When Jem came home later that afternoon, Jean Louise wasn’t sure if he had heard about her attempted suicide from Hank or Calpurnia. Jem told her that if anything ever happened that she didn’t want to tell Atticus about, she could tell him instead.

Analysis

Jean Louise’s memory of her journey through puberty serves as a reminder that this is a coming-of-age story on multiple levels. Although physically coming of age is certainly part of the story, Jean Louise’s intellectual and ethical coming of age matters most. Jean Louise has always had a childlike perspective of race relations and a childlike perspective of her father’s infallibility. The loss of these perspectives leads to a kind of growing pains, not so unlike the menstrual cramps of sixth-grade Scout.

The beginning of Jean Louise’s menstrual cramps was, she remembers, the one time that Atticus’ abilities as a father seemed insufficient for her needs. Atticus directed her to Calpurnia, who took charge of Jean Louise’s instruction as a woman. In this physical coming of age, Jean Louise recognized for the first time her father’s limitations and found herself looking to another source of authority. In her later coming of age, 26-year-old Jean Louise is likewise forced to recognize her father’s limitations and to look to another source for comfort and inspiration.

Jean Louise’s conversation with Jem at the end of the chapter troubled her precisely because it violated her idealistic view of Atticus. Her childhood had always been defined by her belief that Atticus was the ultimate safety and goodness, and as a result Jem’s offer to be a confidant for her if she ever needed to hide something from Atticus startled her. At that time, the notion seemed surreal to her and she wondered if she was fully awake. In retrospect, she begins to realize that her naivete has in a sense kept her from ever being fully awake.

Puberty was also a significant time of life for Jean Louise because it changed the nature of her relationship with Calpurnia. When she was a prepubescent child, Jean Louise felt only a physical need for Calpurnia’s services as a cook, but the onset of puberty forced Jean Louise to become relationally dependent on Calpurnia. Although Jean Louise has always taken Calpurnia’s race for granted, Calpurnia’s role as both cook and mother figure is one a white woman could never have played.