Shalin Madan
11/22/18
Mr. Faddé
Growing up is a journey that all of us are forced to face at some point in our life. Whether this ordeal was faced a long time ago, or very recently, it is an experience that we can never forget, entirely due to the extensive amount of changes it makes upon a person. The mind of a child comes with thought processes that are naive to the truth, and do not fully understand actions, their meaning, and their consequences. During our maturing stage, our personalities and understanding of the events that take place around us develop immensely. In Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, the concept of maturing is a constant theme that takes place in the character of Jeremy Finch (Jem). While the beginning of the story portrays the naive mind of young Jem Finch, later chapters begin to foreshadow the growth and maturing that takes place in Jem’s character. In this novel, Harper Lee demonstrates the substantial amount of changes that take place during the maturing phase of childhood; she accomplishes this task by writing about Jem’s new realizations and understandings of events around him as the book progresses.
One of the core characteristics of a child is their imagination. In adolescence, the concepts and ideas of the real world aren’t fully established, nor understood. This imagination allows children to act the way they do, which comes with benefits and drawbacks. One of the drawbacks is blatantly shown in the early stages of Harper Lee’s novel. After we are given a background of Jem’s family and history, we are immediately provided with a mysterious idea revolving around the Radleys. Although Jem is older than Dill, a childhood friend, as well as Scout, his sister, they all develop creepy and disturbing images of “Boo Radley.” The reader is first introduced to the name Boo (Arthur) Radley when Harper Lee writes, “He said it began the summer Dill came to us, when Dill first gave us the idea of making Boo Radley come out” (Lee 1). As seen in the name, these imaginative children still believe in monsters and have not matured enough to understand those only exist in the mind, and not real life. As the kids continue to discuss Boo Radley, they get more and more radical and imaginative with their ideas of him. This monstrous image of Boo Radley is further amplified when the author writes, “Jem gave a reasonable description of Boo: Boo was about six-and-a-half feet tall… he dined on raw squirrels and any cats he could catch, that’s why his hands were bloodstained… there was a long jagged scar that ran across his face; what teeth he had were yellow and rotten; his eyes popped, and he drooled most of the time” (14). Although Boo Radley is a somewhat mysterious person, all of these hyperbolic facts are from the creative mind of a young Jem Finch, who has not yet discovered that this only exists in his imagination, and not the real world. Jem’s immature mind not only leads to unrealistic ideas of people he has not seen, but also leads to consequential actions he commits throughout the beginning of the book. Further along in the book, the kids, also in reference to the Radley’s, innovated their game about the Radley’s in which they advanced the complexness and content of the scenes. One of the most important scenes was when, as Harper Lee writes, “When it was time to play Boo’s big scene, Jem would sneak into the house, steal
the scissors from the sewing-machine drawer when Calpurnia’s back was turned, then sit in the swing and cut up newspapers. Dill would walk by, cough at Jem, and Jem would fake a plunge into Dill’s thigh” (40). Immaturity leads to jokes that, although are only meant for fun, can have detrimental consequences; one of these is shown when Atticus says, “‘Does this by any chance have anything to do with the Radleys?’ ‘I hope it doesn’t’” (41). All of these examples of Jem’s immature thoughts of Boo Radley’s appearance, as well as his consequential actions that he commits without considering the possible outcomes are an extensive demonstration of the lack of development of maturity that has taken place throughout the beginning of the book.
