Although
severalin use this pejorative racial term for African-Americans, perhaps
the most offensive use of this word comes from Mrs. Dubose and Bob Ewell.
Mrs. Henry Lafayette Dubose is an older neighbor who is frequently wheeled out in her
chair onto her porch. From there, she passes judgment on the Finch children who walk to meetas
he returns home from his office. "She was vicious,"narrates. On the day following 's
twelfth birthday, he is anxious to spend his money, and because he has enough to purchase a
coveted baton for Scout, the two children head to town. When they pass Mrs. Dubose's house, she
hurls several personal insults at the children. Finally, she utters her greatest invective
against Atticus: "Your father's no better than the nrs and trash he works for!" With
these words, Mrs. Dubose places Atticus at the very bottom of the social stratum in Maycomb as
she equates Atticus with the lowest of the African-American community and with "white
trash," the lowest social level of caucasians.
Arguably the most
offensive use of "the N-word" comes from the mouth of Bob Ewell, who is included in
Mrs. Dubose's terming of "trash" (i.e., white trash) in the Maycomb community. It is
offensive to call anyone the N-word, but when Ewell calls Tom Robinson a nr in the courtroom,
his use of the word is particularly hostile and meant to do injury to Tom's character. By
implying that Tom Robinson is a person who deserves no more than to be given such an identity,
Bob Ewell also attempts to elevate himself in the only way he can. Further, his use of the term
is meant to dehumanize the kind, polite, and hard-working Tom Robinson.
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