Jem Coming Of Age Essay

Ms.Dubose was an old lady down the block from Jem and Scout, that would shout out malicious things to them about themselves and their family. One example of Jem being childish and acting immature is, that when Ms.Dubose said Atticus was “lawing for a n******” he teared up her precious camellias. This shows how he was immature and couldn't control his actions and made a rash decision when faced with rude comments. Following this destruction, Jem’s punishment is to read every day, including Saturdays, for two hours at Mrs. Dubose’s house. Which he loathes doing because she is a senile old women, who makes rude remarks every time he comes over. At the end of the chapter, Atticus reveals to Jem that she was addicted to morphine and that the reading was part of her effort to wean off of her addiction. Jem receives a gift from Ms.Dubose which is a single camellia. This revels Jem feels surprised, guilty, and saddened when he sees her gift. The camellia was a reminder for the reasons he spent time with Mrs. Dubose, but it was also was a sign for him to remember her by. Atticus teaches Jem a very important lesson that not all heroes use guns and weapons, but have the real courage and strength to fight for what they want to get. “I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is 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. We finally see when Jem starts to grow up and give things thought when “He picked up the camellia…I saw him fingering the white petals” This shows how Jem has empathy for Ms.Dubose and realizes that she was fighting and had admiration for her. Jem matures and shows how he can be understanding about

Dubose. She represents racism which is the main point in the book To Kill a Mockingbird, “‘ Your fathers no better than the niggers and trash he works for!’” (135). Here Mrs. Dubose officially describes her ways of thinking. She believes that black people are nothing and that they worthless. She uses strong diction in order to describe her perspective of Atticus and his work. Through her and her symbolism Jem and Scout learn about racism. Racism is a cruel thing and affects the people who encounter it. “ I had become almost accustomed to hearing insults aimed at Atticus,” (136). Scout has become used to the remarks given about Atticus and their family. Although the children are used to it that does not mean they aren’t annoyed by it. Many people took racism as a way of life whereas the Finches saw it as an injustice. Just like this quote, eventually Jem could not handle Mrs. Dubose and destroyed her garden. He did something about what he viewed as an injustice by Mrs.

Atticus makes Jem think about how he would feel if he was in Mrs. Dubose place, and what he would do. Mrs. Dubose really did no damage and because of her illness, Atticus makes it clear to Jem that she represents bravery, and that she was tougher than anyone he knew. Day after day, as Jem kept reading to Mrs. Dubose, he felt empathy towards her and matured as a person.

In part one, Jem gets mad at Mrs. Dubose and decides to kill some of her flowers. When Atticus finds out, he makes him read to the sick old woman on a regular basis until she passes on. Atticus tells Jem that she was addicted to morphine and she was very sick. Jem realizes that what he did is wrong. Maturation can even be seen here when he understands the situation Mrs. Dubose was in. Also in part one, Scout gets into several fights at school. Every time someone makes fun of her or someone in her family she beats them up. Atticus tells her it is wrong to solve her problems this way and to stop fighting no matter what someone says. She doesn’t listen until part two when she stops fighting people altogether. This shows tremendous maturation on her part because she has gotten past the childhood habit of fist fighting when she had a problem with someone. Both of these acts show the children’s progressive maturation.

Dubose. Jem and Scout hated Mrs. Dubose, she was always disrespectful when they passed by her house. She would yell at them about many different things like their behavior, their father, what they would be when they grew up, them walking to town, and them not having their mother around anymore. Most of her comments were about how Atticus was defending a man of color in court. One day Jem went mad, he grabbed Scout’s baton and ran into the front yard and cut the tops off every camellia bush in sight, he didn't begin to calm down until the ground has green buds and leaves everywhere. Once he was finished trashing Mrs. Dubose’ yard he snapped the baton in half, threw it down, when Scout saw she started screaming. Jem pulled her hair, and kicked her down. When Atticus got home he was disappointed that Jem would do something like that, he told him to go to Mrs. Dubose’ house and talk to her. When Jem came back he said he cleaned for her, said sorry, and said that he would help them grow back. Mrs. Dubose told Jem to come to her house everyday after school and on Saturdays and read to her out loud for two hours for a whole month. On the first day they weren't there for a long time because about half way through it was time for Mrs. Dubose’s medicine, Jessie kicked them out because she had to get the

Mrs. Dubose is an old lady who lives two doors up the street from the Finch's house. Atticus' son, Jem destroyed Mrs. Dubose's flowers because she had said disrespectful things about Atticus which brought out Jem's anger. Even though Atticus was very upset, he does not believe violence is the appropriate way to approach any situation considering it does not teach you valuable lessons. Instead, Jem's punishment was to read to Mrs. Dubose every day for the month and in the end taught him the true meaning of courage. Atticus demonstrates that holding your head up and fists down will save you from more complicated situations. Another example would be when disrespectful Bob Ewell spat on Atticus' face because Atticus made Bob look like a fool during his testimony. Atticus stayed calm during the whole situation. He held his head high and walked away during the scene. Following this further, Atticus sets honorable examples for his children. He believes all people have goodness in their hearts no matter how cruel or heartless they act, even if their status was low, they would have generosity and kindness inside. The first impression of Mrs. Dubose was described as a rude lady. She says to Scout, “Don't you say hey to me, you ugly girl! You say good afternoon, Mrs. Dubose!” (Lee 133). However, Mrs. Dubose is really a kind lady who causes no harm once you get the kindness out of her. In addition, Atticus compliments her and treats her as he would treat any

