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How Does Jem Obtain Moral Growth In To Kill A Mockingbird

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Moral growth is understanding and learning right from wrong, throughout one’s entire life. In the novel: To Kill a Mockingbird, there are many instances in which Jem increases his moral growth, meaning he grew morally. At the beginning of the novel, Jem is a child, and he acts like one based on his actions and the decisions he made. As the book went on, Jem becomes older and he learns from his past actions and makes better decisions, the right decisions. Therefore, he demonstrates moral growth. In the book, Atticus helps Jem gain moral growth by learning not to judge others based on their past actions. One way Jem gains moral growth, is by learning not to judge Mr. Cunningham because of his past actions. One instance of this is when …show more content…

Dubose, and learning not to judge her. After Jem destroyed Mrs. Dubose’s flowers, Jem is punished by having to read to Mrs. Dubose every day for the next month. While Jem is reading to her, he learns that Mrs. Dubose was addicted to morphine. Towards the end of Mrs. Dubose’s life, she tries to die a “clean” person by giving up morphine. Yet again Atticus teaches Jem not to judge her for her past experiences by saying: “Mrs. Dubose won, all ninety-eight pounds of her. According to her views, she died beholden to nothing and nobody. She was the bravest person I knew” (Lee 128). In this part of the novel, Atticus is telling Jem to overlook, and not judge the fact that she was addicted to morphine. Atticus wants Jem to realize that at the end of her life, she tried her hardest to give up her addiction so that she could die beholden to nothing and nobody. Jem learns moral growth from this situation because he again learns right from wrong. In this situation the wrong thing to do would be to judge Mrs. Dubose, and think that she was a mean lady because she was addicted to morphine. The right thing to do is to overlook that, and not judge her for her addiction, but to realize that she was brave at the end of her life and tried to pass away a “clean”

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