What would you do if a dog had rabies? Like Jem in the Book To Kill a Mockingbird. What could he do if a dog has rabies? Jem was a gentleman and his father was Atticus Finch. He lived in Maycomb town with his sister, Scout. Scout always wanted to fist fight people even Jem. But Jem always wanted to ignore her through all the conflicts that he did in the past. In Chapter 10 , Jem comes of age when watching his father Atticus shot a gun to kill a dog with rabies, through conflict,irony and mood. In this scene, Jem comes of age when watching Atticus shoot a gun to save the town from a rabid dog. This was an important scene where it comes to a conflict between Atticus and the rabid dog after Atticus shot the rabid dog. “The rifle cracked. Tim …show more content…
Tate gave a gun to Atticus which is ironic because Atticus is a lawyer and Mr.Tate’s job is a police officer. “Mr. Tate handed the rifle to Atticus”(109).This scene was ironic. It was Mr.Tate’s job to use the gun to get rid of the rabid dog not Atticus. Furthermore, in Jem,s point view, Atticus should have just given the gun to Mr. Tate, which makes sense that he is the sheriff.
Finally, on the street, Jem said he and Atticus are alike; they both are gentleman.“Atticus is a gentleman just like me!”(114). This defines Jem and Atticus. That Atticus might be a lawyer but in this part of the scene of the chapter he was a gentleman to Jem. In addition, mood was shown when Jem thought he and Atticus were both gentleman.
Therefore, in this scene Jem comes of age when watching his father Atticus shot a gun to kill a dog with rabies, through conflict, irony, and mood. To summarize, external conflict, irony, mood all contribute to Jems coming of age. Watching his father shoot a gun with perfect aim opens Jem’s eyes that he misjudged his father. When Atticus shot a gun to the rabid dog with a one-shot kill Jem comes of age in his point view he assume his father was boring. But he learn Atticus has a special gift. Everyone should stop assuming others because everyone has a
Jem and Scouts’ father, Atticus, is very misjudged by their children. They believe that Atticus is a very semantic man that goes to work, comes back, and has no skill whatsoever in sports. Scout criticizes Atticus by saying “Atticus did not… or do anything that could possibly arouse the admiration of anyone”(118). This demonstrates that Jem and Scout are not satisfied with Atticus’s physical and amusing skills. They thought of him as an old man in his fifties that had no energy left, and had a routine of going to bed and reading in the living room instead of running around. Later, they visit there across the street neighbor, Mrs. Maudie to talk about how boring their Dad is, when Mrs. Maudie says” ‘Well, he can make everybody’s will so airtight can’t anybody meddle with him’… ‘Well, did you know he is the best checker-player in this town? Why down at the Landing when we were coming up, Atticus Finch could beat everybody on both sides of the river”(120). This establishes that they find out that their Dad isn’t so useless anymore. Even though the children find out all these activities he is excellent at, sometimes even the best, they are still not overly impressed. After Calpurnia calls the cops on the dog, Tim Johnson, The sheriff and Atticus arrive at the scene “ ‘Take him, Mr. Finch’. Mr. Tate handed the rifle to Attics; Jem and I nearly fainted…’’d you see him, Scout? ’d you see him just standing there?...’n’ all of a sudden he just relaxed all over, an’ it looked like that gun was a part of him’”(126-129).
When children grow up, they face difficult problems, and. they learn to cope and take responsibility. To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, is a flashback about two kids that spans over a few years. Jem ages from ten to thirteen over the course of the novel, and undergoes much change, as his sister describes him. Over the years, he is exposed to issues adults face, and eventually shows an understanding of racism and innocence. As Jem grows up, his view on courage also changes. Jem follows his father's footsteps, and gets much of his knowledge from him.
