The Coming of Age of Jeremy Finch in To Kill A Mockingbird
The coming of age of Jem, Jeremy Finch, is shown in many ways throughout
the book To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee. He changes socially. He
changes mentally. His feelings change emotionally. He also changes to become
more of an adult figure. Another way he changes is that he changes physically.
Jem changes through out the book socially by the way he starts having
better feelings toward other people. There are many times when Jem start
feeling bad for other people in the story, like when him and scout get in a
fight but even though their mad at each other he still is grow up enough to
know that he should say "Night, Scout." There are also many other incidents,
like when he goes out and teaches Dill how to swim. Jem also goes through some
bad social change when he turns "twelve. He is difficult to live with,
inconsistent, and moody."(115). These are only a few of the things that Jem
does to show that he is growing up in his social ways.
Mental change is another type of change that Jem goes through. Jem
start to think like an adult as he gets older in the book. He shows it at the
trial of Tim Robinson when the jury is in the jury room and he starts to talk to
Reverend Sykes. He starts saying thing about the trial and Reverend Sykes ask
him not to talk like that in front of Scout. Which shows that he knows what
he is talking about.(see page 208-209). There is also the time when he had to
go and read to Mrs. Dubose which he later finds out about her drug addiction
which he fully understands. So those are ways he changes mentally.
Jem changes physically in many ways in the story. His hair stuck up
behind and down in front, and I wondered if it would it would ever look like a
man's-maybe if he shaved it off and started over, his hair would grow back
neatly in place. His eyebrows were becoming heavier, and I noticed a new
slimness about his body.
Each and every person will go through a coming of age experience sometime in their life. Those experiences can come in different forms. But, each coming of age experience ends up shaping us to become a mature adult. In the book, To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee tells a coming of age story through Scout Finch, an aging girl’s point of view. Her brother, Jem Finch who experiences coming of age before Scout, realizes that being an adult was not what he hoped. Jem recognizes a different perspective of bravery from Mrs.Dubose, a vile, elderly woman’s perspective. In chapter 11, Harper Lee uses literary elements such as character, conflict, and setting to establish Jem’s new outlook on life.
The way and rate that people mature at can be directly attributed to the values and beliefs of the society that surrounds an individual. It is undeniable that society’s perspective on many controversial issues will generally be adopted by the younger generations in a given society. Moreover, the exposure to significant events, coupled with the major influence of family members, can have an enormous impact on how an individual matures. Additionally, family members greatly help each other develop into moral adults by instilling in each other values that will ultimately determine an individual’s character. In Harper Lee’s timeless classic, To Kill a Mockingbird, the constant reiteration of Atticus Finch’s values, in conjunction with the exposure to significant events, assist in Jem and Scout’s maturation into virtuous adolescents.
advised them what was the right thing to do. When he told Jem to help
he sees his father as strict, but not overly demanding. He seems to begin to
In To Kill A Mockingbird, Harper Lee utilizes the significant symbol of a mockingbird to convey the coming of age theme of knowing someone’s background before forming opinions. When Scout and Jem get airsoft guns for Christmas, Atticus knows they will go “after birds,” so he allows them to “shoot all the bluejays” as long as they do not “kill a mockingbird” because it is “a sin” (Lee 119). Through close analysis, the advice Atticus presents has a much deeper meaning to it than originally perceived. The “mockingbird” is a symbol for all of the innocent people that are portrayed unjustly and the “bluejays” represent the malevolent individuals. Also, Lee’s decision to use the word “sin” suggests that killing a mockingbird is absolutely iniquitous,
The point of view of being the oppressed African American is clearly evident in Langston Hughes’s writing. The author states, “I am the darker brother” (2.2) Here Hughes is clearly speaking on behalf of the African American race because during the early and mid 1900’s African American were oppressed because of their darker skin color. No where in the writing does Hughes mention the word racism, segregation, discrimination. No where in the poem are words like Civil Rights Movement or Harlem Renaissance read. Yet, the reader knows exactly what Langston Hughes is referring to. This is because the writing talks about a darker brother being told to eat somewhere else. This leads the reader to put the point of view of the poem into play. Because it talks of such a brother and because Hughes’s was a revolutionary poet who constantly wrote on the struggles of the black man, then the reader is able to easily interpret the poem as a cry for the African-American man. Langston Hughes’s writing as an African American then makes the narration very probable and realistic.
