“Don’t you fret too much over Mister Jem-” she began. 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.
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. Dubose was not cold in her grave-Jem had seemed grateful enough for my company when he went to read to her. This change in Jem had come about in a matter of weeks. I must be patient with him and disturb him as little as possible. His appetite was appalling, and he told me so many times to stop pestering him I consulted Atticus: “Reckon he’s got a tapeworm?” Atticus said no, Jem was growing.
He was difficult to live with, inconsistent, moody.