Jem shows that he is growing up in many different ways. For example, he shows this when he goes back to the Radley house to retrieve his pants. “Atticus ain’t ever whipped me since I can remember. I wanta keep it that way.” (Jem 75) The fact that Jem went back to get his pants was a brave decision. This quote shows that he is maturing because he didn’t want Atticus to whip him, but not because he was afraid, because he didn’t want Atticus to go through the pain of having to whip his child. A quote that describes Jem at the moment is "We have not passed that subtle line between childhood and adulthood until we move from the passive voice to the active voice--that is, until we have stopped saying 'It got lost,' and say, 'I lost it.'"(Sydney J. Harris). In addition to Jem’s developing characteristics, he acquired a load of wisdom. Jem shows a loss of innocence, after his perfect view of the world is shattered right in front of his eyes. For example, “I always thought Maycomb folks were the best folks in the world, at least that’s what they seemed like.”(Jem 288) This is important because Jem realizes that Maycomb folks aren’t that great. This also shows that he saw the prejudice in the people, and how racist they were to African Americans. As Jem matures and starts developing a new eye for the world, he slowly starts to lose his childhood innocence and is exposed to the wrong doings of the
In the beginning of the story, Jem enjoys the childish games of fantasizing about Boo Radley, taking any dare, and . Scout tells the reader that Jem becomes more and more moody as the story progresses, due to his aging. He thinks more; he shows more compassion; and he is appalled by the unfairness that rears its ugly head in his hometown. While Scout recounts the events of her childhood, the reader fails to notice that “To Kill a Mockingbird” is not a story about the narrator (Scout) maturing, it is actually about Jem maturing, and becoming an adult.
Jem Finch has come a long way since his humble beginnings as a naive ten year old child. He has come to understand the real meaning of courage, gone from playmate to protector for his sister and has grown enough to understand the workings of the real world, and see the negatives and positives of society. His maturity has been quick and the changes great, and over the years he has come to adhere, respect and carry out Atticus`s legacy and use his father`s ideals to shape his lifestyle. Due to the course of events, his adolescent changes and Atticus`s influence, Jem has matured from a reckless child into a young man capable of making his own decisions.
Atticus a lawyer in Maycom County defends a black man. By said that a white woman accuses that a black man rapped her. Atticus’s children are in confusion and constantly ask their father about his case. Atticus said”….If I didn’t I couldn’t hold up my head in town, I couldn’t represent this county in the legislature. (75). Clearly we can see that he has lots of respect to this county and for blacks. Atticus wants his children to ignore what everybody thinks on him about defending a negro. During a conversation between Jem and Atticus, tells jem,” As you grow older, you'll see white men cheat black men every day of your life, whenever a white man does that to a black man, that white man is a trash.” (223). At the court Atticus is sure that he will lose but want to make a statement to this racist society. He wants this county treat black people just how they treat white people. Atticus states in the court,”…..you know the truth….some Negroes lie some Negroes are immoral….There is no person in this courtroom who ha...
In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird Lee use’s ageism as if to illustrate the characters view point. To demonstrate when Jem mention to Scout "It's different with grown folks, we---" (Lee 184). Jem shows that he felt superior to Scout by a 4 year age difference which he thought it made him more Intelligent in his mind then his sister based on how he talked to Scout. On the other hand when Scout said "Atticus was feeble: he was nearly fifty. When Jem and I asked him why he was so old, he said he got started late, which we felt reflected upon his abilities and manliness. He was much older than the parents of our school contemporaries..." (Lee 118). This portrays why
In the beginning of the book Jem is ten. He is innocent and is kind of oblivious to what is happening in the town. In the book Jem represents courage and how that courage is represented changes the older he gets. In the beginning Jem‘s courage is shown when is dared to touch the Radley house, he does that because he never backs down from a dare. That is the Jem‘s and the kids idea of courage. As the story continues Jem sees how courage is not the naive idea of touching the Radely house. He sees Atticus shot a mad dog and Mrs. Dubose fight with morphine addiction. Jem is made to read to her and when he asks why Atticus says: “I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand.“
On several occasions, Scout gets into a fight with people who make unpleasant comments about her father. Atticus continuously tells her that this is wrong and that she needs to learn to control her anger, “You might hear some ugly talk about it at school, but do one thing for me if you will: you just hold your head high and keep those fists down. No matter what anybody says to you, don’t you let ‘em get your goat. Try fighting with your head for a change” (Lee 101). The day after this discussion with Atticus, Scout is approached by a fellow student who had previously made a mean comment about her father. “I drew a bead on him, remembered what Atticus had said, then dropped my fists and walked away...it was the first time I ever walked away from a fight” (Lee 102). Although she struggles at first, Scout develops a higher level of maturity which allows her to control her temper and simply defend her father with her words, without being rude. Jem is also faced with these type of situations and struggles with his anger, for instance when he attacks Mrs. Dubose’s flowers. Atticus goes to great lengths to teach his children that in life, they must learn to stay calm and be kind to everyone, despite how cruel those people may be. Scout and Jem face several situations in which their control is tested, which leads them to “come of age”
Jem is growing up all the time. This can be seen when he stops Scout
... he leaves him. Scout points out Mr. Cunningham in the mob and starts talking about his son, Walter. This makes the mob realize what they are doing and humanizes them. The mob disperses and Atticus is thankful for Jem not leaving. This is how Atticus has taught Jem to be independent and realizes that Jem is becoming more mature in his actions.
