Molly Fowler
English, Hour 1
Baranoski
March 9, 2015 Throughout the story of
To Kill a Mockingbird
, Scout speaks quite highly, while sometimes lowly, of her brother, Jem. She’s always looking up to him for one reason or another, and is constantly interested in what he is doing, wanting to stick by him at all times and joining him on his life journeys taking them both up and down. Although Scout explains her own thoughts on the events taking place, they could also be her opinion on anothers story. She’s watching Jem grow up as well, seeing the way he solves his problems, how he changes and begins to gain more gentlemanly features, and how he affects Scouts life by being her superior.
Scout views Jem’s story from his adventurous achievements as a child, despite any punishments that may have been thrown his way due to his egocentric charisma, to his jump to adolescence and a more developed young man.
In
To Kill a Mockingbird
, a constant theme of maturity is presented through Jem’s character. From beginning to end, he develops a more calming aroma, becoming a very reasoning and collected character, to the point where he begins to resemble his own father,
Atticus. Jem develops a new sense and definition of courage as he ages. At first he was very daring, but also blind to any consequences he may undergo as a result of his arrogance. He was willing to perform any actions that may be considered thrilling to him, Scout, or Dill, but are looked down on by their authoritarian figures. Scout had voiced that, “In all his life, Jem had

never declined a dare,” (Lee, pg. 13) which provoked Dill to strive towards using Jem to lure
Boo Radley out. Later on in the book, as a result of Jem’s mental and physical growth, his outlook on courage and bravery took a turn. When Dill was found under Scout’s bed, his first instinct was to have Dill notify his parents on where he had run off to, instead of using this situation to their advantage to cause a bigger disruption to the worried minds of Dill’s parents.
Unlike Scout, all through the book Jem is picking up more gender sufficient qualities, while maturing and beginning to act more independent as a young boy. On Scout’s first day of school, she runs into a dilemma with her new teacher, Miss Caroline, when she attempts to explain that Walter Cunningham cannot pay her back when she tried to loan him lunch money.
Due to the lack of Miss Carolines understandment, she punishes Scout for talking back, telling her, “Jean Louise, I’ve had about enough of you this morning.” (Lee, pg. 21). This leads Scout to become upset and begins to pummel Walter on the playground. Jem noticed the dispute and came over to relieve Walter of Scout’s beating and calm her, because it was obvious to him the real way to solve this situation was not through violence, and that Walter needed to be treated with more respect. Along with this, Jem took the pleasure of inviting Walter along to dinner at their house, making him feel welcomed as well. Ahead of this event, Jem proves his bravery and maturity by standing up to the anonymous assassin, who is later found out to be Bob Ewell, and protecting his sister, taking a