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How Does Jem Mature In To Kill A Mockingbird

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Jem in To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, shows the most growth and understanding within the story compared to any other character. His unique perspective of coming from a highly educated family and spending his days with the lower social classes led him to see the effects of a social hierarchy and put into action the morals he was taught by Atticus. As Jem grew older and was able to understand more of what Atticus was saying he matured and was able to walk in other people's lives in order to understand them better. Through both his experiences growing up with Atticus and learning moral lessons from the Tom Robinson case, Jem was able to expand his cultural capitals and knowledge of social hierarchy in order to better lead a morally right …show more content…

Jem did not yet quite fully understand the history or social hierarchy behind maycomb, “Are we as poor as the Cunninghams?” (27), as he continues to learn from Atticus and the rest of the school children where everyone falls such as the Cunninghams and Ewells who are quite low to the bottom. Over time Jem becomes more preoccupied with recognizing and analyzing life in Maycomb, being vigilant and understanding the full meaning of events in both their social life in Maycomb, such as when Atticus is calm while Miss. Maudie's house burns and knows how to handle the situation, as well as in his personal life such as becoming more understanding of Scout and while at first pushing her aside he now allows her to be closer to him and shares secrets with her (94). During his childhood in Maycomb, Jem becomes more understanding of his place in the world and community over time while dramatic events take place, allowing him to grow his cultural capitals to better cope with such future …show more content…

Jem is able to recognize what it means to be against race and what the African American community is going through as their own people are blamed for a family dispute among the Ewells. Slowly he is able to understand the bias against the Robinsons and what it means to be served injustice when the clear victim is Tom Robinson. Jem uses this in his resistance capital toward the end of the book where he literally resists Mr. Ewell as he tries to kill them because Jem understands what it means for there to be wrong morals in this tiny

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811 Words | 4 Pages

In To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, Jem grows from a little boy to an intelligent young man. Throughout the book, he discerns many things that shape his personality. As Jem grows, he learns how bad society is and that not everyone is perfect. Fortunately for Jem, this ends up helping him and he finds out that Atticus is a hero and that he should look up to Atticus. Through Atticus and the trial, Jem loses his innocence by learning about prejudice, bravery, and that the justice system is crippled.

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661 Words | 3 Pages

As many people grow up and mature, they start to see their world as it really is. In the novel “To Kill a Mockingbird,” Jeremy Atticus (Jem) Finch displays many acts of courage and empathy as he becomes a man. Jem is naive about many issues described in this novel as it begins. Jem is a typical American boy, he’s not one to back down from a dare and is a football fanatic. Like many older siblings, he gets annoyed with his younger sibling, but he still protects Scout and remains her closest friend.

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890 Words | 4 Pages

Jem started off with an innocent mind, but after the Tom Robinson case Jem realizes what type of town he lives in. In the novel To Kill A Mockingbird from Harper Lee there is many examples of character that evolves like Jem. He started off ignorant of his town and by the end of the book he understood how racism is a big issue even in a court of law. Jem matured the most throughout the book, he started off with little acts of maturity like trying to be more like his father by reading books, and stop playing with his sister because he doesn't want to be childish. And ended up being so mature that he could comprehend Maycomb's disease that runs so deep it runs in the court of law.

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595 Words | 3 Pages

Some examples of Jem's maturity through out the novel are, how he doesn't want Atticus to think badly of him when he loses his pants, how he becomes more moody and how he is the first to develop empathy for Boo. In the novel, Jem becomes very involved in the trial, fights mr. Ewell to protect scout without concern for his own life and how he is worried he won't be able to play football after breaking his arm.

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844 Words | 4 Pages

Jem was lost in society throughout this part of the novel, yet towards the end of the novel he had learned more to understand his community. At the

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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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1045 Words | 5 Pages

Jem and Scout learn many valuable life lessons throughout the novel and although they “grow up” at a much faster rate than other children in Maycomb, they will become people that have lots of wisdom and have been exposed to the real world. The experiences that the children have throughout their childhood help them solve problems, think wisely, and shape their

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592 Words | 3 Pages

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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743 Words | 3 Pages

Jem grows up sheltered from the evil in the world. Once the trial comes around, however, he learns out imperfect the world is through the racism and prejudice, and he struggles to come to terms with this realization. After the trial he tells Miss Maudie, who is their neighbor, how it feels like “bein’ a caterpillar in a cocoon… Like somethin’ asleep wrapped up in a warm place. I always thought Maycomb folks were the best folks in the world least that’s what they seemed like” (Lee 288). Miss Maudie then tries to comfort Jem, but it still shows that Jem has been changed because his childhood view of Maycomb being perfect has been shattered.

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927 Words | 4 Pages

In Jem's view (like stated in the previous paragraph) his father is of moral perfection and therefore has never had any prejudice toward African Americans and has taught Jem always to respect them as equals. He has not seen Maycomb in its prejudice towards African Americans. Jem finds out that people don’t like his father and his actions because of his ties to those he represents. Jem’s actions are from a source of anger emitted by what he knows is wrong, because he is losing innocence he does not know how to deal with his anger from the Dubose's unkindness, so he takes it out on her “camellia buds”(119) and destroys them to release that anger. Atticus teaches the children they must

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961 Words | 4 Pages

Jem in this novel also uses empathy to learn about the people of Maycomb. 2. Jem uses empathy to understand why the people of Maycomb act the way they do. 3. Jem says “If there’s just one kind of folks, why can’t they get along with each other?

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571 Words | 3 Pages

Zachary Wurl Mr. Noreen English 26 February 2023 TKAM Thesis Paper Harper Lee uses the character Jem to show that growing up often reveals the negative aspects of life. This is shown by Jem’s view of the world gradually declining throughout the book. Scout, though faced with the same problems as Jem doesn’t seem as affected by them as Jem does. This is mostly due to the fact that she doesn’t understand what is going on as Jem does. Jem matures a lot throughout the book, and this becomes more and more true as the trial goes on.

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373 Words | 2 Pages

When examining racial identity in America, it can be said that it has become institutionalized. It shows up in our everyday life, appearing in both the sociopolitical and economic spheres of life. America has demonstrated an obsession with categorizing people on the basis of their race, and has imposed these ideas on immigrants who come to live in this country. Many immigrants, especially from Latin America, have different notions of race, and may not share the same ideas as Americans. Their opinions may vary because of many factors, such as familial or societal influence.

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740 Words | 3 Pages

One lesson in the book that I feel Jem learns as a part of growing up is moral courage. Atticus once told Jem that “courage is [not] a man with a gun in his hand. It 's when you know you 're licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what.” Jem had always seen bravery as important and often tried to show the courage in him but only learnt about what moral courage really was through a series events that took place in the book.

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