Jeremy Atticus Finch (Jem) - Characters, To Kill a Mockingbird | To Kill a Mockingbird - Summary, Themes & Characters - Novels PDF Download

Obsessed

Dill may be the brains behind the Finch kids' early attempts to draw out Boo Radley, but Jem is the one who takes action. He's the one who overcomes his fear to run up and touch the Radleys' front door, fiddles with the fishing pole to try to leave a note on Boo's windowsill, and spearheads the midnight raid on the Radley Place.

Why does Jem want to see Boo so badly? Because he's a mystery right before their eyes, like the ones in the books he read? Or maybe it's all a game? After all, it's Jem who comes up with the idea of acting out Boo's life, and takes on the starring role himself.

Maybe. But Jem seems to take the Boo boondoggle more seriously than that. When Mr. Nathan cements up the hole in the tree in front of the Radley Place where the kids have been finding treasures, Jem is seriously upset.

Next morning on the way to school he ran ahead of me and stopped at the tree. Jem was facing me when he looked up, and I saw him go stark white.

"Scout!"

I ran to him.

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. (7.62-66)

Later Scout sees that Jem himself has been crying. It's not certain that Jem suspects Boo has been the one leaving them gifts, but that would give one reason why Jem is so distressed at having the connection with their Mystery Friend so abruptly cut off. Somehow, for some reason, he actually feels a connection with Boo.

Big Bro

Jem looks out for Scout and—okay, we'll say it—kind of bosses her around. He definitely tries to get her to do what he, in his superior knowledge from being four years older, knows she should do. Asserting Scout's inferiority, as younger and a girl, appears to be one way that Jem boosts his own ego. The Boo Radley play-acting game starts out as one of these ego-boosts.

"I know what we are going to play," he announced. "Something new, something different. […] Boo Radley."

Jem's head at times was transparent: he had thought that up to make me understand he wasn't afraid of Radleys in any shape or form, to contrast his own fearless heroism with my cowardice. (4.82-85)

Scout knows what he's up to, but lets him get away with it. Jem's thoughts aren't always so clear to Scout, and they get more confusing to her as both kids get older. This means that Scout narrates what Jem says and does when he's around her, but she can't always identify what's going on inside his brain.

Jem stayed moody and silent for a week. As Atticus had once advised me to do, I tried to climb into Jem's skin and walk around in it: if I had gone alone to the Radley Place at two in the morning, my funeral would have been held the next afternoon. So I left Jem alone and tried not to bother him. (7.1)

Jem phases into and out of wanting to hang out with Scout; during the "on" periods, he takes on the role of her teacher whether she wants him to or not.

"That's because you can't hold something in your mind but a little while," said Jem. "It's different with grown folks, we-"

His maddening superiority was unbearable these days. He didn't want to do anything but read and go off by himself. Still, everything he read he passed along to me, but with this difference: formerly, because he thought I'd like it; now, for my edification and instruction. (14.41-42)

Is this just Jem asserting his superiority all over again? Or does he want to make sure his sister has as much useful knowledge at her fingertips as possible? Or maybe treating Scout as a child is a way for him to establish himself as a grown-up.

Atticus, Jr.

Early in the novel, Jem seems happy to dance around the edges of Atticus's rules.

He still maintained, however, that Atticus hadn't said we couldn't, therefore we could; and if Atticus ever said we couldn't, Jem had thought of a way around it: he would simply change the names of the characters and then we couldn't be accused of playing anything. (5.1)

Like a slick lawyer who follows the letter of the law but violates the spirit, Jem knows that Atticus wouldn't approve of their playacting Boo's life, but hopes he can wriggle out of it through plausible deniability. But when the stakes are raised after the midnight raid on the Radley Place, Jem thinks differently about Atticus finding out about this new torment to the Radleys. Scout thinks a beating from their father is better than risking getting shot by Mr. Radley, but Jem explains why he has to risk it.

I was desperate: "Look, it ain't worth it, Jem. A lickin' hurts but it doesn't last. You'll get your head shot off, Jem. Please..."

He blew out his breath patiently. "I—it's like this, Scout," he muttered. "Atticus ain't ever whipped me since I can remember. I wanta keep it that way. […] We shouldn'a done that tonight, Scout." (6.97-98)

While Scout thinks it's better to face your punishment and get it over with, Jem would rather walk through fire than have the shame of giving Atticus a reason to be disappointed in him. (Of course, we find out later that Atticus knew all along, even though he didn't let on—maybe because he wants to give Jem a chance to redeem himself.)

