Who Is Jem Growing Up In To Kill A Mockingbird

To Kill A Mockingbird is a story about growing up in a world where racism is prevalent in all aspects of life. Placed in world's greatest low point, The Great Depression, when blacks and whites were still separate, To Kill A Mockingbird revolves around the life a 6 year old girl and her slightly old brother, as their father takes part in a trial, defending a black man. The Great Depression, while definitely impacting Maycomb County, does not come up in the book very often. Jem knew that Tom was innocent and shouldn’t have been convicted, maturing in a moral sense. “‘It ain't right, he didn’t kill anybody even if he was guilty. He didn’t take anybody’s life...Then it goes back to the juries, we oughta do away with juries”(Lee 219-20). “‘You
“‘Atticus,’ [Jem] said, ‘why don’t people like us and Miss Maudie ever sit on juries? You never see anybody from Maycomb on a jury- they all come from out in the woods’”(Lee 221). “‘The jury didn’t have to give him death-if they wanted they could’ve gave him twenty years….Maybe rape shouldn’t be a capital offence….Then it all goes back to the jury, then. We oughta do away with juries...Then go up to Montgomery and change the law’”(Lee 219-20). In his argument/conversation with his father, Jem asks about why no one from Maycomb County serves in a jury and talks about removing juries or changing rape from a capital offence so Tom wouldn’t die. While Jem knows that the law works well in theory, it doesn’t account for racial prejudice, leaving Tom no chance for acquittal. Jem knows that Tom is innocent, and at first tries to understand how he could have been convicted, then tries to think of ways to change the current law system to make it more fair. This is something everyone does, identify a problem, find a solution. But Jem’s attempt to take on a court system and coming up with some viable ideas shows his intellectual
He matures in moral and intellectual ways, seeing that sometimes the things people do are immoral and unjust. He tries to come up with ways to solve these problems, to come to terms with his reality, and the reality of the courts, which he is desperately trying to change and can’t. He also learns the meaning of respect and loyalty, seeing how people will fight for you when they see what your trying to do for others, not just yourself. Jem shows his maturity in multiple scenes of this book, however in this section of the book, his growth is very easy to