Jem Finch

One of Jem's character traits is that he is persistent. He continues to play football even though his arm was slightly disfigured and is barely conscious of it when he is playing. Jem is also brave and courageous. This is shown when Dill dares him to touch Boo Radley's house. According to Scout, "In all his life, Jem had never declined a dare." This also shows that he has a lot of pride. Jem also chose to defy Atticus' order to go home that night at the jail cell, standing his ground. This prevented any possible injuries to Atticus. Jem is really protective of Scout. When Jem makes his first visit with Scout to Mrs Dubose's house, Mrs Dubose greets him with "so you brought that dirty little sister of yours did you?" to which he replied with "my sister ain't dirty." Scout could see that Jem was shaking as he said it but he said it anyway because he cared about Scout. Jem also protects Scout from Dill, in that Dill only sneaks kisses to Scout when Jem isn't looking. At the end of the novel, Jem bravely tries to defend Scout from Bob Ewell who tries to kill them that night after the pageant. He was knocked unconscious after trying to help Scout escape.
Jem's changes as he grows up is evident throughout the novel. At the beginning of the novel, Jem would hang out together with Dill and Scout, but as it progresses, Jem drifted more towards Dill and away from Scout. This shows that he is growing up to be less of a kid and more into a young adult who wants to socialise with other boys, without having his younger sister tag along. He starts to understand more of the world and what is happening around them. However, even though he believes that he is mature and understands everything, he still doesn't quite recognize just how big the issue of racism is and how it affects the system of justice. Jem also starts to read the newspaper and is always telling Scout new things he learnt as a mean to show he is more knowledgeable. He was invited to sit at the adults table when the