To Kill A Mocking Bird 2

Coming of Age
(Jeremy Finch)



The coming of age of Jem, Jeremy Finch, is shown in many ways

through out 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. He was growing taller.(225) There was also when

Jem tried to show Scout his hair on his chest which shows him growing up

physically.(see page225) So these things show how he changes physically to

become more of a man as he hits puberty.

Another change that Jem goes through is his feeling toward himself and

how he starts to feel better about himself. When he gets home one day from

school he shows that he is all confident about making the football team and

how happy he is to be old enough to play. But even though he doesn't get to

play he still remains happy with just being the waterboy and just being able to

be there watching. During the trial "It was Jem's turn to cry." which shows

that he was not afraid to just let his feeling be show even though most people

wouldn't have.(212) So these show that Jem can feel good about himself and

also feel bad but he can still let it out if he has to.

One of the most important change that Jem goes through is taking and

adult role in Scouts life. He walks her to the school play and he protects her

from Bob Ewell when he tries to kill them. This is the main one because if

Jem did try and stop Ewell Scout could have died and it would have show

that Jem didn't really have an adult role. Also another reason is when Jem

tells Dill that he shouldn't touch Boo's house because if Boo kills him no one

will be around to keep an eye on Scout.(13)

As you can see those where all ways that Jem shows his coming of age

in the book To Kill A Mocking Bird by Harper Lee. By changing socially he

becomes more likable. By changing emotionally with himself he becomes

more confident. By changing mentally he starts to under stand more

compicated things that before he would have never knew about. By changing

physically he becomes more of a man and is more older. And finally by

changing to be more of an adult to his sister he becomes more aware of what

an adult has to face.