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Jem And Scout Character Development Essay

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Jem and Scout Character Development Jem and Scout are essential to the themes -of courage, compassion, social justice and morality- within “To Kill a Mockingbird.” Their characters change and grow throughout the novel, they are becoming far more mature than most children their age. On their journey, their father Atticus is key to their development. He is a pillar of all the themes addressed within the novel and does his best to instill these in Jem and Scout. The development of Jem and Scout is twofold, in part they change as a natural part of growing up. However, the second part that contributes to their growth are things they must deal with that are out of their control and sometimes big lessons for young children. As the story begins Jem is your average 10-year-old boy. He likes to play games, have adventures and tease his sister. We see Jem’s idea of courage change over the story. Initially Jem believes courage is as simple as touching the Radley house. As he’s “never declined a dare,” according to Scout. However, …show more content…

She is a feisty opinionated young girl, with a love for fighting. She believes that a fight is the best solution to any situation, as she sees the world as black and white. Over the course of the story Scout learns about compromise and perspective. Traits she did not possess at the beginning of the story. Her opinionated self-confidence is almost always on display. One example is when she tells Dill “I’m little but I’m old” and she when interjects in a situation at school with her teacher. Scout has been influenced by Atticus and Calpurnia. They both always tried to instill a level of compassion and shield her from Maycomb’s “usual disease”- racism. They teach her to value humanity no matter the color of skin. As the story progresses Scout’s ability to show compassion and perspective improve. She starts to give more thought to situations she is confronted with and less physical ways of solving

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Scout is definitely a character we see growth in. She goes from being a little girl who can’t control her anger to a young lady that wants a change in the world. In this quote, Scout shows that she tries to climb into Jem 's skin and understand what he is going through. In this part of the chapter was when the tree hole, that has the gifts got filled up and Jem felt bad about not giving anything in return. When scout saw that Jem was moody and sad, she didn’t want to bother him.

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(Lee 21). Also, the fact that Scout describes herself as a “tomboy” and refuses to be more feminine and polite at the beginning of the story, shows her disinterest for other people's opinions. I can relate this personality trait to myself because I also will stand up for myself and be myself without worry about other’s

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Jem proves this when he deals with situations differently, by standing up for what he believed to be right, or when he confronts a bitter truth in a painful manner. His word choice and manner of speaking demonstrate his superiority and his desire to act more refined. These factors are demonstrated as he changes his nature and personality. Jem’s change from being a naive child to a knowledgeable adolescent is similar to Laura Ingalls initially being a carefree youngster and later turning into a sensible, indefatigable youth. The gradual maturity of both characters influenced their respective books deeply.

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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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361 Words | 2 Pages

In the book “To Kill A Mockingbird” there are numerous coming-of-age events with Jem and Scout, who are brother and sister. Scout is a different type of girl, she wears clothes that make her look like a tomboy, has her hair cut short to her shoulders and is innocent and naive. Jem is a boy who is starting to spark an interest in things such as football and guns. Scout and Jem grow up in a time of racial discrimination and segregation in Maycomb, Alabama. Yet, have a father who shows them a disparate perspective of thinking.

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Atticus explains that “Real courage is when you know you’re licked before you begin but you begin anyway, and you see through no matter what. (Lee 149) Armed with this new definition of authentic courage, Jem grows closer to

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Scouts developments throughout the novel revolve around the lessons she is taught be three people, Calpurnia, Miss Maudie, and Aunt Alexandra. These three characters each have their own lessons to teach including forgiveness, understanding, equality and much more. These lessons allow Scout to have a wider perspective of the situation she finds herself in. Scout in the novel is presented to us as a growing a developing character. The lessons she is taught by her three feminine influences help her development a lot in the throughout the novel as they are a wide variety of lessons most likely helping think of what to do in most situations she finds herself in.

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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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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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Character Analysis Essay Jem represents the idea of bravery in the novel, and the way that his definition changes over the course of the story is important. The shift that occurs probably has as much to do with age as experience, although the experiences provide a better framework for the reader. When the story begins, Jem's idea of bravery is simply touching the side of the Radley house and then only because "In all his life, Jem had never declined a dare." But as the story progresses, Jem learns about bravery and being helpful from Atticus facing a mad dog, from Mrs. Dubose's fight with addiction, and from Scout's confrontation with the mob at the jail, among others.

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Jem, a young and smart boy develops and matures through many unique situations in the novel. Jem is exposed to the harsh belief, judgement and circumstances of the court at a very young age. Following his father, Jem involves himself in the trial between Tom Robinson and Mayella Ewell yet takes Tom’s side due to his father's involvement. Jem slowly loses faith in the justice system and is faced with a loss of innocence as explained by Scout“It was Jem’s turn to cry. His face was streaked with angry tears as we made our way through the cheerful crowd.

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“You have to make choices even when there is nothing to choose from” – Péter Zilahy. Every day brings new choices and we either learn to make them, or let someone else make them for us. Maturity plays a part in the decisions we make and whether we take the role of the maker or the follower. Being afraid, but acting anyways is a true sign of courage and maturity, a topic which both Scout and I faced in our younger years. Scout goes through a journey to bravery from carelessness, while I go through the same journey through the context of kindergarten.

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“The hardest part of growing up is letting go of what we are used to and moving on to something you are not”-Paul Walker Growing up is one of the hardest, as well as one of the most important parts in life. Growing up should be fun, but in Scouts case learning about the cruelty and the reality she is living in is no fun. As the novel advances Scout experiences various emotional changes because of different events that take place. She starts to realize the unfairness that exists between different races and the discrimination that is rounding at the time.

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Atticus displayed courage by putting his life on the line and killing the rabies infected dog as well as standing up for Tim Robinson when no one else would. Like Atticus, Jem displayed a great amount of courage when he touched the Radley house and by defending Scout against Mr. Ewell. Scout showed courage by putting herself before a lynch mob ,in the process she saved both Atticus and Tom Robinson, as well as walking Boo Radley home .This instantaneous bravery that arises within a person in dangerous or threatening situations helps people step out of their comfort zones for the better. Courage is the ability to perform even if all your instincts are screaming for you not

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1016 Words | 5 Pages

Scout and Jem both learn most of their knowledge from, their father Atticus, their maid Calpurnia, and their neighbors. The people that are present in their lives shape Jem and Scout into the people they are becoming. Education from school helps Jem and Scout advance, but the information they learn from life allows them to mature. Scout learns a major lesson about empathy towards others when she invites Walter Cunningham, a boy she goes to school with, over to her house. Scout does not realize that she is disrespectful to him when she makes mean comments.

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