But sometimes Jem's desire to defend Atticus is stronger than wanting his dad's approval. (And Aunt Alexandra says they have no family pride.) Jem's most dramatic failure of gentlemanly behavior is his assault on Mrs. Dubose's camellias after hearing one too many insults from her on Atticus's moral character.

I sometimes wondered exactly what made Jem do it, what made him break the bonds of "You just be a gentleman, son," and the phase of self-conscious rectitude he had recently entered. Jem had probably stood as much guff about Atticus lawing for niggers as had I, and I took it for granted that he kept his temper—he had a naturally tranquil disposition and a slow fuse. At the time, however, I thought the only explanation for what he did was that for a few minutes he simply went mad. (11.29)

Jem may be able to hold himself back from attacking a person, but faced with an empty porch and a garden full of camellias, he's like someone looking at a sandcastle after the obnoxious kids who built it have left, all SMASH! and RAGE! When Atticus makes him apologize and then serve a punishment, he resists—but then obeys. Atticus's response—putting Jem right back in the situation that got him into trouble in the first place, listening to Mrs. Dubose—shows his trust that Jem will do better in future. And Jem does.

Daddy's Boy

While Jem stops attacking on Atticus's behalf, he does dig in at taking defensive action. At the Maycomb jail on the night the lynch mob shows up, Jem is the one who leads to kids downtown to check on Atticus; while Scout is the first to get them directly involved, Jem flat-out refuses Atticus's command to leave.

We were accustomed to prompt, if not always cheerful acquiescence to Atticus's instructions, but from the way he stood Jem was not thinking of budging.

"Go home, I said."

Jem shook his head. As Atticus's fists went to his hips, so did Jem's, and as they faced each other I could see little resemblance between them: Jem's soft brown hair and eyes, his oval face and snug-fitting ears were our mother's, contrasting oddly with Atticus's graying black hair and square-cut features, but they were somehow alike. Mutual defiance made them alike. (15.96-98)

When he was young, Jem accepted what Atticus wants him to do as what's right. But here, the two sides—right and Atticus—diverge for him. Atticus has taught him to act with honor, but not necessarily with obedience, and here he puts honor first.

You have done well, young grasshopper.

Oh, the Humanity

But when Tom Robinson's verdict comes back "guilty," everything changes for Jem. He's been convinced that, based on the evidence, the jury can't possibly convict. When they do, he feels like he's been physically attacked:

Judge Taylor was polling the jury: "Guilty... guilty... guilty... guilty..." I peeked at Jem: his hands were white from gripping the balcony rail, and his shoulders jerked as if each "guilty" was a separate stab between them.(21.50)

The verdict also seems to be a broader attack on things Jem thought were true: that the legal system is just, that innocent men are acquitted, that Maycomb is a community of good, fair-minded people. After the trial, Jem struggles to figure out why people are so eager to divide into groups and hate each other. Scout says that people are just people, but Jem isn't so sure.

"That's what I thought, too," he said at last, "when I was your age. If there's just one kind of folks, why can't they get along with each other? If they're all alike, why do they go out of their way to despise each other? Scout, I think I'm beginning to understand something. I think I'm beginning to understand why Boo Radley's stayed shut up in the house all this time... it's because he wants to stay inside." (23.117)

The Tom Robinson trial makes Jem lose his faith in humanity. Will he ever get it back? Is there a way to acknowledge all the evil people do and be able still leave the house? (Atticus might have something to say about that.) Jem is unconscious for the conclusion of the novel, so he doesn't have the same moment of revelation that Scout does, but perhaps his waking up will also be a kind of rebirth.

