As a kid, we all want to grow up, so that we can get all the perks that adults do. In order to do so, one must not only mature physically, as in growing taller, but must also mature mentally, in order to be ready for the real world around them. In Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, the protagonist Jean Louise Finch, also known as Scout Finch, is described as maturing greatly throughout the novel, physically and mentally. With the help of three essential people, she learns to release the bonds of childhood, and to think of the world around her in a different way, to fight with her head and not her fists, and to meet the demands of society and become a true lady as she grows up and matures, instead of her current tom-boy self. There are many …show more content…
Jem is Scout’s brother, and he helps teach her some important things as play and go about their daily life. The first way Jem helps Scout mature in the novel is when he tells her not to cry when their knot-hole in the tree got filled up with cement. “Someone had filled our knot-hole with cement. ‘Don’t you cry, now, Scout...don’t cry now, don’t you worry-’ he muttered at me all the way to school.” (83) This quote signifies that Jem wants to help Scout to mature and become a “big girl”, and not to cry whenever something bad happens, and to move on and either deal with it, or try to solve the problem. The second quote happens at the beginning of chapter twelve and part two of the novel. The author starts the chapter off telling the reader that “Jem was twelve. He was getting so moody and hard to live with.” (153) This beginning quote is essential because it is telling the audience that the kids are starting to get older and mature. Jem tells Scout “It’s time you started bein’ a girl and acting right! I burst into tears and ran to Calpurnia. Calpurnia told me not to fret, that he was growing up.” (153) This quote signifies that as Jem himself is growing up and maturing, he wants Scout to do the same. Considering how at the beginning of the novel, Jem always wanted Scout to “stop acting like a girl”, we can clearly tell that he is getting more mature and understands that that phrase does not really mean much, and he wants his sister to start maturing just like he did and start acting properly. This also makes sense as the quote is located in part two of the novel, which could signify that in this part, the kids are starting to indeed get older and mature. The third and final time Jem helps Scout mature is when Scout is going to crush the roly-poly bug, and Jem tells her not to do it. “This was probably a part of the stage he was going through, and I wished he would hurry up and get