How Does Jem Mature In To Kill A Mockingbird

Innocence is something that should not be taken for granted and valued by all until it is gone. The story of To Kill a Mockingbird is about when a girl named Scout is growing up and maturing through her childhood. Although she has an older brother named Jem, they are both maturing through their childhoods. Through the conviction of Tom Robinson, a known African American man in the black community of the town of Maycomb. By Scout meeting Arthur Radley and knowing the truth about him, Scout witnessing Atticus killing of Tim Johnson the dog, Scout beating up Francis are, and Dill and Scout meeting Dolphus Raymond and learning his reasons are all reasons of how Scout lost her innocence and became of age. A big reason of how Scout came of age is when Scout beat up Francis and Uncle Jack had came down on Scout. When Scout beat up Francis, she became more mature because she realized that beating people up will not solve all her problems. “Well, in the first place you never stopped to gimme a chance to tell you my side of it-you just lit right into me,” says Scout (Lee 88). Scout loses some of her …show more content…
This plays a large role in Scout losing her innocence. “‘Then you pretend to be half-? I beg your pardon, sir,’ I caught myself. ‘I didn’t mean to be-?” says Scout (Lee 204). The importance in this quote is that Scout is catching herself before saying, so she is thinking before she is saying. Scout is putting herself into Dolphus’s shoes by not wanting to offend him without hurting his feelings and losing a ‘friend’. This shows that Scout has learned from what Atticus has taught her earlier in the book and being polite to other people has really paid off. Scout loses some more of her innocence here because of how she does not care what Atticus would think of how he thought of them after talking to Dolphus

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