This passage of the story displays coming of age as an internal force through Jem’s character, conflict, and setting. This event led Jem to see situations in a different perspective. He learns that people might come out as rude. But, as hard as it is he must remain respectful, because he would not know what kind of battles they must be facing. He uses this coming of age experience as a life lesson more throughout the
Harper Lee, like Houssaini is able to make a character, in this case Jem, go on a quest in order to figure out an underlying connection between himself and the father figure that is either absent or hard to appreciate in Jem’s case.. In the beginning of the book, Jem does not understand why his father is defending Tom Robinson or why his father will not defend himself against his detractors. But throughout his journey that summer through his own activities and through watching his father in the courtroom, Jem comes to appreciate his father’s values and comes to see himself as more like his father. As he says, “Atticus is a gentleman, just like me!” (Lee, p.
Although Atticus would play keep away in football, he wouldn’t allow Jem to tackle him. Jem felt that his dad should allow him to tackle him, but Atticus responded with the statement that he was too old. "Jem was football crazy. Atticus was never too tired to play keep-away, but when Jem wanted to tackle him, Atticus would say, I 'm too old for that, son."(pg.118). As the story progresses, they begin to see their dad in a different view. After Atticus shoots the rabid dog, Scout and Jem starts to respect and admiration for him increased dramatically. They gain a new respect for him as the novel closes. Both Jem and Scout realize what a great man Atticus is. They realize that he is a good person who works hard to defend Tom Robinson and overall on his job as well. They soon have a great amount of respect for their father when he was defending Tom Robinson. He sets a good example and cares about his
Jem Finch demonstrates growing maturity throughout the novel. After Tom Robinson’s trial, Scout reveals Jem’s feelings. “It was Jem’s turn to cry.” Scout uncovers, “His face was streaked with angry tears as we made our way through the cheerful crowd,” (TKAM 284). Jem understands the trial is not fair because of race. He is mature enough to realize this while Scout is not. Another example of Jem’s maturity is exemplified when he is fulfilling his obligation to read to Mrs. Dubose. Scout describes, “ ‘So you brought that dirty little sister of yours did you?’ was her greeting… ‘My sister ain’t dirty and I ain’t scared of you’, although I noticed his knees shaking,” (TKAM 141). Rather than Jem replying to Mrs. Dubose with an insult, he dismisses her comment. Furthermore, this showcases his patience and tolerance, which comes with maturity. Finally, Jem validates his maturity when the Finch children find Dill under Scout’s bed. “You oughta let your mother know where you are.” announced Jem, “You oughta let her know you are here…”(TKAM 187). At this point Jem knows the right way to handle this situation is to let an adult know where Dill is. Even though Scout believes she can keep him under her bed forever, Jem recognizes the reality. When Jem’s maturity is put to the test he demonstrates good judgment and decision-making.