM!” she shouts.
“I’m leaving in ten minutes ladies!” My mom states, for the third time in 20 minutes. My sister and I run around until we are ready. I think about my phone for the whole day until about 2:00; when I decide to call my mom and tell her the news. The phone call goes a little something like this:
ME: Hi mum, how are you?
Mom: Fine, why are you calling? What happened?
E: Oh not much. Hey, my phone has been acting weird, I think I’m going to go to the Bell store after school to check it out.
M: WHAT? It’s three days old! What did you do?!
E: NOTHING! I just maybe dropped it in the toilet this morning and maybe I shoved it in some rice and came to school with a bag of jasmine rice with a hint of phone…
M: Okay, go to the Bell store and find out if you can fix it. YOU are paying for it.
E: Okay, love you.
M: Mhmm. Love you. *CLICK*
By the tone of her voice I knew I was in for it. It wasn’t that sweet tone of suggestion, it was that drill sergeant command tone that could make someone “have an accident,” You know the tone. As soon as the bell rang I was already on the way to either my end or my savior. Sweating and panting from running across town, I bust into the Bell store; the clerk recognizes me. GREAT.
“Well dear, your warranty is activated thankfully”
“AWESOME! That means I can just get a new model right now right?”
“Not exactly. We changed the warranty a few hours ago, so now all our customers have to pay 250$ for their new phone with our warranty rule,” She smiles.
“What? I though our warranty was if you break it, you get a new one, no problems!”
“Well now it’s: you break it, you buy it,” I almost jumped across the counter to straighten her out, but she smells like vanilla cupcakes, so I’ll let it slide.
“Okay, thank you for your help,” I turn around as the reality sets in: I have to run away. Or I can face my problem. At this point, running away seems like the better option. The bus ride home is agonizing, because I can see my mom at her desk furiously texting on her Android to my step dad about how ridiculous I am. I’ve been biting the inside of my cheek for about 20 minutes; I taste a little blood, so I stop to observe the beautiful landscape beside me. Whizzing by at 70km and hour, I soon realize I will not be seeing it again, so I cherish every passing moment as I await certain death. (Not literally, but you get my point.)
“I can’t even speak right now,” my mom says quietly.
“I am so sorry, I will pay for everything,” I promise. A few minutes pass filled with awkward silences, death stares from my mother, and glimpses of my death, before my step dad walks in and takes my mom upstairs to talk this through with her. 10, 20 minutes go by; Dave comes downstairs to console/teach me.
“There isn’t much I can say to make you feel better, so here it is: you broke your phone after having it for three days. You tried to fix it by putting it in rice and taking it to school: good. You tell your mom what you can do to fix the situation, she gets mad, you get scared, and now we are here. Give her some time, to think. All you can do now is wait. You gave her all the solutions to the problem, and she doesn’t have a punishment, because you tried. That’s what counts.”
“Now what?” I ask.
“Nothing. Not on your end at least.”
Days pass and my mom and I come to the agreement that I pay for the new phone, I do not touch my phone in the morning until I am about to leave, and nothing more. Let me just say that my chores were DONE every day, and the house looked great the next week. Taking your phone into the bathroom is very unnecessary, and what is even more stupid is putting it in your back pocket. DO NOT go to the bathroom with your phone. You don’t need it all the time. Try putting your phone down once in a while, and you will avoid problems in the future.
Is vengeance or forgiveness more effective?
In the story “The Watch”, we read about a man who is a survivor of the holocaust, and falls victim of the loss of friends, and family. Before the attack he buries a watch in a box in the ground. 20 years later he goes back and uncovers the watch, but re-buries it. In the story he says that he wanted to turn the watch into “instrument of delayed vengeance” . By this he may have meant that he wanted people to see this watch in another 20 years and see what the jews had to do in order to survive the Nazi’s wrath. I think that vengeance is more effective when you want an immediate response, but in the end, forgiveness is the way to go. you cannot get a complete change when you are violent all the time. All it does is create short term change, not a long term transformation. In the beginning of the story he stated that “Yes we were naïve,” but I think he knew inside what was going on inside.
WHAT FUELS THE HUMAN NEED TO CONFORM?
In Harrison Bergeron, it shows a good example of the need to conform, with the handicapper general changing everbody’s abilities in order to make everyone equal. The desire to have an equal society comes from the natural human need to compete, and some people may find competition a negative desire, when in reality, it can be good, because it makes us want to better ourselves. Not always bad, like to put people down, but to make us better. I don’t like that when someone says they are competing they automatically assume its to put people down, but not to compete with ourselves or to gain a better title. Here, competition is eliminated completely. The beautiful are covered in masks, the strong are weighed down, and the intelligent are permitted to wear transmitters sending terrible sounds every 20 seconds or so, in order to prevent deep thoughts and unfair advantages with their brains. this law was permitted by the “unceasing vigilance of agents of the United States Handicapper General.” So the need to conform comes from the negative portrayal of competition. There is also the fear that if you are different, then there is harsh judgment that goes along with that, so we tend to be stand off-ish. But when there is a spark that makes us want to better ourselves and compete, why should be taken away? Deal with the fact that someone might be better at something than you. This message is very clear to me in the story. This to me means that the HG is not equal to everyone else because the book implies that the HG has no handicaps herself.
I find this picture resembles the story because it shows that when everyone is the same, there is always one person in power (HG). This means that everyone is NOT in fact equal, and there for creating the mild competition, which, if I remember correctly, if the REASON for making everyone the same? Who decides the base line for average? Who decides who need more handicaps than that other guy? All these questions are unanswered but nobody has the brain capacity to ask them.