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How Does Atticus Change In To Kill A Mockingbird

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Martin Luther once stated, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” Martin Luther claims the exact truth of how the time period was in To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. Throughout the book and the time period the kids learn and change a great extent personality wise, due to some background situations that have to do with racism. The kids, Jem, Scout (brother of Jem), and Dill (friend of Jem and Scout), realize that racism is awful. They see like Tom Robinson (African-American accused of rape) that are innocent and that can easily be viewed as a harmful person. Even though Tom Robinson didn’t do anything, he eventually died trying to escape and was shot by the police seventeen times. These are some events that make Jem, …show more content…

Jem is growing up and growing through the rough time of puberty/adolescence and Scout doesn’t know how to treat him which makes the situation a little worse. His main goal in life is growing up and be just like his father, Atticus. In the book Scout states, “Jem picked up a rock and threw it jubilantly at the carhouse. Running after it he called back: ‘Atticus is a gentleman, just like me!’” (Harper 99). Atticus is a very successful lawyer and is going to take on the case of Tom Robinson being accused of raping a white girl. The case’s verdict of accusing Tom guilty impacted Jem’s perspective pretty hard, Jem was very mad that the jury accused him guilty even though Atticus made a very valid point on why there was no way Tom raped and beat the Ewell girl (girl who claimed Tom raped …show more content…

Dill’s personality needed a large-amount of attention from peers and family. To get the attention Dill needed he lied and made up stories to make people feel sorry for him and give him attention. Jem and Scout realize early on that Dill lies a great deal and start to call him out for his lies, one of Dill’s lies included, “...his mother worked for a photographer in Meridian, had entered his picture in a Beautiful Child contest and won five dollars. She gave the money to Dill who went to the picture show twenty times on it” (Lee 7). Dill throughout the book started to not lie as much, because he learned that people started to not believe him and give him the attention like Jem and Scout

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Then, there is Jem Finch, also known as just Jem. Jem is exceedingly brave and shows a lot of growth and empathy throughout the novel. Jem is the older brother and he is going through puberty and now he shows it through some of the novel. Growth and empathy are shown various times throughout the novel. “It ain 't right, somehow it ain 't right to do 'em that way.

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Chapter 15 in To Kill a Mockingbird is a significant part in the novel. In this chapter, Harper Lee shows us a few new ideas through the actions of the characters. The mob is Lee’s way of showing us the town and how the town acts and thinks. The people in the mob are angry with Atticus for “movin’

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1308 Words | 6 Pages

I am reading the book To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. Chapters 10-15 in the novel held multiple major events. One of the major events included explaining who Atticus was, and what he was like. Miss Maudie said to Scout that Atticus was good at countless concepts, he was good at playing the Jew's Harp and how he used to be the best shot in Maycomb. Another main event that happened in these chapters was, Jem got in trouble and then had to read to Mrs. Dubose for a whole month.

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811 Words | 4 Pages

After Atticus loses his trial, Jem notices that the Maycomb County justice system is broken and it needs help, “Then it all goes back to the jury, then. We oughta do away with juries. ”(294) This shows that Jem now understands that people are racist in everything and racism needs to be fought. On top of realizing that the justice system is in shambles, Jem realized that Tom Robinson’s case was very good at showing that.

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863 Words | 4 Pages

To Kill a Mockingbird is full of heart wrenching and painful moments that shaped and defined each and every inhabitant of Maycomb, Alabama. Atticus Finch, the father of the main protagonist, once said, "You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view--until you climb into his skin and walk around in it," (Lee 51). This was a lesson he taught to Scout, the narrator and main protagonist of the story. Scout never fully grasps the idea of this concept until the very end of the story, but throughout the story she exhibits this lesson and is empathetic without even knowing it. No character felt others emotions quite like Scout, even if it was right away, a little while after, or even the whole book.

