The Maturing of Jem Finch in To Kill A Mockingbird

Although it is often seen as a story about the effects of deep systemic racism, To Kill a Mockingbird is also a story about the growing up and maturing of Jem Finch. Harper Lee created one of the all-time greats in character development when she wrote the story of Jem Finch. At the start of the book Jem is an immature ten-year-old who is terrified of their neighbor, who hasn't been seen in years, Boo Radley, and just wants to play with his friend Dill Harris and his sister Scout. By the middle of the story, Jem begins to understand some of the more complex themes of the book like prejudice, morality, and racism.

At the beginning of To Kill a Mockingbird, Jem Finch is a very immature little kid from Maycomb, Alabama. Jem shows this immaturity through being obsessed with and terrified of Boo Radley. And he only wants to play and have fun with his sister Scout. In part one, Jem and Scout live in fear for a little bit due to the stories they heard of Boo Radley. Even though Jem and Scout had never seen Boo, they imagined a fearsome monster with a long scar on his face who eats cats and squirrels with his bare, bloody hands and someone who stabbed his parents in the legs because he “wanted to”. When dared to just touch the side of Boo Radley’s house, Jem stalls for two days but finally relents and says: “‘I hope you’ve got it through your head that he’ll kill all of us’”(17), also remarking “‘Don’t blame me when he gouges your eyes out. You started it, remember.’”(17). This quote shows that Jem’s mind was still not very developed and he still believed ghost stories like the hot steams, a ghost who can’t get to heaven that sucks people's breath as they pass. He describes them to Dill as “‘A Hot Steam’s somebody who can’t get to heaven, just wallows around on lonesome roads an’ if you walk through him, when you die you’ll be one too, an’ you’ll go around at night suckin’ people’s breath’”(49). These are just some of the ways that Jem’s immaturity is shown and highlighted throughout the early chapters of To Kill a Mockingbird. But, as the story begins to progress the reader starts to see a change in Jem’s maturity.

In the middle of the book, Jem starts to learn more about the world around him and begins to understand it better. This starts near the end of part one, where Jem in a fit of rage toward his neighbor Mrs. Dubose, decides to kill some of her camellia flowers by cutting the heads off of them. Once his father, Atticus, learns of this, Jem’s punishment is to read to the elderly Mrs. Dubose until she dies. When Dubose, a morphine addict, dies, Jem feels remorse for killing all of her flowers. When he finds out about her passing, he picks up a camellia. This caused Scout to remark: “When I went off to bed I saw him fingering the wide petals. Atticus was reading the paper”(149). This shows a lot of development in Jem’s character because he really starts to care about the people around him and the people he meets in his life, while Atticus, his father, harbors less sentimental feelings towards others. More of this maturity is shown when he starts to grow away from Scout and wants to be on his own as a person. At the beginning of Chapter 12 and Part 2, Scout remarks that Jem has become very difficult to live with and notices: “Overnight, it seemed, Jem had acquired an alien set of values and was trying to impose them on me”(153). Now, this doesn’t show traditional maturity per se, but what this shows is the learning process one has to go through to truly understand their values and who one wants to become. 

As the trial of Tom Robinson approaches, Jem truly starts to mature and become a man. This is first seen when Atticus is staring down an angry mob of attackers who all want to lynch a still innocent man, Tom Robinson, for his accused crime of rape. The night before the trial, a mob of men tries to storm the town Jail and lynch Tom Robinson. When Atticus, Tom’s lawyer, is looking at this group of hate-filled men who all want to forgo the trial and kill Robinson at that moment, Jem appears with Scout and Dill. Atticus, sensing the immediate danger, warns his kids to leave the area and go home, Jem doesn’t leave: “Jem shook his head. As Atticus’s fists went to his hips, so did Jem’s, and as they faced each other I could see little resemblance between them”(203). Jem stays there until the men realize the Finches aren’t going anywhere and leave. This is a very big example of Jem’s maturity and his true care for the ones around him because he realizes that his father is in danger and defies Atticus’s wishes to stay and keep him safe. But, Jem is not perfect. Throughout the actual trial, Jem foolishly believes that Atticus could sway the all-white jury into convicting a black man. When Atticus was laying out his case as to why Bob Ewell, the father of the rape victim, could have been the real perpetrator of the crime, Scout noticed: “Jem seemed to be having a quiet fit. He was pounding the balcony rail softly, and he once whispered, ‘We’ve got him”(238). This shows that Jem did not yet understand how deep racism and prejudice went back in the time he was a kid. He had developed a thought process based solely on fact and reason rather than the color of someone’s skin, a thought that is seen more in modern times. Another example of how much Jem has grown since the beginning of To Kill a Mockingbird is at the climax of the book which sees him and Scout get blindly attacked by a very drunk Bob Ewell. The two kids were walking home from the town carnival and pageant when Jem heard something. Sensing a prank from their friend, Cecil Jacobs, Scout tries to make Cecil give up on the joke by insulting him. Once this doesn’t work Jem tries to goat their watcher out of hiding. When that does not work, the two hear someone running towards them, and Jem takes the lead: “‘Run, Scout! Run! Run!’... Someone rolled against me and I felt Jem. He was up like lightning and pulling me with him”(351). Jem eventually gets knocked unconscious by Bob but is able to buy enough time for Boo Radley to come and kill Ewell. This shows a great amount of maturity from Jem as he sensed the imminent danger approaching them and had the presence of mind to not only try to fight off the attacker as long as he could but also try to get Scout out of danger by leading an escape. 

At the beginning of To Kill a Mockingbird, Jem Finch is a young, immature ten-year-old whose greatest desire is to play with his sister and his friend and his greatest fear was his neighbor. As the story progresses, Jem begins to learn a lot more about the world and starts to become a mature adult. At the story's conclusion, Jem is affirming his beliefs in himself and the real world and shows an immense amount of courage and bravery in the face of immediate danger.