ipl-logo

Theme Of Maturing In To Kill A Mockingbird

1240 Words5 Pages

Maturing is something everyone goes through in life whether you go through it early or a little later in life. In the book, To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee shows a lot about maturing. Growing up in a small town in Maycomb, Alabama where life was a lot more different from today, you mature much different and in different ways. Jem is one person who matures through the whole story and makes realizations about people around him, including his dad, Tom Robinson, and Mrs. Dubose. Jem goes into the story thinking his dad is just some old man but as he gets older, he realizes there is more to his dad. Atticus is a very simple man and calm which makes his kids think he's boring and doesn't do anything. At the beginning of the story the only characteristics …show more content…

Jem starts to mature the most after the case. His [Jem’s] face was streaked with angry tears as we make our way through the cheerful crowd. “It ain't’ right," he muttered all the way to the corner of the square where we found Atticus waiting… “It ain’t right, Atticus,” said Jem. No son, it’s not right.” We walked home. 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 but then Jem says, “Don't do that, Scout. Set him on the back steps (Lee 319). After Jem says that Scout asks him why he didn't want her to smash it and Jem says, “Because they don’t bother you, Jem answered in the darkness. He had turned out his reading light.” (Lee 320). These quotes are showing that after the case Jem realizes that you shouldn't hurt things that haven't done anything to

Show More
Related
568 Words | 3 Pages

Jem was positive they would say yes, “Don’t see how any jury could convict on what we heard. ”(p.238 Harper Lee) but him being wrong haunts him for a while as he needs time to think it off. Jem learns to look at the world in a different way instead of through a child's eyes as Atticus tells him “There’s a lot of ugly things in this world, son. I wish I could keep ‘em all away from you.

Read More
604 Words | 3 Pages

¨It was times like these when I thought my father hated guns and had never been to any wars , was the bravest man ever lived¨ Children grow up, they face difficult problems and they are learning how to grow up and be mature and responsible for their actions in the book To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee it shows how 2 kids that are the main character grew up in the past couple of years. In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird By Harper Lee She shows how Jem Finch has changed in the last 3 years. In the beginning of the book Jem finch is a childish kid who is very immature and does really care about anything but himself. To Begin with, Jems bravery take after him in the beginning of the book when he touches Boo Radley's house. “Jem threw open the gate and sped to the side of the house, slapped it with his palm and ran back to us” (lee 71).

Read More
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.

Read More
798 Words | 4 Pages

Jem idolizes his father and views him as the embodiment of justice and morality at the beginning. However, as Jem became more aware of the world around him, he began to question Atticus' principles. For example,Jem is disappointed when Atticus agrees to defend Tom Robinson, knowing that he will bring ridicule and scorn from the people inside of Maycomb county. However his disappointment turns into admiration when he witnesses Atticus’s to stand up for what is right in the trial.

Read More
503 Words | 3 Pages

After Tom Robinson’s verdict was guilty, Jem started to throw a fit because he knew that everyone knew Tom was innocent but didn’t understand that white men basically always won in court. He realized with his age that everyone says people are equal but that’s false. Through Jem’s life lesson, he loses his innocence by him seeing the world for how it truly is and not a perfect as he thought it was when he was a kid. This loss of innocence shows coming of age as Jem is now aware of the world around.

Read More
551 Words | 3 Pages

Jem and Scout have matured very much up to the courtroom scene. Jem takes on responsibility and “grows up”, especially when it comes to being there for Scout. Scout is becoming a young woman and is realizing many new things that she never thought about before. They start making connections with everything and learn from them. Imagery plays a big part in “To Kill a Mockingbird”.

Read More
728 Words | 3 Pages

In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, Jem and Scouts changing perspective of Arthur ‘Boo’ Radley represents a coming of age moment because it demonstrates a breaking away from the childlike imagination that had previously explained all of their questions and superstitions about the Radley’s. A coming-of-age moment is the transition of thinking that occurs when someone learns empathy. At the start of the novel, in many situations, Scout and Jem demonstrate childish behavior and thinking when Jem is taunted into touching the side of the Radley home by Scout and Dill. The book reads, “Jem threw open the gate and sped to the side of the house, slapped it with his palm and ran back past us” (18). From this portion of the novel we can tell that Jem and Scout clearly regarded the Radley home and its occupants with novelty and even fear.

Read More
844 Words | 4 Pages

This quote reflects Jem maturing because he was teaching Scout about what growing up was really like to grow up. As Jem was learning he also felt he had the responsibility to take care of Scout as their dad is worried about the trial. For these reasons Jem has become more of an adult and lost his childish curiosity and became a teacher for

Read More
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.

Read More
732 Words | 3 Pages

This is post trial when Jem is still shocked about Tom losing. Jem is growing up and he does not see the world like he use to. As a kid he saw the world as a friendly place, but after the trail he saw everybody’s true colors. This matters because for Jem to grow

Read More
1138 Words | 5 Pages

This is when he went out of control and lost all of the maturity he had. He could no longer take Mrs.Dubose’s insulting comments. This was a terrible decision yet others would have been tempted to do the same thing. As a punishment, Jem is forced to read to

Read More
946 Words | 4 Pages

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

Read More
715 Words | 3 Pages

"Like something ' 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." this evidence shows that Jem before the trial saw everyone is good but after all the persecution his family got during the Tom Robinson trial he is forced to look at the people of Maycomb as what they truly are and not all of them are good like he thought. Although Jem does not physically die the child inside of him does.

Read More
747 Words | 3 Pages

As Jem starts to mature, his body language and use of words also start to show his overall maturity and his loss of innocence. Specifically, he acts exactly like his father,

Read More
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.

Read More

More about Theme Of Maturing In To Kill A Mockingbird

Related Topics

Open Document