How is Jems forgetting similar to Miss Gates forgetting? How is it different? What role does forgetting play in allowing us to live our daily lives and be "ourselves"? When is forgetting dangerous?
In both cases, Miss Gates and Jem, don't want to think about the reality. This is what makes them similar. Miss Gates and Jem's reactions are different, however, in that Miss Gates refuses to see the reality of persecution in her own town. She is as prejudiced against the blacks, as the Nazis were to the Jews. Jem, on the other hand, isn't ready to process..... so he tries to forget, but his object isn't to pretend it didn't happen, rather to wait until enough time had passed to sort it all out.
