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Jem is the character that changes the most (To Kill a Mockingbird)

1. “Jem is the character who changes the most.” With reference to incidents throughout the novel, outline what changes you have observed in Scout’s brother.
In the beginning of the novel, ten-year-old Jem appears to be his younger sister, Scout’s playmate and equal. He is very much a child then, naïve and somewhat ignorant, and spends most of his time with his younger sibling. However when Scout starts her first grade at school, Jem suddenly becomes aware of the age difference between himself and his sister. He does not want Scout to embarrass him in front of his fifth grade friends, and when he takes her to school on her first day, he instructs her not to “bother” him, not to “approach” him with requests to enact a chapter of “Tarzan and the Ant Men”, not to “embarrass” him or “tag behind him” during recess.
And when Jem and Dill develop a friendship, Scout is partly left out b...

Posted by: Jason Pinsky

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