Jem learns from visiting Mrs. Dubose that not everything is how it seems at first glance. He also learns the value of courage and how it will later affect him as he matures into an adult. From what is described, the readers can draw a conclusion that Mrs. Dubose is impolite and bitter towards the children and is not afraid to speak her thoughts about Atticus defending Tom Robinson. As a result, Jem carries out his anger by destroying her flowers. He is later punished by Atticus by having to read to Mrs. Dubose certain days of the week for a period of time and work on her flowers. Through this process Jem is able to control his impulses and show kindness to those around him even if he does necessarily want to. This shows that Jem is becoming more of a young adult rather than a child. He also realizes that Mrs. Dubose is actually a woman of

From her front porch, Jem just sees her as a bitter old lady however, once he gets close up to her he realizes what bad condition she is in and how frail she is. The fact that Jem does not know about Mrs. Dubose’s illness also shows her courage because she is fighting her horrible illness without the support of her community. After Mrs. Dubose dies, Atticus reveals that Mrs. Dubose wanted to die free and that she is the bravest person he has ever known. During a conversation between Atticus and Jem, Atticus says “I wanted you to see what real courage is... It’s when you know you’re licked but you begin anyway...

There are many key scenes in To Kill A MockingBird that could be considered a “coming of age” scene. One major key scene that contributes to this is in the beginning of chapter 25. In the scene, Scout and Jem are sitting outside on the porch when Scout sees a Roly Poly . She was about to smash it when Jem told her not to. She asked Jem why she couldn’t and he told her, “Because they don’t bother you…” When Jem said this, Scout didn’t really care. She had thought “Jem was the one who was getting more like a girl every day, not I.” Jem seems to have hit his coming of age moment because in the particular scene, he seems more obvious to the world than he was before. This helps set up a theme that causing harm to the innocent is wrong until they are proven guilty of something bad.

Throughout the novel, Jem is influenced by a variety of people and circumstances. His surroundings and the people that he grew up with influenced his outlook on life and persuaded him into a well developed young man. First and foremost, his father Atticus established morals, and guidelines and consequently lead him into adulthood. He provided wisdom and insight into a future for Jem, free from inequality and abundant in fairness. Mrs. Dubose, although biased and cruel, was a figure of courage for Jem to learn from. Throughout the case, Jem was constantly reiterating his opinion on how he believed none of it was right. At the end of the novel, Jem was put in the worst situation at such a young age, almost being murdered. Luckily, the outcome

To begin with, Jem and Mrs.Dubose have a person vs. person conflict as Jem and his little sister, Scout bound down the street Mrs.Dubose lives on. Mrs.Dubose spits harsh words about Atticus, (Jem’s father), in Jem’s and Scout’s faces. “Your fathers no better than the nig*ers and trash he works for.” (To Kill A Mockingbird, pg.117). When Mrs.Dubose

(Lee 149). When Jem and Scout go over to Mrs. Dubose’s house, they don’t understand what she’s going through. By them watching her every day, Jem and Scout see what Mrs. Dubose goes through on a daily basis. She’s a morphine addict, but the kids don’t know that. All they know is her mean and degrading attitude.

Lee uses the character of Atticus to teach his kids the importance of empathy with Mrs.Dubose.. Dubose is a character who is mean to everyone. But Atticus treats her with respect. Jem,Scout and Dill all hate Mrs.Dubose because of the comments she makes about Atticus. “She’s an old lady and she’s ill. You just hold your head high and be a gentleman. Whatever she says to you, it’s your job not to let her make you mad” (Lee 132). Mrs. Dubose is addicted to morphine, which makes her say weird things and be very mean.Atticus is trying to tell them that no matter what happens or what Mrs.Dubose says leave it to yourself, don't take it out on others. Jem rages about what Mrs.Dubose says about Atticus. Atticus is trying to tell them not to let words hurt you. Every afternoon after Atticus comes home work he makes a complaint like “good evening, Mrs. Dubose! You look like a picture this evening” (Lee 132). Atticus is being very nice to Mrs. Dubose even though she is not nice to others. Atticus does not

Harper Lee’s classic novel To Kill a Mockingbird, wonderfully portrays the rises and falls of a close sibling relationship. Jem Finch is ten years old and just beginning to understand and evaluate the world around him, including his sister, Scout. Jem and Scout are close, but then grow apart due to Jem’s newfound independence, but grow close again once they both mature enough. Jem’s evaluations of school, teachers, peers, neighbors, family, gender roles, race relations, and himself greatly affect this change in relation with his sister. Jem’s changing relationship with his sister highlights his changing perception and values.

Mrs. Dubose is represented as a mean old lady, but in reality, she is struggling with her health. Mrs. Dubose has suffered many years with an addiction and is trying to take care of her health, but the kids do not believe that because she is a mean person. Jem and Scout try to avoid walking by her house because she is really rude to them. One day when Scout walked by, she said: “ ‘Hey Mrs. Dubose,’ I would receive for an answer, ‘Don’t you say hey to me, you ugly girl! You say good afternoon Mrs. Dubose!’ she was vicious” (pg 115). Scout judges Mrs. Dubose based on how she