To Kill a Mockingbird

Nabil Ahmed M5W
998 words

To Kill A Mockingbird

Children have different aspects of thinking. This all depends on what their parents and what the society teaches them. Jem is an innocent child born in to the middle of the great depression, where racism was not a problem. Jem changes in the course of the story ‘To kill a mockingbird by Harper Lee’. Jem is one of the main characters in this book. He learns about the reality of the situation and learns how to deal with it. These changes are seen from the point of view of his little sister, Scout. This gives us a unique perspective of the growth of Jem and the way he changes. Jem displays qualities and traits that can be rarely seen in most kids in literature or in real life. These qualities are that he is very brave, he is very protective over his little sister and he respects his father a lot during the course of the book.

Jem shows bravery in everything he does. His definition of bravery changes after he realizes what the situation of the real world is. This goes beyond the fact that Jem ages from 10-13 throughout the book, the change that happens is based on his experiences. At the beginning of the book, Jem’s idea of bravery was to simply touch the wall of the Radley house, although Scout says “In all his life, Jem had never declined a dare.” As the story goes on Jem learns a different definition of bravery from his father Atticus when he is facing the mad dog, also when Mrs Dubose is fighting her addiction and is willing to face head on the illness despite the fact that she knows what is coming for her and many other scenarios from the book. Jem realizes that he has to grow up and face the world which is such a corrupt place to be in. Jem shows his strongest bravery when he faces the mob who confront Atticus at the jail where Tom Robinson was kept. The mob were determined to kill Atticus to get through to Tom. At this time Atticus is scared of the situation he was in and tells Jem to go home with Scout. Jem refuses Atticus for the first time ever and doesn’t leave with Scout. Scout narrates “In the midst of this strange assembly, Atticus stood trying to make Jem mind him. 'I ain't going,' was his steady answer." Scout realizes that Jem is showing a lot of braveness. I think that Jem shows a great amount of braveness even though sometimes he is unaware of what the consequences could be because of his actions.

Jem is always protective of his sister Scout. In rare cases in books or real life can this be seen. Jem tries to whatever he can do to comfort and protect Scout. He always takes care of her whenever they are left alone. Jem picks up these attributes from his father as he is a lawyer and needs to protect all his clients in the best way possible. Jem has been taught and educated well enough to know what kind of dangerous things could happen when you eat food that you find. Scout finds a piece of gum inside a tree in front of the Radley’s house and Jem says “Don’t eat things you find”. Jem didn’t want Scout to eat the gum which could lead to possible illnesses. Jem is protective and Atticus knows it because he can trust Jem to look after Scout. When Ms. Maudie’s house catches on fire Atticus tells jem “Take care of Scout, you hear?”. Jem tries to make sure that Scout is always alright, during the fire at Ms. Maudie’s house Scout becomes really cold because of the winter weather and Jem tries to cover her up. “Tried to keep me warm but his arm was not enough”, you can clearly see that he has an a deep affection for his little sister. This is not normally seen in real life where the brother is protective over his little sister. Of course there are some cases where you can see this affection. Jem follows the steps of his father and has great respect for him. There are moments where Jem gets annoyed at his father. Jem is one of the greatest characters I have ever read about.

Jem respects his father a lot in the book; this is because of the way Atticus has brought him up. He always listens to what his father has to say to him except when the mob comes after Tom Robinson. Atticus tells Jem to take Scout home to safety but Jem didn’t even budge. Scout explains “In the midst of this strange assembly, Atticus stood trying to make Jem mind him. 'I ain't going,' was his steady answer." Jem didn’t want to leave because he could feel the threat of violence in the air. He could sense that something would happen and knew he had to do the right thing by refusing his father. This doesn’t mean that he doesn’t respect his father. It means that he is growing up and ready to defend his family even if the consequences are bad. Jem did the right thing by standing up to his father because he shows that he can make his own decisions and that he is changing into a young man.

In conclusion Jem has changed a lot throughout the course of the novel. I think that when I started to read the book there was a sense of childness in him but when I closed the book I realized that he had changed a lot due to the experiences he had and the lessons he learnt from Atticus. I think Harper Lee gradually changes Jem in to a young man after each experience he encounters. The main person that had an affect on Jem was Atticus because he knew what was best for his children and thats who Jem learnt off from.