Jem Character Analysis

Jeremy “Jem” Finch is a leading protagonist in Harper Lee’s novel “To Kill a Mocking Bird” published in 1960. Jem matured greatly throughout the duration of the book, starting to resemble and idolize his father, achieves the status of a guardian to his sister and introduces a whole new set of ideals in his lifestyle. He embodies the themes of growth. Throughout the novel we see how perceptions of things such as courage, respect, tolerance, and cruelty changes Jem as he matures.

Over the course of the novel, the reader watches Jem mature from age 10 to age 13, growing up from a brave and playful boy, to a calm, collected young man similar to the likes of his father Atticus. One of the most important life lessons that Atticus teaches Jem is to always do the right thing even if it’s the hardest thing to do. Atticus Finch is known as a man who is “the same in his house as he is on the public streets.” (Lee, pg. 61) He lived by morals, and always abade by them. After Atticus took up the court case of Tom Robinson, a coloured man, he had many people insult him and make fun of him. Atticus knew that he couldn’t refuse the case, as he stated “before I can live with other folks I’ve got to live with myself. The one thing that doesn’t abide by majority rule is a person’s conscience.”(Lee, pg.140) Atticus took the job that no person wanted, especially knowing that he was going to lose the case before it even began. In doing so, Atticus shows Jem that you should always be a man of your morals, that you should always do the right thing even if it is the hardest thing to do. Although he has a hard time understanding Atticus’ actions at first, Jem begins to comprehend his father’s values in the world around him, with more mature eyes.

To Jem, one aspect of maturity is accepting gender roles as facts even at the expense of Scout’s feelings. He consistently forces his ideas onto Scout about how she should behave outside of the house. “Overnight, it seemed, Jem had acquired an alien set of values and was trying to impose them on me: several times he went so far as to tell me what to do. After one altercation when Jem hollered, “It’s time you started bein’ a girl and acting right!” I burst into tears and fled to Calpurnia.” (Lee 115) The idea of acting lady like seems “alien” to Scout because she has been raised with Atticus and Jem, having no feminine figures in her life. Wanting to only please Jem, Scout has always been more masculine so that he would like her, but now is in a position that she will have to change. This non stop pestering gets to her: “He was difficult to live with, inconsistent, moody.” (Lee 115). Living with him becomes bothersome because she is being harassed for being herself. Jem simply think’s he’s growing up and is wanting to distance himself from childish things; he does this by accepting societal norms that he didn’t recognize at first. From

          Continuing,  as Jem is seeing things from others point of views, he grows in his maturity which leads to him to act as adult. An example of this is when Scout and Aunt Alexandra, who is very determine to keep a good reputation to the family name, get into an argument regarding the

As To Kill a Mockingbird progresses, Jem takes definitive steps toward maturity with his actions in the tire and flower incidents, for example. He would later go on to repair the flowerbed he destroyed, and take greater care to protect Scout. Through his actions, we can see Jem develop a sense of morals and responsibility that would prove to be a lifesaver.

The book we have been reading in class has three main characters that develop over time. There's Atticus the dad, scout the daughter of Atticus, and jem the oldest sibling whose father is Atticus. The story gives the base for every character's attitude and feelings and as the story goes on.Jem for example, starts off as a 10 year old and by the end he's 13 and in those 3 years you see a great change. He shows that he's smart for his age, long temper, and very caring

Maturity is not a quality you see everyday from children. Most of the time children are running around playing with friends and family, asking silly questions, and even fulfilling their imaginations. This is the case for Scout and Jem too, initially at least. Scout is the son of Atticus Finch, a lawyer in Maycomb, Alabama. Scout’s brother is Jem and they have a fairly close relationship. In the book, To Kill A Mockingbird, by Harper Lee Scout and Jem endure and encounter many life-changing events that cause them to mature, from experiencing racism and almost being killed to witnessing their father defend a black man accused of rape in the South during the early to mid 1900s. The theme of maturation significantly applies to the novel as Scout

Throughout the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, Jem matures through three important stages of his life. Within these stages Jem’s experiences such as creating plays about Boo Radley, reading to Mrs. Dubose, and processing the Tom Robinson trial all taught him

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

In To Kill a Mockingbird Jem is no longer childlike because he no longer thinks and acts a child and shows compassion for others and the truth. Jem comes of age because he now thinks and acts like an adult and can be considerate of others. The experiences showed him compassion for life the need to do the right thing and the understanding that not everything in life is

Jem and Scout’s relationship together is unbelievably strong. We find that Jem is extremely protective over his little sister and would do anything to stop her from getting hurt. Jem becomes more mature throughout the novel as you can tell when Tom Robinson is in court he cries and also he doesn’t want to play with his little sister but he will still do anything and everything he can for his little sister they have an unbreakable bond. She always wants his to play but he just goes outside and watches her and protects her. They both mature a lot throughout the novel. Scout matures through her experiences throughout the novel. At the beginning of the novel she is all innocent and naive. Scout at the end of the novel lost much of her

As the novel progresses, both Jem and Scout are shown to mature, this is due to "To Kill A Mockingbird" being a bildungsroman novel. Through this coming of age process, we are actually shown Jem’s new found maturity enabling him to find empathy and acceptance regarding the Boo Radley myths, as he finally took his father’s advice to “climb into someone else’s skin and walk around in it” when he was explaining to Scout his epiphany that he “[is] beginning to understand why Boo Radley’s stayed shut in his house all this time. It’s because he wants to stay inside.”

He didn’t want to do anything but read and go off by himself." Scout is still a child and sees thing from a child's point of view so she doesn't really understand Jem. But Jem is learning and observing everything. From both quotes, it shows that the world has a way of affecting you. The more you grow the more you learn and from this, a mature adult is being shaped into the type of person they want to become.

Firstly, Jem begins to show his social corrections, changes, and potential. Jem originally feels bad because he can't understand others like Scout , his sister, or the situation that is going on with such people. He starts changing when he begins to adjust social situations the way an older teen would. Example; Jem grows older and becomes distant because of his brain power. Scout gets jealous, “What had began as a fist-fight had become a brawl.”(184) They did

Older brothers are typically the ones who annoy and bully the younger siblings with love. They are the ones who the parents rely on to help around the house. Jem Finch is a little bit different than the typical older brother to a little girl, but then again his little sister isn’t that ordinary either. Jem Finch displays many character traits. In the first few chapters he displays a little kid who gets in trouble along side of his friends and younger sister, but further into the novel Jem demonstrates more responsible behaviors by accepting his wrongs and the consequences. He also shows how he will stand up for Scout and take care of her, even though he doesn’t like to be seen with her while they are at school, and he is hard on her when