How do Scout and Jem change during the course of the novel?from To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

To Kill a Mockingbird stands among
many novels in a genre often give the name of Bildungsroman, or the
novel of maturation.  In such a novel, the central character(s) are taken from an
ingenuous state and brought to an experienced and enlightened state, resulting from a
series of misadventures which compose the narration.  In the three years with which the
novel is concerned, Scout comes to abandon her childish superstitions of "haints" and
spectres such as Boo Radley and Mrs. Dubose; and, she learns to accept people for who
they are as individuals and not according to the gossips or stereotypes.  She also
learns  about religious and racial prejudice, as well as learning much about her own
father, whom she at one time has viewed "as a feeble old
man."

Both Scout and Jem learn about virtues, also.  From
Mrs. Dubose, Atticus, and Boo Radley, she apprehends the real meaning of courage.  For
instance, after Mrs. Dubose withdraws from morphine and dies with nothing for her pain,
Atticus tells Jem who has been reading to her until shortly before her
death,

I
wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a
man with a gun in his
hand.

The children learn
about fortitude from their father, as well, when he shoots the rabid dog, and when he
takes on the case for Tom Robinson, saying that he could not face his children if he
does not do so.  When the mob comes to the jail, Atticus does not waiver in his defense
of Tom's right to a trial.

Aware from his father that
justice should be administered regardless of race and class, the idealistic Jem
undergoes a maturation after the trial of Tom Robinson as he is faced with the
incongruity of what is right with reality.   Scout also learns about hypocrisy when the
Missionary Society feigns concern for the natives in Africa while they criticize their
maids.  On his part, Jem learns of hypocrisy, too.  He also learns to act maturely.  For
instance, when Jem tells Atticus that Dill is in their house, Scout becomes angry with
him for "telling on Dill," but Jem maturely realizes that Dill's mother wil be worried
when she discovers that he is missing.

Both Scout and Jem,
as well as their friend, Dill, learn several moral lessons in To Kill a Mockingbird.  As
she stands on the Radley porch, after having learned to "consider things from his point
of view," Scout even concludes that there is little else for her and Jem to
learn--except, perhaps, algebra.