Theme Of Maturing In To Kill A Mockingbird

Coming of age is a process that comes once in everybody’s life. This process has many results such as gaining strength or getting clever. In the book To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, a young boy, named Jem, gains maturity, higher level thinking, and empathy skills when he matures. To reveal Jem’s transformation, Harper Lee crafts the story in a meticulous manner and uses purposeful passages and quotes. One such passage is on pages 301 to 304.

As the novel progresses, Jem becomes less defiant and more understanding of adults. Jem witnesses the physical and moral courage of his father before and during the trial of

In Harper Lee’s novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, she uses characterization to show how different events and people shape children as they grow up and ultimately determine what kind of adults they will turn out to be. Jem is a good example of this because he starts out as a little kid

Jem, a young and smart boy develops and matures through many unique situations in the novel. Jem is exposed to the harsh belief, judgement and circumstances of the court at a very young age. Following his father, Jem involves himself in the trial between Tom Robinson and Mayella Ewell yet takes Tom’s side due to his father's involvement. Jem slowly loses faith in the justice system and is faced with a loss of innocence as explained by Scout“It was Jem’s turn to cry. His face was streaked with angry tears as we made our way through the cheerful crowd.

Courage is not strength or skill, it’s simply standing up for what you believe in and what is right. This is the theme that was enrolled after Jem destroys Mrs.Dubose’s camellias and after she died in chapter 11. This passage also reveals Jem’s coming of age moment. After using conflict, symbolism, and point of view, Harper Lee was able to connect the theme with Jems coming of age moment.

The verdict of Tom Robinson’s case made young Jem despondent because he was so sure that the jury would have some some discretion and his father would win the case and felt "it ain't right" when they were told he was guilty (284). Jem couldn't wrap his head around about the idea of how the zealot jury's judgement is still clouded by the social norms of society even though there was evidence to prove Tom Robinson’s innocence. As he talks about the verdict of the case with Ms. Maudie he shares how his view of people changed. He "always thought Maycomb folks were the best folks in the world, least that's what they seemed like" (288). Jem's view of his great infallible town was crushed because of the case.

Innocence is a word used to describe someone 's purity. Children are prime examples of innocence, as they don’t have judgments and don’t understand mature topics. In the novel, To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, the reader can interpret innocence as the growing up of the children. Specifically, Jem Finch showed a loss of innocence as he grew up. He showed his loss of innocence by not playing games, his more mature use of words and body language, and his different view of the world around him. In the novel, To Kill A Mockingbird, Jem Finch goes through change and his innocence of the world is lost as the book progresses.

After Tom Robinson’s verdict was guilty, Jem started to throw a fit because he knew that everyone knew Tom was innocent but didn’t understand that white men basically always won in court. He realized with his age that everyone says people are equal but that’s false. Through Jem’s life lesson, he loses his innocence by him seeing the world for how it truly is and not a perfect as he thought it was when he was a kid. This loss of innocence shows coming of age as Jem is now aware of the world around.

For example, Jem Finch, the gullible child who believed his society was flawless, isn’t the same person by the end of the novel. In her novel To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee demonstrates Jem’s maturity through his behavior and speech. To begin with, Jem exhibits his maturity through his actions. Lee demonstrates Jem’s advancing age when he tells Atticus about Dill hiding in their house.

For most of Jem’s life he had this false idea of bravery. When he was younger, he used to get teased by his sister (Scout) and their

¨It was times like these when I thought my father hated guns and had never been to any wars , was the bravest man ever lived¨ Children grow up, they face difficult problems and they are learning how to grow up and be mature and responsible for their actions in the book To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee it shows how 2 kids that are the main character grew up in the past couple of years. In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird By Harper Lee She shows how Jem Finch has changed in the last 3 years. In the beginning of the book Jem finch is a childish kid who is very immature and does really care about anything but himself. To Begin with, Jems bravery take after him in the beginning of the book when he touches Boo Radley's house. “Jem threw open the gate and sped to the side of the house, slapped it with his palm and ran back to us” (lee 71).

To Kill a Mockingbird is a book mainly about the coexistence of good and evil. The book stresses and emphasizes on the exploration of moral nature in humans. There are many themes in this novel including courage, innocence, racism, femininity, etc. However the most prevalent theme in the book is innocence. Not just innocence in itself but the danger and harm evil poses to the innocent. You can see in the book as Jem and Scout go from a childish perspective, one that only sees good in people because they’ve never faced evil. To a more adult perspective who have confronted evil and learn to integrate it into their world.

Throughout the story, Jem (taken from the word gem meaning a cherished and prized person) is used by Harper Lee as a representation of courage. In the beginning, Jem’s first act of courage occurs when Jem accepts Dill’s provocation to go and touch the Radley house. In the story, Scout says, “In all his life, Jem has never declined a dare” (Lee 16). This quote shows how Jem would never demur any sort of challenge, even if it involved stupid or childish acts like going to a forbidden place. Scout also shows how Jem even accepted a dare from her to jump off the roof of the house as a kid.

In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, Jem and Scouts changing perspective of Arthur ‘Boo’ Radley represents a coming of age moment because it demonstrates a breaking away from the childlike imagination that had previously explained all of their questions and superstitions about the Radley’s. A coming-of-age moment is the transition of thinking that occurs when someone learns empathy. At the start of the novel, in many situations, Scout and Jem demonstrate childish behavior and thinking when Jem is taunted into touching the side of the Radley home by Scout and Dill. The book reads, “Jem threw open the gate and sped to the side of the house, slapped it with his palm and ran back past us” (18). From this portion of the novel we can tell that Jem and Scout clearly regarded the Radley home and its occupants with novelty and even fear. They knew very little about the Radleys and what they did know was simply rumours. This is an example of how their original perspective of the Radleys was. Later in the book we see an obvious change in Scouts thinking and a clear coming-of-age moment when we read “Atticus’s arrival was the second reason I wanted to quit the game. The first reason happened the day I rolled into the Radley front yard. Through all the head-shaking, quelling of nausea and Jem-yelling, I had heard another sound, so low I could not have heard it from the sidewalk. Someone inside the house was laughing” (54). Knowing that Scout at the start of the book viewed the Radleys as

“To Kill a Mockingbird “is a coming of age novel. Discuss this statement, with reference to at least two characters.