The author Vincent Ruggiero defines critical thinking in his book Beyond Feelings: A Guide to Critical Thinking, as a “search for answers, a quest.” It is the idea that one does not accept claims, ideas, and arguments blindly, but questions and researches these things before making a decision on them. From what I learned in class, critical thinking is the concept of accepting that there are other people and cultures in this world that may have different opinions. It is being able to react rationally to these different opinions.
Another example of Jem’s maturity is exemplified when he is fulfilling his
Jem had changed throughout the story from acting like a child and doing things that children do to becoming more mature and taking part in the community. When Dill had ran away from his mom and stepdad during the summer Jem and Scout had found him under the bed in Scout’s room. Scout was planning to hide him in her room: however, Jem had other plans. “Dill’s eyes flickered at Jem and Jem looked at the floor. Then he rose and broke the remaining code of our childhood. He went out of the room and down the hall. “Atticus, can you come here a minute, sir?” (pg. 74) For years, Jem and Dill had been the best of friends. Dill had found Jem trustworthy, however, Jem was willing to do what was right even if it means losing a friends trust. Towards the end of the summer, when Dill was getting ready to leave Jem felt that it was necessary that Dill should learn to swim. He has spent the next week going to the creek to teach him. "Jem had discovered with angry amazement that nobody had ever bothered to teach Dill how to swim, a skill Jem considered necessary as walking. They had spent two afternoons at the creek, they said they were going in ...
Jems naïve views are soon corrupted as he goes through experiences like with Boo Radley, but Jem manages to grow in strength as he sheds his pure qualities and learns to have hope. Jem and Scouts childhood friend Dill represents another killing of a mockingbird, as his innocence is destroyed during his trial experience. Scouts childish views dissipates as she witnesses different events in her life, and she grows in experience and maturity as she encounters racial prejudice, making her learn how to maintain her pure conscience that Atticus has developed without losing hope or becoming cynical. Harper Lee’s novel explores human morality, as she weaves the path from childhood to a more adult perspective, illustrating the evils in a corrupt world how to understand them without losing
Examine the Themes of Innocence and Experience in To Kill a Mockingbird. Innocence is a time when a person has never done something; it is the first step in the journey from innocence to experience. The second step in this movement is experience and this is what is achieved after. a person has done something they have never done before or learns something they have never known before. This theme of growth from innocence to experience occurs many times in To Kill a Mockingbird and is one of the central themes in the first part of the novel, because it shows how Jem and Scout change and mature over a small period of time.
Jem is growing up all the time. This can be seen when he stops Scout
Life is full of lessons. The lessons you learn adjust and fit your character and who you are. In the book, To Kill A Mockingbird, the characters of Jem and Scout are young, and have to figure life as they go. Jem and Scout witness and live through life lessons. They learn these lessons from others around them. Some lessons come from their town itself, while others come from people. Their father, Atticus, teaches them a lot about life and the right and wrong. Jem and Scout learn what it means to have empathy, courage, persistence and personal integrity. Also, the Mockingbirds themselves adjust and appoint life lessons.
Browne, M., Keeley, S., McCall Jr., M. & Kaplan, R. (1998) Readings in Critical Thinking, New Jersey: Pearson Custom Publishing.
The critical thinking community. (2007). Foundation for critical thinking. Retrieved on December 7, 2007 from http://www.criticalthinking.org/aboutCT/define_critical_thinking.cfm