To Kill a Mockingbird
Maturity, when people mature, one usually thinks of age, but people can mature within themselves as well, and become different people all together. This is how Jem matures, throughout to kill a Mockingbird Jem acquires values of maturity and growing up. He learns new things every time, he makes mistakes but that’s all part of the growing up process. And as Jem matures different events affect his life which, change him as a person both physically and mentally. Jem gains new values by looking at situations in a different way than others. Jem also gains new values and maturity by acting differently towards people. Lastly Jem gains new values and maturity by gaining other’s values. This is how throughout the book he acquires values of maturity and growing up. Jem matures and gains new values by looking at situations in a different way than others. Jem can adapt to sticky situations very easily in the book; he can also understand them better than others. During the trial in which Tom Robinson was being convicted. Atticus realized something, he realized that Tom Robinson was useless with his left hand and that most of the blows toward Mayella Ewell were on her right side which means that the one who hit her must have had to use his left hand to do the job. As soon as Atticus realized this so did Jem, he was the first to understand, not Scout. Scout says “But Tom Robinson could have easily be left-handed too. Like Mr. Heck Tate, I imagined a person facing me, went through a swift mental pantomime , and concluded that he might have held her with his right hand and pounded her with his left.”….”He could easily have done it I thought Jem was counting his Chickens.” Another example of this is when Jem and Dill had gone to the Radley lot one night with Scout they wanted to go up to the window and take a peek at Boo. They got frightened and had run off but while Jem was going under the fence ahead of the collard patch his pants got stuck. They made an excuse about this to Atticus, but later that night Jem felt wrongly about what he had done and realized that he had to go back and get them.