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How Does Jem Change In To Kill A Mockingbird

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begin writing your essay below on the next page. By rebelling against societal norms and parental expectations in Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, Jem and Scout show that defiance is critical to personality development. During the confrontation at the Maycomb jail, Scout realizes how Jem is identical to Atticus through mutual defiance. Later, while Calapurnia lectures Jem about taking his sister to the court case, he laughs confidently and goes against communal norms. When Scout questions the actions of her teacher and provokes self-character building, it may seem that she is developing her personality without being unorthodox, but in actuality, she is actually defiant all along. While there are numerous times rebellion encourages personality, …show more content…

Atticus tells Jem to take his sister and travel home, but Jem openly defies Atticus and refuses to leave as a result of maturing. When Atticus tells him to go home to the Maycomb Jail “Jem shook his head” and as they face off “[Scout] could see little resemblance between them: Jem’s soft brown hair and eyes, his oval face and snug-fitting ears were [their] mother’s, contrasting oddly with Atticus’s graying black hair and square-cut features, but they were somehow alike; mutual defiance made them alike” (Lee 173). Jem matures and develops his personality directly as a result of his insubordination to Atticus. Jem’s defiance towards Atticus is the dominant example of him building his personality, but his later disobedience to Calapurnia is …show more content…

Scout ponders how people can be righteous and evil at the same time by questioning Jem about the actions of her teacher. Scout comments on Miss Gates to Jem saying “how can you hate Hitler so bad an‘ then turn around and be ugly about folks right at home—” (Lee 283). Although it may appear that Scout is able to mature without any idiosyncrasy by just questioning other people’s actions, she is actually rebelling against her prejudiced society by questioning racism. Rebellion acts as a crucial catalyst for character development for the Finch

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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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As the book progresses Scout is having constant difficulty with her lack of maturation. Many problems are starting to occur in the book, and they are problems that she just doesn't understand yet. Scout is still young and doesn’t quite understand why she isnt told everything, and why she isn’t just as mature as Jem. “ That’s because you can’t hold something in your mind but a little while, said Jem. It’s different with grown folks, we-”

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