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How Does Jem Obtain Moral Growth In To Kill A Mockingbird

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Moral growth is understanding and learning right from wrong, throughout one’s entire life. In the novel: To Kill a Mockingbird, there are many instances in which Jem increases his moral growth, meaning he grew morally. At the beginning of the novel, Jem is a child, and he acts like one based on his actions and the decisions he made. As the book went on, Jem becomes older and he learns from his past actions and makes better decisions, the right decisions. Therefore, he demonstrates moral growth. In the book, Atticus helps Jem gain moral growth by learning not to judge others based on their past actions. One way Jem gains moral growth, is by learning not to judge Mr. Cunningham because of his past actions. One instance of this is when …show more content…

Dubose, and learning not to judge her. After Jem destroyed Mrs. Dubose’s flowers, Jem is punished by having to read to Mrs. Dubose every day for the next month. While Jem is reading to her, he learns that Mrs. Dubose was addicted to morphine. Towards the end of Mrs. Dubose’s life, she tries to die a “clean” person by giving up morphine. Yet again Atticus teaches Jem not to judge her for her past experiences by saying: “Mrs. Dubose won, all ninety-eight pounds of her. According to her views, she died beholden to nothing and nobody. She was the bravest person I knew” (Lee 128). In this part of the novel, Atticus is telling Jem to overlook, and not judge the fact that she was addicted to morphine. Atticus wants Jem to realize that at the end of her life, she tried her hardest to give up her addiction so that she could die beholden to nothing and nobody. Jem learns moral growth from this situation because he again learns right from wrong. In this situation the wrong thing to do would be to judge Mrs. Dubose, and think that she was a mean lady because she was addicted to morphine. The right thing to do is to overlook that, and not judge her for her addiction, but to realize that she was brave at the end of her life and tried to pass away a “clean”

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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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926 Words | 4 Pages

Atticus told him that he would have to go to Mrs. Dubose's house every day for a month and read to her. She died a little after that month and Atticus told Jem that she was a morphine addict. Having them around, she could take her mind off the drug and increase her life span to some amount. She died free of the drug, as she wanted to. Atticus says, “She had her own view about things, a lot different from mine, maybe… son, I told you that if you hadn’t lost your head I’d have made you go read to her.

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1404 Words | 6 Pages

Frequently in life, it is said that the harmony and relationship between positive and negative must coexist in every situation. To Kill A Mockingbird, a novel written by Harper Lee, tells the story of a young girl, Scout, and her brother Jem, as they grow up in a segregated American south. Their critical coming of age lesson can be seen in the children’s experiences with Mrs. Dubose, an angry, insulting woman who is later revealed as a courageous figure that battles her morphine addiction by her own means. In chapter eleven of To Kill A Mockingbird, Jem acts out against Mrs. Dubose in defense of his father and family through destroying her prized, beautiful camellia bushes. As punishment, Jem’s father Atticus condemns Jem to read to Mrs. Dubose

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I made the mistake of reading the first Little House on the Prairie book once again after finishing the series. It was just so hard to believe that the distinguished Laura Ingalls Wilder was once a naughty five-year-old, always secondary to her flawless older sister. This transformation made me realize that in reality or literature, characters change as they grow. Their change depends on the events taking place in the book, which explains how and why Laura Ingalls rose up to be the head of the family when her older sister was unable to do so. Many literary works portray growth or refinement of certain characters; physically, mentally, or emotionally.

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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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(Need a hook). The author uses of view of a child, Scout Finch, along with two other children, Jem Finch and Dill, to show the innocence of children is taken away from the coming of age. She uses a trial against a black man raping a white girl to show how children are innocent. Harper Lee uses life lessons to show that Scouts coming of age. Scout says, “Atticus had said it was the polite thing to talk to people about what they were interested in, not about what you were interested in” (Lee 129).

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Dubose. Scout, Jem’s younger sister, calls Mrs. Dubose“plain hell.” (Lee 7). Mrs. Dubose is not a likable woman, a point made further clear when Scout describes her as “Horrible. Her face was the color of a dirty pillowcase, and the corners of her mouth glistened with wet,” (Lee 142).

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The best teacher is always experience. Throughout the novel To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Jem, one of the main characters, undergoes many significant personality changes. Jem’s character changes through several experiences, the most prevalent of those being when Jem turns twelve, when he destroys Mrs.Dubose’s flower bed, and when he learns of the town’s racial bias. Jem’s personality underwent significant changes when he turned twelve years old. His new behavior was noticed by Scout, who described him as,”...

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952 Words | 4 Pages

Jem was not happy about Tom losing his trial, he was the first one to cry about the loss and then sniffled, “It is not right Atticus.” Jem also grew in strength and bravery, this is shown when Bob Ewell attacks Jem and Scout, and Jem was willing to fight Bob in order to protect Scout from his knife. He is also not afraid to stand up for his family, and Tom when people are tearing them down. Jem develops from a stubborn, curious child to a mature, brave, and knowledgeable teen throughout the book, all because he made the right

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520 Words | 3 Pages

As the novel progresses, Jem becomes less defiant and more understanding of adults. Jem witnesses the physical and moral courage of his father before and during the trial of

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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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974 Words | 4 Pages

Of Integrity, Trust, and, Acceptance Stories, novels, and poems, often act as more than just an entertaining jumble of words, flavored with a pinch of drama and dash of humor, they often carry important life lessons that we can learn from. We can find such life lessons in the various pieces of literature that we have read throughout the school year. In Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird, we observe the actions and words, of a man of great integrity, Atticus Finch. Looking through the eyes of Reuven Malter in The Chosen by Chaim Potok, we learn the virtue of acceptance when he befriends Danny Saunders. Finally, in the humorous yet sobering Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare, we learn of the importance of trust, when the lack of it resulted in the accusation of Hero.

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178 Words | 1 Pages

The bliss of ignorance can only last so long; as Jem loses his innocence as a child, he also loses his ignorance of society’s cruelty. Jem’s new found knowledge leads him to have a basic understanding of society’s transgressions towards him, his family, and African-Americans, are simply outrageous. His once curiosity of society’s standards, has now changed into sorrow and enlightenment. Jem’s enlightenment consist of simply the start of him becoming an adult. Jem is no longer a child, as mentioned in chapter twelve, “This change in Jem had come about in matter of weeks (…)

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615 Words | 3 Pages

Atticus said no, Jem was growing” (pg 153). As Jem is dealing with more complicated issues, one being puberty, he is starting to grow up and develop a more

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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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