Maturity In To Kill A Mockingbird

“Maturity comes with experience, not age” (Ziad K. Abdelnour). Everyday, people of all ages lose their innocence and develop morally through their daily experiences. Children deal with mishaps on the playground as they sort out conflicts with friends and family and troubles in school. Similarly, Adults deal with conflicts within their own families, problems at work, and the loss of a loved one. Through experiences, people learn important lessons that impact the way they think, act, approach situations, and treats others. This lesson is called moral growth. In the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, Jem loses his innocence and matures through three stages of morality in Maycomb, Alabama in the early 1930s.
Jem, a naive boy, reveals
Mrs. Dubose, a racist and cranky old woman, is a major antagonist in Jem’s life. At one point in the story, Jem destroys her camellia flowers and, as a punishment, Atticus forces him to read to her everyday. When Mrs. Dubose passes away, a basket filled with camellia flowers arrives for Jem. This immediately causes Jem to freak out and have a reaction. Atticus later reveals that during her lifetime, she was overcoming a morphine addiction, and that every time Jem read to her, he was distracting her from the pain of withdrawal. He also describes his definition of courage when he explained, “I wanted you to see what real courage is… It's when you know you're licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what. You rarely win, but sometimes you do” (Lee 128). After this confrontation, Jem is seen picking at a camellia flower and thinking in depth about courage and how Mrs. Dubose was truly brave. This lesson of true courage and bravery matures Jem and gives him a better understanding of the real world. Here, Jem is transitioning through the loss of innocence archetype in his second stage of maturity. This stage is when Jem lets go of the idea that courage is being reckless. He realizes that courage comes from the obstacles you face and how you overcome them. In Ms. Dubose’s case, she knew from the beginning that stopping her heroin
Within these stages Jem’s formative moments such as placing notes in Boo Radley’s window, reading to Mrs. Dubose, and processing the Tom Robinson trial all taught him major lessons about injustice, courage, and empathy. These formative moments shape Jem’s character and changed Jem for the better. They teach him to have empathy for everyone, and that the divisions in society are not fair or correct. This will allow him to make changes in Maycomb for the better. Harper Lee expressed these themes and lessons in her novel to not only show the reader what life was like for blacks in the 1930s, but also to show mockingbirds in everyday life. This journey of moral growth, is one that all people travel through as they mature throughout life, and even though they may hit bumps in the road, they will become more competent and sophisticated people because of