Examples Of Moral Growth In To Kill A Mockingbird

To Kill a Mockingbird - Moral Growth of Jem Essay

In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Jean Louise Finch (Scout) and Jeremy Atticus Finch (Jem) are sister and brother. Over the course of three years, they grow up together--from trying to discover their hidden neighbor Arthur “Boo” Radley to a trial involving a black man accused of rape. The two of them both experience moral growth through their escapades. The focus here will be on Jem and how he has developed morally, based upon the model on the stages of moral development Lawrence Kohlberg . He has progressed linearly from before stage 1 (following authority to avoid punishment) to Stage 6 (living by a personal conscience and following universal principles of justice and

human dignity), with 3 (doing what others approve of) and 4 (obeying authority figures and not challenging the social order) in between the two, but his judgement of right and wrong has wavered until the end.
The understanding of right and wrong of Jem definitely improves over the course of the novel. At the beginning of the book, when Jem is about to roll Scout inside of a tire, she realizes “Jem was offended by my contradicting him on Hot Steams, and that he was patiently awaiting an opportunity to reward me. He did, by pushing the tire down the sidewalk with all the force in his body.” (p. 49) Jem felt it was alright to physically punish Scout for what she verbally did--this is the wrong thing to do. Jem is not at Stage 1 at this point as he is not even “obey[ing] authority figures in order to avoid punishment.” He did not actually get punished, but he could have been; either way, he was not obeying authority. However, this is quite different from how he is later in the book. In chapter 23, Jem believes that Tom Robinson should not have been convicted: there was not enough evidence, and the jury was biased. He even goes so far as to say that juries, due to that bias, should be removed from the court process. At this point, Jem is at Stage 6: he is striving “to live according to his own conscience” through the insisting that Tom Robinson, being innocent, should be set free. Instead of following Alabamian principles of justice and human dignity, he demands that those be done away with, and instead let “universal principles of justice and human dignity” rule. Jem believes that fairness and justice in Maycomb are inadequate as they currently are, but ideal fairness and justice are what he strives for.
In addition to being at Stage “0” and at Stage 6, he spends some time in Level Two.

One example involves Tim Johnson being mad and Atticus having to shoot the dog. Before the incident started, “When Jem and I [Scout] asked him [Atticus] 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, and there was nothing Jem or I could say about him when our classmates said, ‘My father—’” (p. 118) At this point, Jem has some jaundice about the apparent inability of Atticus to play tackle football, hold a physical occupation, see much with his left eye, or hunt. However, by the end of the chapter, Jem is not so disgruntled with his father. “‘Atticus is real old, but I wouldn’t care if he couldn’t do anything—I wouldn’t care if he couldn’t do a blessed thing.’” (p. 131) Jem has realized that is wrong to be dissatisfied with Atticus just because of physical limitations. Rather, he knows it is right to appreciate his the mental capabilities of his father, such as being a gentleman. He is not specifically following Stage 4 yet, but he is definitely in Stage 3 now: he is being appreciative of his father in the right ways, which is something Atticus would definitely approve

of.
Another example of Jem being in Stage 3 is during his time reading to Mrs. Dubose. In the beginning of Chapter 11, he expressed his anger towards her by cutting her camellia flowers, breaking the baton of Scout, and shoving Scout to the ground. He is lacking in self-control. A few weeks later, though, whenever she would make a rude comment about Atticus, such as how he loves to support Negroes, “Jem’s chin would come up, and he would gaze at Mrs. Dubose with a face devoid of resentment. Through the weeks he had cultivated an expression of polite and detached interest, which he would present to her in answer to her most blood curdling inventions.” (p. 146) Jem has learned self-control. While it would be even better for him to not display a reaction at all, it is certainly a major improvement. This indicates that Jem is in Stage 3 because although he is still not specifically “following the law and obeying authority” or “avoid[ing] challenging the social order,” he is still “doing what is approved by others”: Jem is not retaliating to the remarks of Mrs. Dubose, which is the right thing to do and is approved of by Atticus.
A final example comes in the next chapter, where “Overnight, it seemed, Jem had acquired an alien set of values and was trying to impose them on me: several times he went so far as to tell me what to do.

After one altercation when Jem hollered, “‘It’s time you started bein’ a girl and acting right!’ . . .” (p. 153) Here, Jem has learned of the standard social order. He is in Stage 4 at this point: he is now going to “avoid challenging the social order” by encouraging it. The main problem here is that he is encouraging Scout to follow the social order, despite her desires not to. Jem believes that she should behave like a lady, which she should and will, but this is not being considerate towards his sister. The dilemma here is that it is right for Jem to want to follow the social order, but it is wrong for him to make others follow societal

standards.
The progress of Jem through the Stages of Moral Development according to Kohlman is linear, but his sense of right and wrong is anything but that. At first, he demonstrates wrongs, before Stage 1. Then, he illustrates rights while in Stage 3. When he gets to Stage 4, however, he has a conflicting sense of right and wrong. Finally, he ends up at Stage 6, with a sense of right and wrong that does not necessarily align with the law, but with universal principles of justice and human dignity, along with fairness. The judgement of right and wrong of Jem, and his morals, start out low, but do eventually reach high levels in To Kill a Mockingbird.

Word Count of introduction, body paragraphs, and conclusion: 1,141