In the novel “To Kill A Mockingbird”, Harper Lee uses plot, setting, and conflict to present themes such as racism, morality, and forgiveness. One of the strongest he used was coming of age. Although most of the characters have experienced coming of age, I think that Jem’s experience had a bigger impact on the story. He changes mentally and emotionally. In the novel Jem gains a better understanding of the world and gets to know to people of Maycomb a lot better. He also learns innumerable life lessons from his father Atticus and the meaning of the lessons give him a different perspective. First, in chapter 10 on page 128 it says “I saw that, One-Shot Finch!”. Jem and Scout had spotted a mad dog coming down the street and Calpurnia calls sheriff
Coming of age is a young person’s transition from childhood to adulthood. The coming of age passage that I picked in the book, To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, is from chapter 23, pg. 292. In chapter 23, Jem is trying to make sense of everything, after the jury found Tom guilty. Jem starts to cry, and can’t believe the injustice of his townsfolk. He barely ate and was taking little interest in normal activities. Atticus starts to notice and ask Jem what's the matter. Jem is mad Tom got convicted on circumstantial evidence even though Atticus defended him well. Aunt Alexander calls Scout’s friend, Walter, trash which upsets her. But Jem is there to help her get through. Jem says there are 4 types of people in Maycomb county. People like
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
on going to the jail when he senses that his father may be in danger.
Near the end of the book Jem is nearly 13 years of age. Jem is a good kid who knows what is right and wrong but still needs to be a little bit older before he can understand why a lot of things happen. Jem is a very good brother and is very mature for his age. Jem is involved in all of the important events in the book. He was at Tom Robinson's trial and he was attacked by Bob Ewell. A theme that Jem represents is that things are not always as they seem to be. After Atticus gives information on why Tom is innocent Jem says, “We’ve got Him.”(Lee 238). Jem knew Tom was innocent and it appeared that he would be without a doubt innocent, but Tom ended up being convicted guilty which Jem did not see
For instance, Jem says, “It showed Atticus barefoot in short pants, chained to a desk: he was diligently writing on a slate while frivolous-looking girls yelled, “Yoo-hoo!” at him. That's a compliment, he spends his time doin’ things that wouldn't get done if nobody did ‘em”’ (pg. 116). Jem is supporting Atticus through this unfortunate event. I think Jem is very thoughtful and considerate by making his father feel better about the situation. I thought Jem was more self centered than he actually is. I believe that the reason Jem is maturing is because all of the bad things that have happened to him at only 12 years old. Conflict proves the theme by Jem’s actions towards
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.
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
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.”
To start with, the first coming of age experience Jem faces is Conflict. In chapter 11 of To Kill A Mockingbird, Jem and Mrs. Dubose have a person vs. person external conflict with each other. Referring back to the book, it says “She put her hand to her mouth. When she drew it away, it trailed a long silver thread of saliva. “Your fathers no better than the niggers and trash he works for!” (P.117)
One example is when the Lynch mob showed up and then the kids ran up to him. That's when Atticus told Jem to leave and to take scout and Dill home with him and that was when Jem shook his head and told him that he ain't leaving. This is apart of coming of age because Jem faces with a internal conflict because he was faced with the decision to listen to his father and leave or to go against what his dad said and stay and not leave Atticus alone with the Lynch mob because if he did then Atticus would have gotten beat up so Jem decided to go against his dad and stay to protect him.
By looking at growth and maturity in To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Jem shows a lot of improvement throughout the book, growing into a young man.
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 has changed socially throughout tkam. In the book To Kill A Mockingbird jem has changed by a couple different ways, he has started to understand the racism in maycomb and how it affects everything, he has also learnt not to judge people until you really know them, and jem has become a more mature and responsible person. With jem changing throughout the book the way he looks at the world changes. It also changes the way he acts.
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.
Throughout To Kill a Mockingbird Jem and Scout change tremendously. They do not change physically, but rather mentally. Their maturation can be seen as the novel progresses and by the end of the story they seem to be two completely different people. As the novel goes on, the reader can see that Jem and Scout mature even when the rest of the town does not.