Examples Of Jem Maturity In To Kill A Mockingbird

Jem Mature or Immature? Kids are thought to be immature and do not begin to mature until they are young adults, but Jem proves this wrong. In To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper, Lee Jem and Scout must deal with people insulting their father when he takes a case defending a black man. Although Jem is only twelve years old by the end of To Kill a Mockingbird, his experiences in the novel lead to him growing up and changing his views on many things.

To start, throughout To Kill a Mockingbird Jem shows maturity by comforting his little sister. First, after Mrs. Dubose insults Jem, Scout, and Atticus, Scout starts to get really mad and is about to lose her head when Jem reminds her to be a gentleman and keep her head high. This shows that Jem is maturing

To begin, after the fire at Miss Maudie’s, Jem learns that Boo Radley put a blanket around Scout, he decided to come clean.“Jem seemed to have lost his mind. He began pouring out our secrets right and left in total discretion for my safety, if not his own, omitting nothing, knot-hole, pants and all”(Lee 98). This demonstrates Jem’s maturity because he did not have to tell Atticus everything about what they have done to Boo Radley, but because he felt bad because they had the wrong impression of Boo he told Atticus everything. The second time is after Jem looked like he would bother Boo Radley and Atticus told him not to Jem decided that he would leave Boo Radley alone. This demonstrates that Jem is mature because Jem might have tried to bother Boo to try and meet him after he found out that Boo came out but he decided that if Boo wanted to be left alone he would leave him alone. Finally, Jem demonstrates maturity because when Atticus finds out what Jem did to Mrs. Dubose’s flowers Atticus said he never thought that Jem would lose his head. Jem is showing he is mature because he has shown maturity in the past and Atticus thought that Jem would be mature enough to not act out when someone said something bad about Atticus and the trial. To conclude Jem proves he is maturing by learning from his mistakes instead of ignoring

Jem first takes charge when he and Dill were playing and they allow Scout to join in and play with them. This shows maturity because Jem and Dill previously would not allow Scout to play with them, this demonstrates that Jem is now going to let Scout play with them but she must listen to Jem and Scout. The second time Jem takes charge is after Atticus shoots the dog and Scout wants to go around telling everyone that Atticus shot it, but Jem says “When we went home I told Jem we’d really have something to talk about at school on Monday. Jem turned on me. ‘Don’t say anything about it, Scout,’ he said. ‘What? I certainly am. Ain’t everybody’s daddy the deadest shot in Maycomb County. ’Jem said, ‘I reckon if he’d wanted us to know it, he’da told us. If he was proud of it, he’da told us. Scout, it’s something you wouldn’t understand. Atticus is real old, but I wouldn’t care if he couldn’t do anything—I wouldn’t care if he couldn’t do a blessed thing’” (Lee 130-131). This displays Jem’s maturity because he could have gone around with Scout and told everybody that Atticus was the deadest shot in Maycomb County, but he knew that Atticus would have told them if he was proud of his shooting ability so he took charge and told Scout not to tell anyone. Finally, just before Dill leaves Maycomb for the summer Jem discovers that Dill can’t swim so he teaches him how. This proves Jem is maturing because he had no reason to teach Dill how to