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To Kill A Mockingbird Moral Development Essay

1153 Words5 Pages

Jem’s moral development in chapters 1-16 in To Kill a Mockingbird, Jem has significantly grown from a childish, playful boy that he was from the beginning of the novel to a more calm, composed and mature figure resemblance to that of his father, Atticus. Before maturity, Jem bore a childish concept of courage. His concept of bravery was through the acceptance of dares imposed upon him. According to Scout, Jem had "never declined a dare" throughout his entire life. This exhibited his stupidity, rather than his bravery, especially when it was in Jem's nature to "love honor before his head", signifying that not only does Jem accepts dares blindly, he does not think of the consequences of a dare, or about his safety in performing a dare. Also, his ignorance that he was the bravest of all three …show more content…

However, upon maturity, Jem possessed a different kind of courage: moral courage, which is to do what is right, even if it is not popular, or if it might anger those around him. An example is when he and Scout found Dill emerging from underneath Scout's bed in the middle of the night, and his first reaction was to tell the mother of Dill. This is very mature as it shows that Jem has finally been able to rationalize and analyze the situation, and to put himself in the shoes of Dill's parents should they be worried. Eventually, he "broke the remaining code of childhood", which shows that even though it was not in favor of Scout and Dill, he managed to muster his moral courage, and relate this problem to Atticus himself. Also, there are many instances where Jem tries to inculcate certain values or perspectives to Scout, even though Scout claims it as "maddening superiority". This shows that even though his sister will feel angry when Jem tries to "boss" her around, he

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