Jem And Scout Character Development Essay

Jem and Scout Character Development
Jem and Scout are essential to the themes -of courage, compassion, social justice and morality- within “To Kill a Mockingbird.” Their characters change and grow throughout the novel, they are becoming far more mature than most children their age. On their journey, their father Atticus is key to their development. He is a pillar of all the themes addressed within the novel and does his best to instill these in Jem and Scout. The development of Jem and Scout is twofold, in part they change as a natural part of growing up. However, the second part that contributes to their growth are things they must deal with that are out of their control and sometimes big lessons for young children.
As the story begins Jem is your average 10-year-old boy. He likes to play games, have adventures and tease his sister. We see Jem’s idea of courage change over the story. Initially Jem believes courage is as simple as touching the Radley house. As he’s “never declined a dare,” according to Scout. However,

She is a feisty opinionated young girl, with a love for fighting. She believes that a fight is the best solution to any situation, as she sees the world as black and white. Over the course of the story Scout learns about compromise and perspective. Traits she did not possess at the beginning of the story. Her opinionated self-confidence is almost always on display. One example is when she tells Dill “I’m little but I’m old” and she when interjects in a situation at school with her teacher. Scout has been influenced by Atticus and Calpurnia. They both always tried to instill a level of compassion and shield her from Maycomb’s “usual disease”- racism. They teach her to value humanity no matter the color of skin. As the story progresses Scout’s ability to show compassion and perspective improve. She starts to give more thought to situations she is confronted with and less physical ways of solving