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Jem Changes In To Kill A Mockingbird

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Throughout the book, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Jem has changed as the story progresses. How does he change throughout the novel? Jem changes throughout To Kill a Mockingbird because he is starting to follow in his father’s footsteps and he is starting to question the towns’ accepted view on racism. Jem is starting to follow in his father’s footsteps. Another example would be when Jem is starting to grow up. As he is starting to grow, Jem is changing the way he acts, such as him, visiting Mrs.Dubose’s grave and being “grateful for [Scout’s] company when he read to her [Mrs.Dubose]”. Earlier, when he was small, he disliked Mrs.Dubose because she would insult him and Scout. But it went far to an extent where Mrs.Dubose insulted Atticus for defending an African American, causing Jem to kill her favorite flowers. Atticus made him go to Mrs.Dubose’s house to read to her, every day for a month. Eventually, after a month, Atticus received the news that Mrs.Dubose has died. She sent a gift to Jem through Atticus, which was none other than her favorite flower- a camellia. Then he understands, from Atticus’s …show more content…

An example of this would be the beginning of chapter 22. Atticus had told Jem that the jury had called an African American guilty and “they’ll do it again and when they do it-seems that only children weep.”(Lee 243). After the Atticus lost the case against Mr. Gilmer, Jem had said that he could not understand why the jury had said that Tom Robinson was guilty. But Atticus had said that he doesn’t know why they counted him guilty but they have done it before and will continue to make him guilty. Even though the readers know that Tom Robinson is not guilty, the court had ruled that Tom Robinson was guilty, due to the amount of racism found in Maycomb. Jem has realized this and had even said that he “thought Maycomb folks were the best folks in the world, least that’s what they seemed like.”(Lee

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