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Harper Lee Character Analysis To Kill A Mockingbird

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Maggie Jones To Kill a Mockingbird Analysis Essay Being a child, contrary to the beliefs of many adults, is difficult. They must learn how to act and react in certain situations. As they learn these things, their character develops and they come to age. In To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee uses character development to illustrate the process in which the main protagonists – Jem and Scout – come of age. When the audience first meets Jem, they learn he is a stubborn, adventurous, young boy with idealistic beliefs. Jem came of age and his character developed throughout the novel, he learned about many things he was unaware of before. He creates a game for Dill, Scout and himself to play called “Boo Radley”, based on the rumors the town believes about Mr. Arthur Radley. Jem does not understand why his father, Atticus does not want him to play this game. He is too young to understand why it is insensitive. “What are you all playing?’ he asked. ‘Nothing,’ said Jem. Jem’s evasion told me our game was a secret so I kept quiet… Does this by any chance have anything to do with the Radleys?’ ‘No sir,’ said Jem, reddening.” (Lee, 53). While Jem lacks the knowledge of why his actions are uncouth, he is not unaware of this fact and sophomorically tries to hide the fact he is doing something wrong. However, later in the story Jem says “Atticus, no sir!’ Jem seemed to have lost his mind. He began pouring out our …show more content…

They become more aware of their community and the world around them. They had their eyes widened by the injustice towards them and others in their community. Even though after the events of the story, Jem and Scout are still as stubborn as they were in their youth but they are left wiser (Lee, 3). These children were influenced by the actions of the people around them. What kind of influence do you have on the children in your

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In To Kill a Mockingbird, Jem, or Jeremy Atticus Finch, is Scout's brother, and throughout the story he changes and matures a lot through a series of stages. First, you have the event that caused this, the trial, then you have the influence that it put upon Jem ,and lastly, how he had overall changed from the experience. After Tom's Trial, when Tom is deemed guilty and goes to jail, Jem is mad because he feels it's unfair. Jem realizes that his outlook on law was rather naive and that there's much more to it, and that his ways of thinking were childish as shown when he is speaking to Atticus, “How could they do it, how could they?’’

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“I never figured out how Atticus knew I was listening, and it was not until many years later that I realized he wanted me to hear every word he said,” Scout discovered In the book, To Kill a Mocking Bird. However, Jem, Scout, and Dill lived in Maycomb which provided zero entertainment. Most agree the children spent the summer in boredom, but some believe they should have respected their father Atticus’ wishes regardless. Others argue “The Boo Radley Game” resulted in innocent fun.

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He proposes that he does not want to be punished by his parent because he fears his father 's punishment that he sneaked up on the Radley’s house. In the novel, the author implies: “I stomped at him to chase him away, but Jem put out his hand

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Jem took the filthy piece of paper. Atticus took it and tried to read it. ‘Why do you want Mr. Radley to come out?”(65). Even though these games and letters were mostly benign, Atticus saw that this was not mature of Jem and Scout to create and play this game making fun of Boo Radley. That was what Jem, Dill and Scout were focused on for a portion of their lives.

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Throughout the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, Jem and Scout 's perception of courage drastically changes their behavior as they mature. They learn a lot about courage throughout the novel from their father Atticus and what they learn from him influences their choices and opinions. Although Jem is older than Scout, they both experience change in their behavior. At the beginning of the novel, Jem is still a young boy. He is defiant towards Atticus, he plays all the usual childhood games with Scout and Dill, and he engages in the younger children’s obsession with Boo Radley.

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Scout looks up to Jem, greatly values his opinion on many different topics and trusts him completely. She follows his lead on may things such as when Atticus enquire about the nature of a game they are playing which depicts Boo Radley , “ Jems evasion told me our game was a secret so I kept quiet.” (Page 45) Jem in turn enjoys spending time with her and adores her.

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The heat was devastating and many people decided to not go outside. Jem and I, however, ignored Atticus ' warnings about the heat, and left to go to see Dill. We passed by the Radley house, no longer afraid of Boo, after all, he had saved our lives. I could still clearly remembering the events of that day, but when I brought up the topic with Jem, he would ignore me, and change the subject. “Jem?”

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Throughout the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, Jem learns to become mature in terms of behavior and attitude due to the influence of the people around him. “Jem, having survived Boo Radley, a mad dog and other terrors, had concluded that it was cowardly to stop at Miss Rachel’s front steps and wait…” (Lee 100). Jem has gone through lots of dangerous things like trying to get a letter over to Boo Radley, meeting Mrs. Dubose, the trail with Tom Robinson and others.

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Atticus warns Jem of his wrong doing and lets him know informally to stop. “...Does this by any chance have anything to do with the Radleys?” “No sir” “I hope it doesn’t, he said shortly, and went inside the house. ”(Lee 53-54)

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By changing perspectives, Jem and Scout in To Kill a Mockingbird, show growth as you see their opinions change, demonstrating how moral values develop an increased level of maturity. Once Jem discounts Scout's level of understanding, Scout tries harder to show that she can understand more mature topics than people her age. During the trial, Jem tries to tell Scout to go home because the stuff they will

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This is when he went out of control and lost all of the maturity he had. He could no longer take Mrs.Dubose’s insulting comments. This was a terrible decision yet others would have been tempted to do the same thing. As a punishment, Jem is forced to read to

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The way the people and the town influence Jem and Scout make the characters more realistic and the overall story much more interesting. To Kill a Mockingbird is an exceptional novel that conveys many positive messages throughout. In her novel, Lee creates honest and relatable characters that take the reader on a journey through life in the south during the Great Depression. Readers are impressed by Lee’s eloquent writing and amazing characters, all of which make To

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That got Jem very mad and sad because he didn't think they would kill him even when he wasn't guilty. He thought they wouldn't say he was guilty because he had a view on his town that they were amazing people and they would do the right thing every time. When he saw Tom was pronounced guilty he figured out that maybe his town wasn't as good as he thought because they were racist and Jem grew up and figured out people might not seem like what they are. Other kids when they grow up see somethings as not fair which it isn't sometimes. That is what helps them grow up by seeing things as they really are.

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As Jem starts to mature, his body language and use of words also start to show his overall maturity and his loss of innocence. Specifically, he acts exactly like his father,

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Through To Kill A Mockingbird, Harper Lee teaches us the righteousness of empathy. Harper Lee 's technique of writing and coinciding Christian beliefs weaved through emphasizes the importance of the story 's moral and themes. It is through Scout, the young dynamic and protagonist, that Lee opens the reader 's eyes to a realistic world of prejudice and inequality during the 1930s. Though introducing many characters throughout the novel, it is through Lee 's wise father character, Atticus Finch, that she further helps teach her readers life lessons, one being empathy. While narrating in first person, Lee further details her novel with the setting and use of style and diction.

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