An Analysis Of Boo In Harper Lee's 'To Kill A Mockingbird'

Jem and Scout, throughout “To Kill A Mockingbird,” learn to consider things from other people’s perspectives. Atticus, Jem and Scout’s father, says “you never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view – until you climb into his skin and walk around in” (Lee 39). They learn this through experiences with their neighbor Boo Radley as they mature beyond their years. At the beginning of the novel, Jem and Scout make fun of Boo and assume that all of the rumors going around about him are true. However, later on in the story the children grow an admiration for Boo and learn to understand him. As they matured, Jem and Scout naturally learned many life lessons of appreciation, respect, and courage

Harper Lee, the author of To Kill a Mockingbird, never expected her novel to be as successful as it was and is. Her success from the novel did not come so easily. Lee finally met with a publisher and editor, Tay Hohoff, in New York after receiving a number of rejection letters in 1957. While living in New York, Harper Lee’s lifelong friends, the Brown’s, had faith in her success and presented her with enough money to take a year off from work to write a literary phenomenon called To Kill a Mockingbird. The video “Hey Boo” revealed the meaningful purpose behind the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, and demonstrated the major influences it had on the people’s and nation’s internal moralities and views during the 1960’s.

Boo Radley is portrayed as a crazy maniac due to the rumors spread about him and a trial he underwent as a teenager.(Scout) "So Jem received most of his information from Miss Stephanie Crawford, a neighborhood scold, who said she knew the whole thing. According to Miss Stephanie, Boo was sitting in the livingroom cutting some items from 'The Maycomb Tribune' to paste in his scrapbook. His father entered the room. As Mr. Radley passed by, Boo drove the scissors into his parent’s leg, pulled them out, wiped them on his pants, and resumed his activities."(pg 11)Scout and Jem look upon him with fear and suspicion from the stories that surround them from the time they were children. She gradually becomes aware that Boo is just lonely and wants

It is clear Jem is maturing while Scout is not. At the beginning of chapter twelve there is a definite change in Jem. Previously Jem hated Mrs. Dubose for the names he calls Atticus and refused to see Mrs. Dubose’s side. Not much later Scout states that “Mrs. Dubose was not cold in her grave - Jem had seemed grateful enough for my company when he went to read to her. Overnight, it seemed, Jem had acquired an alien set of values.” (115 Lee). Jem seems to have forgiven Mrs. Dubose to some extent, and even respects her. Scout doesn’t understand and finds this alien and sudden.

Harper Lee is best known for writing the Pulitzer Prize-winning bestseller To Kill a Mockingbird. The novel takes place during the depression in Alabama with the main character, Scout, viewing her lawyer father, Atticus, defending a wrongly accused black man of rape. The reader gets to understand Scout’s childhood view of this controversial situation. Scout’s character in to Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee is really the author’s own life playing out in the novel, which is most likely why this novel is thought to be one of the best American Novels of the 20th century.

Set in the 1940’s, Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird features a man named Arthur Radley, though the people of Maycomb know him as Boo. He is described as a malevolent phantom, hence his nickname, that eats cats and is over seven feet tall. Boo is known as the town recluse and madman. Nevertheless, there may be some reason for his eccentric behavior. As said by William Shakespeare, “Though this be madness, yet there is method in’t.”

To start, Boo Radley is one character in the book To Kill a Mockingbird that represents the mockingbird theme. First of all, throughout the book, Boo has been helpful to Jem and Scout. When Mr. Ewell attacked Jem and Scout, it was Boo who came to their rescue and murdered Mr. Ewell (Lee 362). For this reason, Boo can be considered a mockingbird because mockingbirds are innocent and do nothing but help people. Even though the rumors about Boo told otherwise, Boo had never done anything to hurt his neighbors, suggesting that he watches over them, which is equivalent to singing his own silent mockingbird song. The children had never been nice to him in the past (mocked him with games, invaded his privacy), but he still chose to help them. Also,

Scout experiences changes in her view of the people around her, leading to a mature view of the world.

For my paper I have chosen to analyze the movie “To Kill a Mockingbird.” This movie is based on the novel – by the same name – written by Harper Lee. The story has two major plotlines. One follows Jem, Scout, and Dill as they try to uncover the secrets behind the infamous “Boo” Radley. It’s only at the end of the movie that we learn “Boo’s” real name to be Arthur, and that we discover he actually tries to protect people, as he saved Jem and Scout’s lives. The other major plotline, and the one more relevant to this class, follows Atticus Finch, Jem and Scout’s father, as he tries to represent Tom Robinson. Mr. Robinson is an African American man who has been charged with raping Mayella Ewell. The movie then

Many people reach to false conclusions without even knowing one another. “Be careful placing judgement upon others, for you know not what battles they are fighting”. People are unaware of the challenges that one is facing, and based on that, they create and spread inaccurate rumors about them. This attribute is possessed by many towns, cities, countries and even Maycomb. In the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, written by author Harper Lee, it is apparent that even though it may not appear so at first, most people are nice “when you finally meet them” (376). This is proven by the characters Boo Radley and Mrs. Dubose.

In the begging of the story “Boo Radley” is treated as a dark figure. As the story progresses he becomes a friend like character to Scout and Dill. Scout and Dill form a relationship with him the other children were afraid of Boo. By the end of the story you realize how important Boo is in the story. Boo symbolizes one of the mocking birds in the title of the book which shows how important he is.

In To Kill A Mockingbird, Harper Lee uses the character Jem to reveal how his perception of Boo radley changes.

In chapters nine and ten, Scout is teased by the kids in school because her dad is defending a black man. Preventing her from fighting, Atticus tells her to keep her head up high. When Christmas comes along, all the Finches gather at aunt Alexandra's. During the visit, Scout is stuck playing with her boring cousin Francis. Francis eventually rattles her by calling her daddy a "nigger-lover." This caused Scout to punch Francis' teeth. Unfortunatley, Scout got in trouble and went home with Atticus and Jem. Later that night, Scout told her side of the story to Uncle Jack and resolved everything. The next day, Jem and Scout fuss about how their dad isn't as fascinating as the other dads in town, but when Atticus saves the neighborhhood from the "mad dog", they change their perspective.

In to Kill a Mockingbird, Boo Radley is one of the strangest characters to understand from the perspective that the author gives him to the perspective that the characters perceive him as in most of the story. The author treats Boo with respect while the characters throughout the book reject him until the end of the novel because of him being of a lower status compared to other people. The role that the author gives Boo Radley in the story is to be a person that even under rejection will do the right thing. The end of the story shows how the characters view of Boo Radley and the author’s view of Boo Radley come together and are the same.

"Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged; and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again."(Matthew Ch.7)