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Jem's Changes In To Kill A Mockingbird

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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,”...Difficult to live with, inconsistent, moody”(Lee, 131). These are certainly signs that he is beginning to mature. He is said to have “..maddening wisdom…”(Lee 133) as Scout put it. He seems to know a lot more than he did in the …show more content…

It began when as punishment for the deed he had to, “...Come over [to Mrs. Dubose’s house] every afternoon after school and read to her out loud for two hours”(Lee 121). This seemed like torture to Jem, who whined and complained to Atticus, but he eventually submitted. As Jem read, Mrs. Dubose seemed to be trying to teach him new words, according to Scout, who said, “When Jem came to a word he didn’t know, he skipped it, but Mrs. Dubose would catch him and make him spell it out”(Lee 122). Jem seemed to be unaware of this, but he must have learned new words and their meanings from this experience. However, he was mainly focused on how ghastly the old woman appeared. Atticus explains that she is very sick and that he wouldn’t have to keep reading much longer. Mrs. Dubose died not much later. Atticus then reveals that she,”...Was a morphine addict…[but] she meant to break herself out of it before she died, and that’s what she did” (Lee 127). Jem was stunned, but even more so when he received a parting gift from Mrs.Dubose. It was a camelia from her garden. His initial reaction was negative, but Scout later sees him holding it with care. Jem learned through this experience that showing regardless kindness to everyone is important because every person is fighting a battle of their

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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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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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As punishment, Jem is forced by Atticus to go to her house every day and read to her for an entire month. Under the conditions of Jem reading to Mrs. Dubose, he gains a glimpse of her real life for the first time. After a month of Jem reading to her, Scout and Jem discover that Mrs. Dubose has died. Jem does not seem to care at first until Atticus reveals Mrs. Dubose's unfortunate truth, ‘“Mrs. Dubose was a morphine addict, [. . . ] she took it as pain-killer for years.

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“People evolve and it's important to not stop evolving just because you’ve reached “adulthood”- J.K Simmons. In the book, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee we learn about a lot of people and the way they can evolve and change in a period of time. Throughout the story Jem has changed the most because he has learned to do the right thing even when others think it's the wrong thing, he knows to not believe in the old sayings, and he protects his sister from anyone or anything. First of all Jem has shown that he has evolved by snitching on Dill about having ran away.

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Dubose. Scout and Jem were told to read to Mrs. Dubose by their father for reasons they wouldn't understand. Jem made the first move onto having to read to Mrs. Dubose by whacking off the heads of her flowers because she was insulting his father. Jem’s father, Atticus, found out about Jem whacking off flower heads and told him to read to Mrs. Dubose every day for a certain time.

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It’s your job not to let her make you mad. ”(page 100). Jem was far more civilized than Mrs.Dubose. Their relationship was not a good one, especially after Jems anger caused him to “...cut the tops off every camellia bush Mrs.Dubose owned. ”(page 103).

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In chapter 11 Mrs.Dubose an old sick lady who always sits on the porch of her house one day told Jem and Scout that Atticus isn’t any better than “the “niggers and trash he works for,” and Jem loses his temper. Thus Jem takes Scout baton which he bought for her and destroys Mrs.Dubose’s camellia bushes. When Atticus found out as punishment Mrs.Dubose told Jem must go to her house every day for a month and read to her and Atticus agreed. Scout comes along with Jem everyday and each session they are reading it gets longer. Mrs. Dubose dies a little more than a month after.

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