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974 Words | 4 Pages

Writers can’t help but be influenced by the events and people that they see around them. This is because they can communicate their feelings and/or beliefs about the world around them through characters, setting, and the scale of events in a given text. The influence becomes a part of the work that they write because, like a limb, a writer’s story is a part of them – their mind and imagination. This is clearly portrayed in To Kill a Mockingbird (TKAM) by Harper Lee, who has made extensive use of a microcosm within her characterisations to thoroughly explore a wide range of societal issues. Within TKAM, the essence of the Deep South in the 1930’s is explored through the experiences of a girl named Scout.

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882 Words | 4 Pages

Jem does not want scout to embarrasss him while heis with his older friends because it was not cool to hang out with his little sister but near the end when someone was chasing after jem and scout he knows their lives are in danger so he yells to her,”run scoutrunrun”(261 lee) This shows tha jem is scared for his life, but would rather something happen to him, rather than to scout. Overall jem discovers his responsibility as an older brother is to look after scout and make sure she is

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1001 Words | 5 Pages

Scout and Jem stood at the Maycomb county jailhouse waiting for the judge to announce the verdict for Tom Robinson. They had declared him guilty and that was final. As people began to leave the courthouse, Jem started to cry. “His face was streaked with angry tears as we made our way through the cheerful crowd.” He found Atticus and expressed that “It ain’t right” (Lee 242).

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698 Words | 3 Pages

At the trial when the verdict is read which is “…guilty…guilty…guilty…It was Jem’s turn to cry… ’ It ain’t right,’ he muttered…”(211-212) As an innocent boy Jem does not understand why Tom Robinson was found guilty, everything seems to go in his favor up until the verdict. What is more is, after the death of Tom Robinson Scout says Jem told her that “Mr. Ewell was more hot gas than anything” (241). This is made obvious when the Mockingbird reveals that Jem has somewhat grasped the situation of the verdict and Tom’s death and trying to make the best of it. All things considered, the Mockingbird reveals in Jem that he has realize why Tom Robinson had to be convicted and that his death was just part of the racism of his

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844 Words | 4 Pages

In the beginning of the novel, he was becoming reckless, and towards the middle and end of the novel, he was more mature. As Jem saw what it was like to be a gentleman from his father, he developed and was teaching Scout about these findings. In the novel it says, “Naw, Scout, it’s something you wouldnt 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 107).

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520 Words | 3 Pages

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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1240 Words | 5 Pages

Jems opinion on life changes a lot through the Tom Robinson case. He learns that people aren't treated equally just by the color of their skin. From this quote it shows just how much Jem cares about people's equality and how he's maturing. After the case and Tom Robinson's death Jem doesn't do anything to anybody or anything that doesn't deserve it. Like this incident in the story, A rolly polly has crawled in the house by Scouts bed she was going to smash it

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646 Words | 3 Pages

When it came to the trial, Scout was waiting outside with Dill due to the way they were treating Tom. They met Dolphus Raymond, the “Town Drunk.” When in reality he only drank Coca-Cola. He just wanted an excuse to be married to a “Nigger” and not be killed. Scout learned from this, that people may not understand one’s situation until walking in their shoes.

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531 Words | 3 Pages

Scout changed a lot over the course of this story. She was exposed to many events that led to her gradually changing her way of life. She doesn’t change as much as Jem does or as fast as him, but she still changes. She learns to mature, understand things better, and treat people with respect.

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740 Words | 3 Pages

Jem further understood the true meaning of moral courage when he saw Atticus defending Tom Robinson, a black man. Although Atticus was hugely outnumbered and even cornered by Mr Cunningham and some other people, he did not back down from them. Instead, he seemed even more determined to win the case and prove Tom Robinson 's innocence to all of Maycomb County. Almost everyone in Maycomb County had criticised Atticus and his children for taking up the case of defending Tom Robinson and they were even called "nigger lovers" by many. At first, Jem did not understand why his father chose to defend Tom Robinson when he knew that people would whisper and gossip about it and that the possibility of him winning the case was very low.

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