Harper Lee’s coming-of-age novel To Kill a Mockingbird illustrates the life of its young narrator, Jean Louise “Scout" Finch, in the small town of Maycomb, Alabama, in the mid-1930s. Scout begins the novel as a thirteen year old reflecting back on major key events in her childhood life. She lives with her father, Atticus, a lawyer, her older brother Jem, and their black housekeeper, Calpurnia who tends to the children and the house while Atticus is at work. Scout and Jem's summer playmate, Dill Harris, shares the Finch children's adventures and adds imagination and intrigue to their game playing and their own lives. In this novel, Scout grows in awareness and comes to new understandings about her town, her family, and even herself. However, this novel isn’t completely centered around Scout. Jem also has a major role in Scout’s story.
Jem shows his love and care toward others throughout the novel. In part one, Jem, Scout and Dill go to Boo Radley’s house to try to see him. Mr. Radley sees them and comes out with a shotgun and shoots at them. “Jem’s breath came in sobs: ‘Fence by the schoolyard!—hurry, Scout!’ (Chapter 6, pg. 71) Although Dill is with them, Jem is specifically talking to Scout. He is scared for her and wants to protect her from whoever is shooting at them. A similar incident occurs in part two, toward the end of the story. Jem and Scout were walking home from the pageant when Jem heard someone following them.
“I felt the sand go cold under my feet and I knew we were near the big oak. Jem pressed my head. We stopped and listened. Shuffle-foot had not stopped with us this time. His trousers swished softly and steadily. Then they stopped. He was running, running toward us with no child’s steps. ‘Run, Scout! Run! Run!’ Jem screamed…Someone rolled against me and I felt Jem. He was up like lightning and pulled me with him…” (Chpt. 28, pg. 350-351)
Also he was in as much trouble as Scout, Jem chose to fight the man to protect her, even though he was risking his life and broke his arm. From just those two quotes, you can see how much Jem cared about Scout, even though he had his “teenage time” and ignored her for a while.
Another theme Jem has to cope with is racism. Many people in town are calling Atticus a “nigger-lover” and Jem can’t...