Jeremy "Jem" Finch is one of the main protagonists of Harper Lee's novel "To Kill a Mocking Bird" published in 1960. matures greatly throughout the duration of the book, begins to resemble and idolize his father, gains guardian status to his sister, and introduces a whole new set of ideals into his lifestyle. It embodies the themes of growth. Throughout the novel, we see how perceptions of things such as courage, respect, tolerance, and cruelty change in Jem as he grows up. Courage Conceptions Jem's perception of bravery changed throughout the book. His maturity is the result of Atticus' actions around him. At the beginning of the book, Jem is challenged by his neighbor Dill to touch the Radleys' door; the Radley house symbolizes fear in the minds of children. Jem does so thinking the act is courageous while Scout remarks, "In all of his life, Jem had never declined a challenge." This shows that, like most children, Jem is often more idealistic than realistic. His reactions are instinctive and often unanticipated and reckless. Jem begins to understand the true meaning of courage after Mrs. Dubose's death. Even though Mrs. Dubose despised Atticus, Jem had moved past her negativities and considered her a very brave woman. It's because she died of a morphine addiction and decided to leave the world without belonging to anyone or anything. She had stopped taking morphine, which meant her death would be slow and extremely painful, but she persevered. Atticus wanted to remove the image from Jem's head regarding courage as a "man with a gun" and described it in Chapter 11, page 112 as follows: "Courage...is when you know you're licked before you start but you start anyway. and you achieve it no matter what. This incident...... middle of paper ......ch other for Scout, whose mind still sees only idealism. This realization and some of his growth disillusioned Jem for a while, but it strengthened his admiration for Atticus and his passion to become a lawyer. Jem Finch has come a long way from his humble beginnings as a naive ten-year-old. He came to understand the true meaning of courage, moved from playmate to protector of his sister, and grew up enough to understand how the real world works and see the negative and positive aspects of society. His maturity was rapid and the changes significant, and over the years he came to embrace, respect, and carry on Atticus' legacy and use his father's ideals to shape his lifestyle. Due to the course of events, his adolescent changes and the influence of Atticus, Jem grew from a reckless child to a young man capable of making his own decisions..