When children begin their maturing stage and begin to develop an adult-level understanding of what is truly taking place around them, it is expected that they would inevitably feel traumatized. There are so many joyous things of the youth world that must be thrown away and forgotten about when childhood nears its end, and this pattern is elaborately shown in Jem’s development as a character. As Jem gains this maturity, he not only understands that he needs to stay responsible, but also gets angry about things he did not comprehend as a child. One of the first clear examples of Jem’s development is his decision to retrieve his pants he lost while “struggling in the fence, kicking his pants off to get loose” (55). When Jem tells Scout of his decision to venture onto the Radley property, Scout protests, “‘You’ll get your head shot off, Jem. Please…’” (57). In reply, Jem firmly states “‘I—it’s like this, Scout….Atticus
ain’t ever whipped me since I can remember. I wanta keep it that way’” (57). Jem and Scout had mostly agreed with each other in the situations prior to this, and as Scout thinks, “It was then, I suppose, that Jem and I first began to part company” (58). This quote additionally represents Jem’s newly found responsibility, in that he doesn’t want to disappoint Atticus and he wants to maintain his good reputation. This point in the book marks a huge diversion in Jem’s path and Scout’s path. Jem continues to develop and mature, at some points emphasizing his superiority over Scout who remains immature (which makes sense due to her young age). Scout’s understanding of Jem as a character continues to diminish, which is represented when he thinks to himself, “When we went in the house I saw he had been crying; his face was dirty in the right places, but I thought it odd
that I had not heard him” (65). The reader, however, understands that Atticus completely changes his opinion when Jem mentions, “‘Mr. Nathan Radley said it was dyin‘’”(64). Atticus had been explaining that the tree was extremely healthy, and there was no reason to fill the hole with cement, but after hearing that Nathan Radley told Jem that the tree was dying, he quickly explains that Radley probably knows more about trees than he does and that Nathan is probably right. It is at this moment that Jem realizes that his own father, in a way, sides with Mr. Nathan Radley over his own son. This marked an extreme moment in Jem’s development, as well as his increased anger when he makes the realization of many things he didn’t understand as a child.
When children mature, they often reach a stage that is just entirely characterized by anger. Jem, at a crucial point in the book, fully reaches this point. This situation all begins with Mrs. Dubose, an elderly lady addicted to morphine; although she acts cruelly, Atticus later tells the kids that she has a good heart, and her only mission is to rid herself of the addiction to morphine. Jem finally reaches his stage of anger, when Mrs. Dubose, as many others have done before, calls Atticus a n***** lover (105). This is a common word used for Atticus because of his decision to defend Tom Robinson, a black man accused of rape, in a town mainly filled with white and racist people. Mrs. Dubose viciously says “‘Not only a Finch waiting on tables but one in the courthouse lawing for n*****s,’” and as Harper Lee perfectly describes, “Mrs. Dubose’s shot had gone home and she knew it” (105). At this stage in Jem’s development, he begins to understand Atticus’ reputation, and what the phrase “n***** lover” really means. This quote from Mrs. Dubose alone triggers Jem’s anger and we see his response to this anger when Scout recounts, “We had just come to her gate when Jem snatched my baton and ran flailing wildly up the steps into Mrs. Dubose’s front yard, forgetting everything Atticus had said” (106). Jem releases his anger on Mrs. Dubose’s camellia bushes and is not satisfied until all the tops are cut off and beaten. One of the key references in this quote is the forgetting of Atticus’ advice, in which Jem was told to keep his head up high and stay a man, no matter what people say about his father. During this important episode of Jem’s development, he reaches an understanding that he wouldn’t have had earlier: his father does work that is not approved by everyone, and people will insult him, ruin his reputation, and dislike him because of it. Although Jem makes a rash move due to his anger, we also see the matured part of Jem: his increased level of responsibility. He built up a hate for Mrs. Dubose and acted on it, but he also listens to Atticus and realizes that he has to fix his mistakes. He constantly reads to Mrs. Dubose to help rid her of her morphine, and is successful, showing a perfect representation of the responsibility he has gained while maturing.
Intriguingly, the anger Jem releases towards the end of part one of the story can be respected, because it is a perfect representation of growing up. Although Jem does not grow up and mature perfectly, he develops through the many steps that come with the journey. Children begin with nothing but an imagination, and this innocence, although charming at times, can lead to bad decisions and lack of understanding. The pains of growing up and understanding things he may have not wanted to change him as a person, and lead him to assume more responsibility, but also more anger. Growing up is a journey that everyone faces, and it is an experience that permanently changes a person because it gives them a new understanding of what life really is: the good, the bad that creates anger, and the necessary responsibility to be an adult.
Work Cited
Lee, Harper. To Kill a Mockingbird. Harper Collins, 2002.