Journal #4 Chapter 10-12 Jem

What has happened through the years has taught me a lot about myself and how to be a gentleman. When I found out the Atticus was a dead shot whose nickname was Ol’ One Shot because. He had the deadest shot in town and he doesn’t take so much pride in it. This is because he knows that taking pride in your talent makes it so that you are not so much like a gentleman. But I know that he is a gentleman and won’t take pride in a talent. I also think he doesn’t talk about it because it is an unfair advantage to the animals during hunting season for him. This is because he is so good that he feels the animals have no chance of living because he could just hunt them down. He doesn’t hunt because of this. I know he is a really cool dad and that he is a gentleman like I am. I believe that I can become a gentleman like him and become wiser. But one time when I didn’t act so gentleman like and lost my head was when I had to read to Mrs. Dubose. The thing is that the reason I had to read to her is because Atticus wanted me to. He was going to make me read to her no matter what happened. Mrs. Dubose is a sick old lady. When I past her house on day she was making fun of Atticus and berating us. So when Scout and I were coming back from the store, I lost my head went to her yawn and cut her plants up. Then Atticus found out and sent me over there to apologize. When I went, I thought I was in grave peril because I thought she was going to shoot me with the pistol people say she has. But she didn’t and told me that I can repay her back by ready to her for a month. Then day after day if reading to her, Atticus told me much about her. Then through the course of reading, Mrs. Dubose would inconspicuously move the timer back so she would past more time of her addiction. She did many things that were making me angry, but I was trying to act gentleman like and not lose my head. Most of the times that I wanted to contradict her, but didn’t because I knew I was not so gentleman like. Sometimes when I was reading, I felt inaudible because it would seem that Mrs. Dubose was not listening and not hearing it. Then after I was done reading to her for good and she died, Atticus told me what was reading to her about. He told me that she was the bravest woman he knew not because she can hold a gun, but because she tried to keep going and die free in the mind. She wanted to die so freely that basically she won in a war that is rarely won. He said that she was brave for trying to do something that is rarely won, but she still tried and won. That is when I started to understand a lot and being brave and courageous. That’s when I learned so much about being a gentleman. A lot of things that Mrs. Dubose said was cantankerous to me, but then I found a lot why she was saying it and it was still disagreeable, but I knew that it made me more of a gentleman learning why she did because it made me know the things that can happen and how to not mind them.