Jem Finch in To Kill A Mockingbird Essay Sample

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee is a historical fiction novel written about a trial that takes place in 1930s Maycomb, Alabama. The trial’s defendant is Tom Robinson, a black man, who is falsely accused of raping Mayella Ewell. Tom Robinson is found guilty due to the majority of the jury’s preconceived notions. Jem and Scout are the children of Atticus Finch, the court's Criminal Defense Lawyer, so they watch the trial. Throughout the novel, Jem changes in his understanding of his community because of the new experiences and the conversations he's privy to.

In the beginning of the book, Jem is immature and reckless because he hasn’t understood what his community really is. Jem finds himself in a new situation within his community created by his father's decision to defend Tom Robinson. In his new experience, the main emotion he feels is anger, “In later years, I sometimes wondered exactly what made Jem do it, what made him break the bonds of ‘You just be a gentleman, son,’”(Lee 118). A character he feels resentment towards is his neighbor, Mrs. Dubose, who shares their society's opinion that what Atticus did was uncouth because where they live thrives on white supremacy. One day while passing her house, she calls out a series of insults and threats towards him, Scout, and his father. As a result, as Scout said, he broke the bonds he was being taught to destroy Mrs. Dubose's garden in retaliation. This shows that his view then on the community is that they’re misguided about his family and deserve some kind of consequence.

As Jem reaches the more mature age of 13, he becomes more involved in and aware of “adult” conversations and concepts, which is a change he experiences. An adult conversation that he becomes a key member of is the Tom Robinson case discussion. He even attends the trial but is told to go home and eat supper while the jury is out.  Reverend Sykes and Calpurnia suggest that Jem and Scout eat slowly because they will get back to court on time. Jem then replies, “You think they’ll acquit him that fast?,”(Lee 236). This captures his naivety because he truly believes that the outcome of the trial will prove his innocence because the court should be “fair”. His father, through his complete understanding of their community, is aware that the majority of the court already had a conclusion upon entering the courtroom, which is why he knows it won’t take long for them to deliberate. Jem’s lack of knowledge of his Maycomb affects his reaction to every guilty verdict which Scout voices in narration, “I peeked at Jem: his hands were white from gripping the balcony rail, and his shoulders jerked as if ‘guilty’ was a separate stab between them,”(Lee 240). The next day, while at Miss Maudie’s house, he talks about how he always thought the people in Maycomb were the best people in the world until the trial and says the jurors are heathens. This shows that his view on the people of his town has forever changed as a result. 

At the end of the novel, Jem is now more secure in his role in society and in his views on the community. Jem has just entered high school and has declared that he is too mature to take part in things such as Halloween. This is his way of moving on from the Tom Robinson case. He’s been exposed to something most children his age aren’t and, in order to cope, he thinks he needs to act like an adult. He’s also in his teenage years, so he’s going through all kinds of developmental stages. Another way he copes is by starting to try and be a good role model for his younger sister in order to compensate for his misjudgement of bringing Scout to the trial.  No one can take Scout to her pageant, so Jem does the gentlemen like thing, “After that, it didn’t matter whether they went or not. Jem said he would take me. Thus began our longest journey together,“(Lee 291). The Jem who wouldn’t have offered to take her is no more. He is no longer immature and reckless and, even in the face of death, he tries to save Scout, which shows he’s become more protective and level-headed.