When a child is in the early stages of his life he does not have a care in the world, nor does he have any of life's burdens on his shoulders. As a child progresses through life he becomes more aware of life's burdens and must take on new responsibilities. As the child takes on these responsibilities he goes through changes, as do all children. These changes affect the child and the people around him and change them forever. Jem Finch falls into this characterization perfectly. Jem Finch is one of the main characters in the classic novel To Kill A Mockingbird, by Harper Lee. Because Jem goes through changes he is considered a dynamic character. In the beginning of the book Jem is a happy and innocent child who is unaware of life's burdens, as he becomes aware of life's burdens in the middle of the book he becomes angry and saddened at the world, and by the end of the story Jem has matured into a young man.
In the beginning of the book and in the early stage of Jem's life he is a happy and playful child. One example of Jem's playfulness is when he would always play games with his little sister, Scout and their new friend Dill. Jem, Scout, and Dill perform plays with each other with each of them taking on many roles. A second example of Jem's happiness and innocence as a child is his unawareness of Maycomb's racial and economic prejudice. Because Jem is so young he does not understand the economic and especially racial prejudice in his hometown. Jem is happy as a young child because he is unaware of prejudice as one of life's burdens. A third example of Jem's playfulness and innocence is his attitude/kindness towards everyone in Maycomb. Jem treats everyone the same whether they are black or white, rich or poor, and mean or nice. Jem's innocence as a child allows him to be kind to all these people without knowing the difference between them. Jem's attitude towards people, his innocence as a child, and his constant happiness will slowly slip away as the story and his life continues.
