Without evil, there is no good, without good, there is no evil; no one is ever comprehensively virtuous or immoral but rather at intervals with both. Within Harper Lee's bildungsroman, To Kill A Mockingbird, Jem Finch recognized this as he and his younger sister, Scout, grew up in Maycomb, Alabama. As he matured over the years, Jem learned that the concepts of good and evil are complicated ideas that take on a variety of forms. Whether it be from the Radleys, Mrs. Dubose, or the trial of Tom Robinson, Jem learned what good and evil truly are. Jem's original notion of good and evil was altered with the encounter of the Radley family just down the road. One of their sons, Arthur "Boo" Radley, resided there which Maycomb county saw as "a malevolent
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It began when Bob and Mayella Ewell accused a young black man, Tom Robinson, of raping Mayella. A copious amount of people, including Jem, Scout, and Dill came to witness for themselves if Tom Robinson was to be declared innocent or guilty. All appeared to prove Tom’s innocence from the doctor’s proof of no sexual assault to the inconsistency of each story, to the fact that Tom’s left arm was crippled, but he still was proven guilty. Jem did not take this well as “his shoulders jerked as if each ‘guilty’ was a separate stab between them” (Lee 282). He began to cry with angry tears soon as he felt how wrong it was for an innocent man to be convicted for something he had not done due to his skin color. This shows how much Jem cared about this case not just from his father losing, but because he wanted to witness fairness. Full of sorrow, Jem went home with a new burning hate for racism. Later that evening, the children were invited over to Miss Maudie’s for cake. Jem began to inform Miss Maudie if how he “always thought Maycomb folks were the best folks in the world” (Lee 288), but he was beginning to have second thoughts. Jem realized that Maycomb, Alabama wasn’t what it was made out to be. He understood that Maycomb wasn’t perfect, it had its evils such the parasite of racism. As a result, Jem understood that all great things will have poor qualities but that doesn't make it
It began when Bob and Mayella Ewell accused a young black man, Tom Robinson, of raping Mayella. A copious amount of people, including Jem, Scout, and Dill came to witness for themselves if Tom Robinson was to be declared innocent or guilty. All appeared to prove Tom’s innocence from the doctor’s proof of no sexual assault to the inconsistency of each story, to the fact that Tom’s left arm was crippled, but he still was proven guilty. Jem did not take this well as “his shoulders jerked as if each ‘guilty’ was a separate stab between them” (Lee 282). He began to cry with angry tears soon as he felt how wrong it was for an innocent man to be convicted for something he had not done due to his skin color. This shows how much Jem cared about this case not just from his father losing, but because he wanted to witness fairness. Full of sorrow, Jem went home with a new burning hate for racism. Later that evening, the children were invited over to Miss Maudie’s for cake. Jem began to inform Miss Maudie if how he “always thought Maycomb folks were the best folks in the world” (Lee 288), but he was beginning to have second thoughts. Jem realized that Maycomb, Alabama wasn’t what it was made out to be. He understood that Maycomb wasn’t perfect, it had its evils such the parasite of racism. As a result, Jem understood that all great things will have poor qualities but that doesn't make it