Jem Finch

Outer characterization

Jem Finch is a main character in the novel To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. He is Scout’s older brother and is nine years old when the novel starts and nearly 13 by the end. 

He has “soft brown hair and eyes, […] oval face and snug-fitting ears” (p. 168), which he gets from his mother. Towards the end of the novel, Scout remarks his eyebrows are “becoming heavier” (p. 248) and he is getting taller, which shows that he is going through puberty and maturing. 

Inner characterization

Jem is perhaps the character who changes the most throughout the novel and the one who matures the most, even more than Scout. 

At the beginning of the novel, Jem is characterized by his imagination and his boyish sense of adventure. For example, despite being older than Scout,...