How Jem and Scout Change throughout TKMB and How They Remain The Same Essay

Katelyn Diep
Mrs. Ocamb-Winters
English IA, 3rd Period
22 February 2015
To Kill a Mockingbird
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee is a novel about a young girl named Scout and her family who live in Maycomb County, a small town in Alabama during the 1930’s. Throughout the book, Scout and her older brother, Jem, experience many minor and major alterations and events that ultimately lead to them changing the way they look at the people around them and have a new perspective on life itself. Even so, there are some things that remain unchanged.
Scout and Jem had a very strong bond at the start of the novel. Despite the fact that they were very competitive with each other and always wanted to end up on top, they still love one another in the end. The two spend a whole summer together generating role plays and little games as well as spend time with their new friend, Dill. It is clear that Jem always does his best to look out for Scout. For example, when Scout find gum in the knothole and Jem tells her to “spit it out right now!” then orders her to “go gargle – right now, you hear me?” (Lee 33). This brought out Jem’s protective side when it comes to his little sister. Scout, on the other hand, is just a 6-year-old girl who cannot get enough of playing games with her brother and Dill and also loves to read stories with her father, Atticus.
In the middle of the novel, Jem, out of nowhere, quickly begins to mature. As he grows older, he gradually starts to soak up the events occurring around him and obtains a higher level of knowledge. Scout recognizes this sudden modification after Jem reads a news article too her. She says, “In addition to Jem’s newly developed characteristics, he had acquired a maddening air of wisdom” (Lee 116). This demonstrates how Jem’s new insightfulness is noted by the family. Particularly, his sudden change is noticed by Scout, who is not the biggest fan of it. Jem starts to realize that the games he used to play with Scout and Dill, like the Boo Radley game and role plays, were childlike and insignificant. Jem’s maturity was most progressive after the Tom Robinson trial. Jem was sickened and infuriated after Tom Robinson was accused guilty. Scout remarked “It was Jem’s turn to cry. His face was streaked with angry tears as we made our way through the cheerful crowd” (Lee 212). Jem was positive that they could not and would not sentence Tom Robinson for the lack of evidence. It was then that Jem realized that some people were very cruel and this place he once thought was safe and care-free was the total opposite.
Unlike Jem’s quick development, Scout’s growth throughout the novel is not as fast. It was also establish in a different way. Scout still remains a youthful child for most of the novel yet, slightly changes. While she was growing up, Scout began to see that the world was not at all what she thought it was. As it became more and more obvious, she lost her purity and innocence. Scout slowly watched as the people around her mistreated certain individuals because they were different from everyone else. A while after Tom Robinson’s trial, Scout was in class learning about current events. She noticed that her teacher, Miss Gates, despised Hitler and felt sorry for the Jews. When she got home from school, she asked Jem, “…how can you hate Hitler so bad an’ then turn around and be ugly about the folks right at home —” (Lee 247). Scout is able to recognize the hypocrisy in Miss Gates and perceives how racist people can actually be. Towards the start of the novel, Scout had an awful day at school because she tried to defend Walter Cunningham by explaining that his family had issues with money. She felt it was unfair that another child did not get in trouble when they tried to explain the same matter as her. This caused Scout to come home and tell Atticus about her horrible day. In the end, he tells her “…you never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view – until you climb into his skin and walk around in it” (Lee 30). Scout truly recognizes this near the end of the novel. On their way back home from the pageant, Scout and Jem were attacked by Bob Ewell. When Scout found out that it was Boo Radley tried to save them from Ewell, she realizes that he is not a scary man who lives in an old rundown house. She knows that Boo Radley became quite fond of her and Jem and really looked out for them. She recognizes this and states, “Atticus was right. One time he said you never really know a man until you stand in his shoes and walk around in them” (Lee 279). Scout develops in the novel and teaches the readers an important lesson: do not judge others before you put yourself in their shoes.
Despite the fact that Scout and Jem transform drastically in the course of the novel, some things remain unchanged. Scout and Jem both still share their strong sibling bond even though the two of them experienced changes that caused some troubles between them. Scout is still the younger sister who loves to fool around and play games and think up role plays, but now with a higher level of intelligence. Jem is still the older brother who is extremely protective of Scout.
From Scout and Jem’s experiences, the readers learn that a theme in the book is good and evil. As Atticus works to defend Tom Robinson, an innocent African American man who is accused of raping a young, white woman, he teaches not only his two children, but the entire town an extremely important lesson: people usually have sides of good and evil, but good will usually triumph. At the beginning of the book, Scout and Jem believe that everyone has some good in them. They are very saddened when Tom Robinson was found guilty, even though he was clearly innocent. Jem was emotionally hurt after this and Scout did not understand why. They learn that the world is actually full of racism and unfairness. Towards the end of the novel, the children experience evil first hand, when Bob Ewell goes after them. Out of goodness, Boo Radley comes to rescue them and ends up killing Mr. Ewell. As a result, good overcame evil in this conflict.
During the course of the novel, both, Scout and Jem become more intelligent and mature. As well as that, the two children are still youthful and love each other very much. In the end, these events have changed Scout and Jem for the better. Their experiences have heavily impacted their way of thinking and the way they regarded the folks in Maycomb County. They learned so much more about the people in their town than they thought they already knew and were exposed to the moral and immoral of the world.