Quote describing Jem:

-"If there's just one kind of folks, why can't they get along with each other? If they're all alike, why do they go out of their way to despise each other? Scout, I think I'm beginning to understand something. I think I'm beginning to understand why Boo Radley's stayed shut up in the house all this time.it's because he wants to stay inside."-Jem (240)

Jeremy Atticus “Jem” Finch is Scout’s brother, and the son of Atticus Finch. Jem is nearly ten years old at the beginning of the book. Jem grows up dealing with racism in the small southern town, known as Maycomb. Jem, like his father Atticus, is against racism. At the Tom Robinson case, Jem had a very hard time dealing with the fact that the jury was made up of racist men. Jem couldn’t get a grasp on why people would pretend to think that a man was guilty, just because he is black. Jem sees everyone as equals, just as Atticus has taught him and Scout. Atticus has a large influence on Jem. Throughout the story, Jem matures. He doesn’t seem to want to be with Scout as much, he’d rather be by himself. Even though they do not spend as much time together, Jem protects Scout. For example, when Bob Ewell tried to attack Jem and Scout, Jem picked Scout off the ground and told her to run. Scout thinks sometimes Jem is trying to be the boss of her, but Jem wants Scout to understand everything that is going on in Maycomb. Jem loves football. When he had his arm badly broken at the elbow when he was 13, by Bob Ewell, he was afraid of not playing football.

Dr. Reynolds is the Maycomb doctor. "Had brought Jem and me into the world, had led us through every childhood disease known to man including the time Jem fell out of the tree house, and he had never lost our friendship. Dr. Reynolds said that if we were boil-prone things would have been different...” He is well known to Jem and Scout. He has a strong bond with the Finches.