To Kill a Mockingbird Character Sketch : Jem

TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD

CHARACTER SKETCH: JEM


Throughout the three-year span of To Kill a Mockingbird, the book shows the changes Jem goes through in a few years time. He contributes to the novel by showing his feeling towards the injustice and cruelty of human nature. Harper Lee does an excellent job in showing the kindness and cruelty, and the love and hatred of human behavior, and also showing the great impact on a child whose innocence of youth can be affected by those traits people can have. Jem had experienced it all within a period of time, and during his coming of age.

Jem, Jeremy Finch, is ten years old when the book begins. As Scout’s older brother, he is Scout’s primary source of knowledge, and takes responsibility for her in most cases. Jem is smart and naïve, but he cannot really understand some things until Atticus (his father) tells him more about it by guiding him. Jem is the more thoughtful one of the Finch children. Sometimes moody, and sometim...