Since much of Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird focuses on growing up and the loss of innocence, quotes depicting this process abound. Here is one that opens Part 2 of the novel and shows how much Jem is growing up and how it affects his relationship with his sister:
Overnight, it seemed, Jem had acquired an alien set of values and was trying to impose them on me: several times he went so far...
Since much of Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird focuses on growing up and the loss of innocence, quotes depicting this process abound. Here is one that opens Part 2 of the novel and shows how much Jem is growing up and how it affects his relationship with his sister:
Overnight, it seemed, Jem had acquired an alien set of values and was trying to impose them on me: several times he went so far as to tell me what to do. After one altercation when Jem hollered, "It's time you started bein' a girl and acting right!" I burst into tears and fled to Calpurnia. (117)
This quote shows us the rift growing between the two siblings as Jem grows up. As Jem grows older, he begins to adopt the traditional, patriarchal gender roles that govern Maycomb. Rather than seeing his sister as an equal as he once did, he's beginning to see it as his manly duty to control her. Jem seems to grow out of this phase as the novel progresses and begin to regard Scout as an equal once again, but this quote represents an interesting point in his growth in which he's trying to navigate the confusing gender roles that govern the adult world.
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