What Does Jem Learn In To Kill A Mockingbird

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What does moral education mean to you? What about life lessons? Did you need a difficult situation to help you learn these lessons? For Jem and Scout Finch, it took extremely dark times to learn these lessons. In To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, Jem and Scout learn many life lessons. The children's father, Atticus, takes on a strenuous case involving racism in the the southern town of Maycomb. When the innocent African American man is ruled guilty, the children learn about moral education and the reality of their imperfect town. Jem and Scout each learn many meaningful lessons throughout this novel: the drive to stay positive, do what is right, and the truth about some folks. First and foremost, the children couldn’t have made it through …show more content…

In the beginning, Jem was a boy who thought that everyone in the world was truthful and honest; however, this aspiration was brought to an end when he witnesses an innocent man found guilty by a court jury. Jem was certain that Tom would be proven innocent due to lack of genuine evidence against him. Even though Jem didn't know the people of the jury, he had faith that they would naturally do the right thing. “I always thought Maycomb folks were the best folks in the world, least that’s what they seemed like” (Lee 246). This event opened Jem’s eyes as he began to see not only his town, but the human race in a different way. In addition, Tom Robinson being wrongly accused of rape continued to eat away at Jem. When Scout approached Jem later on in the novel and commented on the case, he was irate and shouted at her to never bring it up again. Scout couldn’t seem to understand why Jem acted so agitated. Jem was older, and his entire view of the world was completely shattered. Scout was younger, and even though she understood that what happened to Tom was wrong, her world and point of view wasn’t turned upside down. Not only did Jem grow agitated when someone brought the trial up, he also attempted to forget the outcome by pushing it to the back of his thoughts. Jem’s innocent perspective on his home was

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