Jem's Timeline

• The summer Jem is nine, he meets Dill.
• Jem tells Dill scary stories about Boo Radley
• Dill dares Jem to go up to the Radley Place; Jem is scared, but he can’t turn down a dare.
• Jem walks Scout to school on her first day.
• At recess, Jem tries to explain to Scout about the school’s new system of education.
• Jem steps in when Scout is fighting with Walter Cunningham and invites the boy home for lunch.
• On the last day of school, Scout and Jem find a box containing two Indian-head pennies in the same tree.
• Dill arrives for the summer, and Jem tells him stories about Hot Steams, even though Scout says he’s just making them up.
• In revenge Jem gives Scout an extra push when she’s riding inside an old tire, and she lands right in the Radleys’ front yard.
• A dazed Scout runs out of there as fast as she can, leaving Jem to retrieve the tire.
• Jem ropes an enthusiastic Dill and a reluctant Scout into a new game: acting out scenes from Boo Radley’s life.
• Jem keeps concocting plans for getting Boo to come out: first he tries to give him a note, then he tries to sneak up to the house at night, but he still doesn’t see Boo.
• After the botched midnight raid on the Radley Place with Scout and Dill, Jem returns alone to retrieve his pants, which were caught on a fence.
• He finds his pants neatly folded on the fence, with the tear mended.
• Scout and Jem keep finding treasures in the tree, until Nathan Radley fills the hole with cement, which upsets Jem.
• Scout and Jem have a rare snow day off from school and build a snow man.
• The night Miss Maudie’s house burns, Jem stands with Scout in front of the Radley Place, but he doesn’t see Boo bring out the blanket for Scout either.
• At Christmas, Scout and Jem look forward to seeing Uncle Jack but dread spending time at Aunt Alexandra’s.
• Scout and Jem feel bad that their father can’t do anything interesting or impressive.
• Scout and Jem see a mad dog coming down the street, and watch as Atticus shoots it.
• Jem tells Scout not to brag to everyone that their father is a good shot, but takes a private pleasure in the fact.
• Jem buys Scout a baton, but he breaks it destroying Mrs. Dubose’s camellias after the old woman insults Atticus.
• Atticus makes Jem apologize, and his punishment is to read to Mrs. Dubose every day after school.
• After her death, Mrs. Dubose’s servant sends Jem a box the old woman wanted him to have.
• It contains a single camellia, and makes Jem feel like she’s stalking him from beyond the grave, but Atticus tells him it’s a signal that everything’s all right between them.
• Jem’s becoming a moody middle-schooler.
• With Atticus away on a Sunday, Calpurnia takes Scout and Jem to her own, African-American, church.
• Seeing Calpurnia at her own church prompts Scout and Jem to ask her questions about herself.
• Scout and Jem arrive home to find Aunt Alexandra on the front porch.
• When Scout finds Dill hiding under her bed, Jem tells Atticus.
• Scout and Jem watch as Atticus talks with a group of men who arrive on their doorstep one night, concerned about the Tom Robinson case.
• The next night, Jem goes out, and Scout joins him.
• Picking up Dill along the way, they go to the town square looking for Atticus.
• The trio sees him sitting in front of the jail reading, and are about to leave when some men drive up.
• While Atticus is talking to the men, Scout runs up to join them, and Jem follows with Dill.
• Atticus tells Jem to take the other two and go home, but Jem refuses.
• One of the men grabs Jem, and Scout kicks him.
• Once Scout defuses the situation, Jem walks home with Atticus, who ruffles his hair.
• The next morning, Scout, Jem, and Dill watch the crowds on the way to the courthouse for Tom’s trial.
• They go to the courthouse themselves, but the only seats they can get are in the balcony where the African-Americans sit.
• Jem makes periodical whispered comments about how well the case is going for Atticus, and how it’s a sure thing that Tom will be acquitted.
• After Atticus finishes his closing remarks, he finds out the kids are there, and sends them home for dinner.
• After dinner Scout, Jem, and Dill return, to find the jury still out.
• Jem is still confident that Atticus will win his case.
• When the guilty verdict comes back, Jem is heartbroken.
• The next day, Scout, Jem, and Dill try to avoid their adult neighbors, but join Miss Maudie for cake.
• After Bob Ewell spits in Atticus’s face and threatens him, Scout and Jem are scared he will make good on his threats.
• After all the adults bail out of attending Scout’s Halloween pageant, Jem walks Scout through the darkness to the school.
• On the way, Cecil Jacobs jumps out at Scout and Jem and scares them.
• After Scout misses her cue and feels stupid, Jem waits with her until everyone else leaves to go home.
• On their way home, Scout and Jem are attacked by someone, and Jem is knocked out.
• A stranger picks up the unconscious Jem and carries him home while Scout follows.
• Jem stays unconscious while his sister hangs out with Boo Radley, and doesn’t wake up before the book ends.