To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee centres around how the main character, Atticus Finch, deals with the controversy surrounding the actions and how he tries to shelter his family from it. My essay shall focus in to one of the younger main characters, Jem Finch, and how the problems throughout the novel change him.
             Jem Finch is one of the most important and complex characters in the novel. Over the course of the novel his behaviour and his relationship with his sister, Scout, changes dramatically. In the story To Kill a Mocking Bird by Harper Lee, a trial tears apart a town and the Finches are caught right in the middle of it. This event and other small occurrences that take place in this novel, forever change Jem. He is suddenly introduced to the adult world and it changes the way he and Scout act towards each other. Jem and Scout's relationship changes as Jem becomes too wise for her, also he becomes more mature, and begins to resemble his father, Atticus.
             At the beginning of the story, several instances show that Jem thought and acted like a child. The greatest evidence of Jem's child-like acts comes when he, Scout, and Dill are playing games about Boo Radley. Jem says,
             "You're too scared to even put your big toe in the front yard."
             Although seemingly irrelevant, this childish insult does show how immature Jem is. At this point in the novel Jem and Scout are at about the same intellectual stage. However, things change as Jem starts to hit puberty. He begins to act differently, as well as think and speak differently. When Scout says,
             To Atticus about Jem's odd behaviour, it is the turning point intellectually between Jem and Scout. Scout is too young to realize that Jem is going through puberty. Jem has gotten smarter all of a sudden, while Scout has not, and she does not understand it. Another example of the separation that is beginning to be seen between Jem and Scout
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