What Is The Relationship Between Jem And Connor Maturation

We all grow up. As we age we mature, and from maturing we find what is truly important and how we view ourselves. I feel that Connor Franta, the author of his autobiography A Work in Progress, best relates to Jem and Scout’s journey of growing up from To Kill a Mockingbird. Although Jem and Connor seem to relate more, Scout has a deeper connection rather than more than one connection. Connor Franta compares to Jem in understanding himself and seeing changes, as he compares to Scout by becoming more aware of how you view yourself and how others view you. One way that Connor relates to Jem is that as Jem got older he started to understand himself and find his place in the growing up process. As Scout says about Jem, “His maddening superiority was unbearable these days. He did not want to do anything but read and go off by himself” (TKM 31). This shows that as Jem gets older he is maturing in the way that he is wanting to be around kids his age rather than being around his younger sister and others in that age group. In Connor’s book he mentioned this memory from when he was 12, “My brother and I got in a fight about something so minuscule and irrelevant” (AWP 41). This shows Connor maturing in the way that he started to realize that arguing over something insignificant
Once again, Scout mentions a change in Jem, “His eyebrows were becoming heavier, and a new slimness about his body. He was growing taller” (TKM 301). This is shown towards the end of the book, meaning Jem was going into middle school which is about the time that guys begin puberty and start to mature. Connor mentions, “During my chubby pretween years” (AWP 25). He then goes on to say that as he got older and started doing sports he thinned out and became small. This represents Connor becoming more mature physically around the same age as Jem and showing similarity between the two in growing up