Examples Of Jem Mature In To Kill A Mockingbird

In Harper Lee's novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, there are many characters that mature and develop throughout the book. One of them is Jeremy Finch who is also known as Jem. At the beginning of the book Jem acts like a young kid would, and is often playing or hanging out with Scout and Dill whether it is the fun games they play over the summer, or just wrestling and play fighting with each other. As Jem grows up he starts putting himself in other people’s shoes and starts to question everything around him. He also begins to show more control over Scout and Dill when he spends time with them since they are younger then him. Throughout the book Jem grows older which makes him more mature, and becomes more calm and controlled about things just like his father Atticus.

The night that Dill arrived in Maycomb just before the trial was when Jem showed that he had matured. Dill would come every summer and they would all play games and fool around and it did not matter what anyone said (Lee 10), but this time Jem acted like a mature young adult. “‘You oughta let your mother know where you are,’ said Jem. ‘You oughta let her know you’re here....’ Dill’s eyes flickered at Jem, and Jem looked at the floor. Then he rose and broke the remaining code of our childhood." (Lee 187-188) This shows that Jem chooses to do the right thing even if it's not what Dill and Scout were hoping he would do. It shows that Jem thought about it and put himself in the situation of his parents. It proves that he is mature because even though telling Atticus was not what Dill and Scout had wanted, he still told Atticus because he believed it was the mature and correct thing to do in that