Jem ages from 10 to 13 over the course of To Kill a Mockingbird, a period of great change in any child’s life. Jem is no exception to this rule. Interestingly, the changes he undergoes are seen from the point-of-view of a younger sister, which gives a unique perspective on his growth.

Jem represents the idea of bravery in the novel, and the way that his definition changes over the course of the story is important. The shift that occurs probably has as much to do with age as experience, although the experiences provide a better framework for the reader. When the story begins, Jem’s idea of bravery is simply touching the side of the Radley house and then only because “In all his life, Jem had never declined a dare. But as the story progresses, Jem learns about bravery from Atticus facing a mad dog, from Mrs. Dubose’s fight with addiction, and from Scout’s confrontation with the mob at the jail, among others. And along the way, he grows from a boy who drags his sister along as a co conspirator to a young gentleman who protects his Scout and tries to help her understand the implications of the events around her.

Scout may or may not be a lover, but she’s definitely a fighter. At the beginning of the novel, fighting is her solution to everything. She goes after Walter Cunningham after she gets in trouble on his behalf on the first day of school, she beats up Dill when she thinks he’s not paying enough attention to her, and she kicks a member of the lynch mob where it counts, no less when he grabs Jem. When news of Atticus’s defense of Tom Robinson percolates down to the schoolyard, it’s no wonder that she responds with her fists to the kids’ ugly name calling.

Atticus Finch is the exemplary lawyer and father from the 1960 Harper Lee novel To Kill A Mockingbird. Thanks to the successful film version of the book 1962, the character is strongly associated with actor Gregory Peck, who won an Oscar as Finch and earned a place in American cinema as an all time favorite hero. Set in a small town in Alabama in the 1930s, the novel is the story of the young girl Scout, her brother Jem and their widowed father, Atticus, a small town attorney respected for his honesty and intelligence. Part of the novel centers around a court case in which Atticus defends a black man accused of raping a white woman. Along the way Atticus helps downtrodden neighbors, fends off a lynch mob, saves the day with surprisingly expert marksmanship and preaches justice with a quiet but forceful integrity. Atticus Finch is a lock on anyone’s list of favorite fictional lawyers (and probably favorite dads); in 1997 the Alabama State Bar erected a monument in his honor in Monroeville, Alabama, the home of novelist Lee.