To Kill A Mockingbird Jem Character Analysis

When you think of an older sibling, they tend to come across as bossy, mean, and overprotective, but they really have good intentions. Jem, a character in the story To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, is the brother of the main character Scout, and the son of Atticus Finch. Throughout the book, he plays a major role in the novel and is a very important aspect to the theme. Jem shows his imagination, bravery, and his love for his sister.
Jem, as any young boy has quite an imagination. During the summer after Scout starts school, Dill (Scout’s lover) comes for the summer. The topic of who lives across the street came up in one of their conversations. Boo was then mentioned and Dill asks what Boo looks like. “Boo was about six-and-a-half feet tall, judging from his tracks; he dined on raw squirrels and any cats he could catch, that’s why his hands were bloodstained-- if you ate an animal raw, you could never wash the blood off. There was a long jagged scar that ran across his face; what teeth he had were yellow and rotten; his eyes popped, and he drooled most of the time” (Lee, 16). Nobody has ever seen Boo in a very long time, way before Jem was alive, so this description comes from his imagination.
Jem is also very brave for his age, he stands up to his father,

which he has high respect for and admires him. Atticus goes to the jail, and Jem, Scout, and Dill all go out after him to see where he is going. They are hiding in bushes when the mob arrives, they go out and stand with Atticus. “‘Son, I said go home.’ Jem shook his head. ‘I’ll send him home,’ a burly man said, and grabbed Jem roughly by the collar. He yanked Jem nearly off his feet. Atticus stood trying to make Jem mind him. ‘I ain’t going…’’’ (Lee, 203). Even after being tormented by a stranger he stands his ground. Jem clearly shows bravery in this scene.
As Jem grows throughout the story, he ends up not wanting anything to do with his sister Scout, but he stills has an underlying love and respect for her.

On their way home from the Halloween pageant at their school, they hear a mysterious sound. They make it out to be footsteps but think it is just a classmate. As they walk the more frightened they get and the more they don’t believe it is their classmate. The mysterious sound then turns into running footsteps. “He was running, running, running toward us with no child’s steps. ‘Run Scout! Run! Run!’ Jem screamed” (Lee, 351). Jem’s love and respect for his sister are made clear when he warns her and tries to save her, even if that means not saving

himself.
Throughout the novel, Jem shows his imagination, bravery, and the love he has for his sister. Jem shows his imagination by making up a description of Boo Radley, shows his bravery by standing up to Atticus and the mob, and shows his love for his sister by trying to protect her. Jem grew throughout the book, he was a young child with an imagination, then with the trial quickly approaching, he becomes brave and faces the truth, at the end of the book he grows into a young man, and puts his sister first. Maybe we can learn a thing or two about Jem.