How Does Jem Develop In To Kill A Mockingbird

It shows that Jem cares about his little sister scout and doesn’t want her to get hurt.

Before, Jem would always be Scout’s playmate but now he tells her to “stop pestering him” and that she should start “bein’ a girl and acting right”. Jem now likes to be kept alone and feels as if Scout is a lot more childish than he had realized.

The novel To Kill a Mocking Bird by Harper Lee is about a young girl named Scout and her brother, Jem, growing up in the small, southern town of Maycomb, Alabama. Scout and Jem live with their older father, Atticus, and spend their summers playing with their friend, Dill. They have many neighbors, and one is an older woman named Mrs. Dubose. As the siblings grow older, they begin to drift apart and new disagreements begin. Yet, as Jem begins change, he starts to think more maturely about feuds with his sister and opinions towards his neighbors. For example, in the tire incident, Jem realizes that Scout is in trouble and tries to help her. In addition, in the flower incident with Mrs. Dubose,

Scout, Jem, and Dill are very complex characters. At first, I thought they were very old; Jem and Scout seem much too intelligent to both be under the age of ten. My first impressions of Scout, Jem, and Dill are basically the same as they are now. I still think Scout is sassy, passive aggressive, and impulsive. She is also a tomboy. At first, Jem seemed almost angelic, like he could do no wrong. He always played with his sister, tried to be a gentleman, etc. Jem is a good kid, but he tends to show off and is sometimes mean to Scout, like when he and Dill refused to talk to her. Dill is a small boy with a huge imagination. “Dill Harris could tell the biggest ones I ever heard.” (Ch. 5, pg. 52). I can relate to Scout the most. I also have an older brother that I used to play with all the time, but he was sometimes rude and called me names, much like Jem when he calls Scout too much of a girl. Though I may not have been as intelligent or sassy, I was definitely a tomboy.

"Mockingbirds don't do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don't eat up people's gardens, don't nest in corncribs, they don't do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That's why it's a sin to kill a mockingbird."Jem has changed from a childish little boy to a 12 year old young adult and is able to make smart decisions.

Jem had changed throughout the story from acting like a child and doing things that children do to becoming more mature and taking part in the

Jem, as a child, has little respect for life or Scout his younger sister. When Jem, Scout, and Dill are on the hill Jem takes revenge on Scout by “pushing the tire with all the force”. As a child, Jem does not realize how important life is. He pushes Scout extra hard because she made him mad not knowing she could get seriously hurt. As Jem matures he has compassion for life and a realization of how important life is. Scout was going to “mash” a roly-poly but Jem asks her to spare it “ Because they don’t bother you.” Jem does not want Scout to kill the roly-poly because it is innocent. Jem’s statement is very reminiscent to Atticus telling the children to never kill a mockingbird because “Mockingbirds don’t do one thing but make music for us to enjoy.” The court case brings out Jem's adulthood as he starts to understand the unfairness of life and has a newfound compassion for what is right. Jem tells Atticus “that it ain't right” when he hears the guilty verdict, although knowing he is innocent. At this moment, Jem loses his childhood innocence as he realizes that the case should have been innocent but it was not because of the people in his town. Jem loses his childhood belief that everyone will treat others fairly and now has a compassion for what is right. The decisions Jem is faced with like the roly-poly and the court case brings out Jem's compassion in his coming of age.

He is always watching over the people he knows, especially Scout and Atticus. One day, as Scout was walking home, she spotted two pieces of chewing gum in the nook of a tree. She checked to see if the gum was safe, then ate it. When she got home, she told Jem that she found the gum in a tree. He then becomes concerned for her safety and states, “‘Don’t eat things you find, Scout’... ‘Spit it out right now!’ ... ‘Don’t you know you’re not supposed to even touch the trees over there? You’ll get killed if you do!’ … ‘You go gargle -- right now, you hear me?’” (Lee 33-34). When Jem discovers what Scout has done, he shows that he will be protective of her, even over a couple pieces of gum, and make sure she stays healthy. In another major scene, Jem’s defensive actions saved his and Scout’s lives. As the two siblings were walking home from the Halloween pageant, Jem kept hearing footsteps following them. At first they thought it was their friend Cecil Jacobs trying to scare them again. However, when they stopped for the last time, the footsteps didn’t follow suit and stop with them. Jem tells Scout to run, but with her cumbersome costume on, she tripped and the wire around her was crushed. Jem got stuck with their follower, Bob Ewell, and was attacked. When he was flung back towards Scout, he immediately tried to rescue her from the costume and get both of them out of the fight. Unfortunately, Jem was pulled back by Mr. Ewell and severely hurt (Lee 261-262). Even though both Jem and Scout were in danger, Jem did everything in his ability to try and save her. The situation they were in was very dangerous but despite the challenges, Jem was sure to be protective of himself and his little sister. Someone who takes good pride in protecting you and others will always be good person to have around, especially if it is one of your

Lee has done a very good job at characterizing the Ewell family, specifically Burris. His descriptions, I feel, would definitely match them in real life. He definitely passed the message that Burris is dirty. He has dirt everywhere on his clothes, in his hair, and on his feet, yes feet, he wears no shoes. Along with the dirt on his clothes, it would not even matter if it was dirty or not, because they are are just straight up messy, they are “ruffled, and tattered. If that does not convince you, he was actually sent home, for being to dirty, by his teacher Ms. Caroline. Also another way to prove Burris is dirty is he has living insects, “Cooties”, in his hair. These things, are very similar to lice, they live in your hair and mess around with your scalp.

In conclusion, jem is changing in the book but however scout is changing more than jem.

Scout hung out with friends/people her own age. She mostly hangs out with people older than her. This is the first step of Scout becoming independent. She doesn't always need Jem around. Since she’s going to start hanging out with other people than her brother she will learn to protect herself and learn from life on her own. She will have more people she can rely on and come to when she needs help or feeling

There are many things in life that cause people to grow up; whether it be a death of a family member, the loss of a friendship or love. These experiences help us understand the world around us and all the people that are in it. Everybody’s coming of age and transition into adulthood is different. Although many authors tell stories of kids coming of age, no story can compare to Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird” that leads you through many characters travels from childhood to adulthood. The events in the novel cause Jem and Scout to grow up and mature because they realize that the people in their town are prejudice.

At a certain point, a child will begin to realize certain things about the world without any provocation from anyone. It is often experiences that spark a child to grow emotionally and morally, as learning through experience is crucial to improving at anything. Scout and Jem had a very poor opinion of Mrs. Dubose. They saw her as an irritable old woman who spent most of her time yelling at passing children. Scout and Jem are content to walk by Mrs. Dubose’s house and attempt to avoid conversation, but when she insults Atticus, Jem loses his head.

Jem and Scout meet several characters throughout the book who have a longer backstory than they thought by their appearances. Arthur “Boo” Radley, a man who is perceived as a monster by the townsfolk, after he was accused of stabbing his father in his house, with a pair of scissors in the thigh. Boo Radley gets judged bypeople assume

The common, or northern, mockingbird is well known as a mimic; it has been known to imitate the songs of 20 or more species within 10 minutes (“Mockingbird”). The complexity of the mockingbird can be best understood by looking at their characteristics/ interesting facts, the way they migrate and their singing.