Throughout the book so far, Scout has worshiped Jem, but suddenly, as he matures, she grows much less patient with him. After Jem hears Aunt Alexandra bickering with Atticus about Scout visiting Calpurnia's house, he pulls Scout aside and warns her not to antagonize Aunt Alexandra, or make her the enemy. Scout, with rising fury, ends up punching him and pinning him to the bed.
"'...I'll kill you!' He was sitting on the bed, and it was easy to grad his front hair and land one on his mouth...[He] nearly knocked the breath out of me, but it didn't matter becuase I knew he was fighting, he was fighting me back. We were still equals. 'Ain't so high and mighty now, are you!'...What had begun as a fist-fight became a brawl." (156-157)
Jem has matured greatly in the past few chapters. Calpurnia even went as far as to start calling him 'Mister Jem' to show that he is a young man rather than a boy. Scout clearly worshiped Jem and followed his every move in the beginning of the book, but as he makes the change into adolescence, she feels alienated by him, and deals with this through anger. She feels that he is less of a brother and more of a parent, and she finds the need to establish that just because he is growing up, he is still her equal. Atticus, Calpurnia, and even Aunt Alexandra are influences on Scout's daily life. Scout loves all of these people, but she has certainly had her disagreeements with them all. Jem has been the only constant character throughout the course of the book who has remained consistently an accomplice of Scout's. Suddenly, he starts to want to be around her less. She can handle that reasonably well, but when Jem starts preaching and setting rules for her, especially about Aunt Alexandra, she loses it and fights him. Scout feels betrayed by Jem and has no way to tell him that in words, becuase she may not even be able to identify it herself. Jem's adult attitude it frustrating Scout very much.
Do you think Scout and Jem will grow further apart, or will they get closer as Scout matures? What would you have done if you were Scout in this situation? Do you think Jem was right or wrong to try to tell Scout what to do?
It appears almost that in the time during which Jem tells her to do something, Scout feels betrayed. Why, she wonders, is Jem no longer siding with me? She sees it as him becoming foolish almost, but in reality, it's simply herself who is being naive. Jem is maturing fast, and his general understanding of life seems to deepen within the day. Him saying "Scout, try not to antagonize Aunty, hear?"(156) which Scout sees as him attempting to order her around, as the next line she says, "You tryin' to tell me what to do?"(156) indicates a clear representation of the differences in their maturity.
ReplyDeleteTo answer your first question, I think there will be a period of time during which Scout and Jem will be very far apart. Since Jem is becoming an adolescent, and Scout still has a long way to go, Jem will want to hang out with Scout less and less, and as Cal says "...do whatever boys do." This pattern has already begun to emerge, as Jem, "...was now positively allergic to my presence when in public." (153) Scout and Jem are now at extremely different levels of maturity, and it will take a long time until they begin to grow close again. I believe that Scout is losing Jem slowly to the adult world, and she, herself, will first have to catch up with him before they can get closer. The relationship will still be there, but it will take time to reform. Since Jem has already started maturing, it wont be long until Dill will as well, and like Jem, grow somewhat weary of Scout, a point at which Scout will probably begin to seek female company.
Final Questions:
Do you think Scout and Jem will maintain a good relationship through this difficult period of time? Do you agree that Jem and Dill will sooner or later abandon Scout and start doing "whatever boys do"? Who do you think Scout will go to when she does not have Jem or Dill? Do you think Atticus recognizes this sudden change that Jem has taken on?
I think that Scout was smart to attack Jim like that. She was frustrated by the fact that Jem was acting all high and mighty and bossing her around. She feels like he is only slightly more mature than her, and for the most part I agree. Scout proves that he is still at her level by attacking him and that is why it is a good move. As soon as Jem fights back he is no better than her. He should have gone to Atticus so that he would break it up. Scout shows that he is no better than her to herself, to him and most importantly to Atticus.
ReplyDeleteI think that Scout got so mad at Jem because he not only acted as a parent to her, but told her to be nicer to her enemy, Aunt Alexandra. Scout was already feeling sensitive to people telling her what to do as a parenting figure, because she had just had a talk about that with Atticus. She already feels that she has too many people that are bossing her around with Aunt Alexandra moving in, so when Jem starts trying to be a parent as well, it is too much for her.
Do you think that Jem or Scout did the right thing in this situation? Why? Do you think that Jem is much more mature than Scout like he thinks or do you agree with Scout? Do you think that Dill's story is entirely true?