(1)There are many things people fear but more often than not its comes to misunderstanding or the unwillingness to learn And in the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, the character Boo or Arthur Radley is a great example of this.(2) Boo Radley is a NEET so as such he stays inside his home without leave, as such the children are naturally intrigued and afraid of him due to his mysterious nature.(3) As the story progressed Boo is generally described in a negative manner, the people in the town usually only talk of the negative things he may have done, as such the children create this fantastical image of him an image of fear curiosity and pity.(4) The descriptions the children give of Boo are so extreme that they make him nearly inhuman "Boo was about six-and-a-half feet tall, judging from his tracks; he dined on raw squirrels and any cats he could catch, that's why his hands were bloodstained -- if you ate an animal raw, you could never wash the blood off. …show more content…
I think I'm beginning to understand why Boo Radley's stayed shut up in the house all this time... it's because he wants to stay inside."’
I think I’m beginning to understand why Boo Radley’s stayed shut up in the house all this time... it’s because he wants to stay inside.'' This is the first step Jem and Scout take to understand Boo, as Jem realizes that, with all the hate going around in Maycomb, maybe Boo just wants to stay inside, away from society. From now on, the kids become less preoccupied with Boo as their, and the reader’s, perception of him changes. While Boo is still an other, he is no longer a monster and is now more of a mockingbird, an innocent neighbor trying to stay inside, away from the hate Jem and Scout are currently experiencing in
Set in the town of Maycomb County, this novel describes the journey of two young kids growing up in a small-minded town, learning about the importance of innocence and the judgement that occurs within. The individuals of Maycomb are very similar, with the exception of Arthur “Boo” Radley, the town’s recluse. Boo Radley has never been seen outside, and as a result of this, the children in the town are frightened of him and make up rumors about the monstrous things he allegedly does. This leaves the individuals in the town curious as to if Boo Radley really is a “malevolent phantom” like everyone assumes that he is or if he is just misunderstood and harmless. In Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird, Boo Radley is a saviour. This is
Boo Radley is a ‘malevolent phantom’ and a character that has been shaped by gossips and sustained by children’s imaginations. “Stephanie Crawford, a neighbourhood scold… said she woke up in the middle of the night and saw him looking straight through the window at her.” This dialogue is an example of the gossips and how the legend of Boo Radley developed, lies that persecute his innocence. Setting is used to develop Boo’s surroundings and to summon an eerie atmosphere giving Maycomb reason enough to reject and victimise him for being different. “…rain rotten shingles drooped… oak trees kept the sun away and the remains of a picket fence drunkenly guarded the front yard.” The Radley house has been established as a neglected, out of place and isolated home through Harper Lee’s use of connotative words. This evokes within the reader the same view of Boo as the rest of the town and allows us to understand where the misunderstanding comes from before we
When the Flinch children moved into Maycomb bad rumors were spread about the Radley house, and soon the children were terrified of this “ghostly” neighbor. Little to their knowledge Boo Radley was not a scary mean person like they thought. Boo taught both Jem and Scout that you should not judge people based on what rumors say. For example, in the beginning of the novel Scout and Jem find a knothole in a tree, but when they kept going to the tree there was always something new, like someone had been putting presents for them in their. “I were trotting in our orbit one mild October afternoon when our knot-hole stopped us again. Something white was inside this time.” (page 79). Even though Boo knew that the kids were scared of him and that they believed the rumors he still put effort into making their day and giving them something. Another example was at the very end of the novel when Boo Radley saved Jem and Scouts life. At this moment Scout had a whole new respect for Boo because he wasn't what everyone said. He was better than that. “ A man was passing under it. The man was walking with the staccato steps of someone carrying a load too heavy for him. He was going around the corner. He was carrying jem. Jem’s arm was dangling crazily in front of him.”(page 352). That was Boo that was carrying Jem back to the Flinch house. Boo Radley saved their lives and Scout will never forget him and learned a valuable lesson
In the book of “To Kill a Mockingbird”, Boo Radley is motivated by fear and shyness because he is someone that have not left his houses in so many year, to which his mystery is born out of everyone imagination as a violent, insane, and unknown entity that all kid in Maycomb is scared of, especially Scout, Jem, and Dill. In chapter 30, it stated “Boo saw me run instinctively to the bed where Jem was sleeping, for the same shy smile crept across his face.” This show that Boo is motivated by fear and shyness because he is a shy and introvert person that save both Jem’s life and Scout’s life but he feared that if he were to be together with them, it would make thing weird. This also show that we should judge someone until you really know them because they can be different from how you thought they would be, and in this particular case, Boo Radley isn’t a monster that everyone thing he is, but instead he just a kind and gentle man that is motivated by fear and
They base their fear on rumors. Boo Radley is an innocent person. We first know that Boo has been misjudged when he leaves the gifts for the children. “We went home. Next morning the twine was where we had left it. When it was still there on the third day, Jem pocketed it. From then on, we considered everything we found in the knot-hole our property.” (79). This shows that he is a nice person. Boo also saved Jem and Scout from the attack in the woods by Mr. Ewell by killing Bob Ewell. “‘ Why there he is, Mr. Tate, he can tell you his name.’” (362). “‘Hey, Boo,’ I said.” (362). This shows that he cares for the children and wants to protect
Arthur “Boo” Radley is a man who was involved in a gang when he was young. Now he is seen as an insane and murderous person by the town. People rumor him to walk around at night and peer in people's windows and eat squirrels and cats.
Scout, Jem, and Dill work many summers to try to get Boo to come out of the Radley house for the first time in many years. Jem had been told many things about Boo in his short years in Maycomb, and he tells his sister Scout about the ‘monster’, saying, “Boo was about six-and-a-half feet tall, judging from his tracks; he dined on raw squirrels and any cats he could catch, that’s why his hands were bloodstained—if you ate an animal raw, you could never wash the blood off. There was a long jagged scar that ran across his face; what teeth he had were yellow and rotten; his eyes popped, and he drooled most of the time” (chap. 1). Jem’s ideas about Boo are very biased toward rumors that can be heard around Maycomb. This shows how Maycomb’s people often judge before they know, seeing as no one has seen Boo Radley in over twenty years and people are prejudiced to believing the unknown is always bad. Prejudice and rumors can often not be trusted and Boo Radley is no exception. After Miss Maudie’s house catches fire and half the town rushes outside to watch it burn, Atticus tells Scout, “someday you should thank him for covering you up” then Scout asks, “Thank Who?” And gets a response from Atticus, “Boo Radley. You were too busy looking at the fire, you didn’t even notice when he put the blanket around you” (chap. 8). Boo Radley is not really a bad person, he
The idea of a person living in seclusion in Maycomb, was alien to the children who lived there. Many children were afraid of the Radleys. The stories about when and where Boo moves around to, when he secretly leaves his house, are pretty scary for the children. Jem tell Scout and Dill that Boo goes out during the night when it is pitch dark. He tells them about the time Miss Stephanie saw him looking strait at her though her window. He also explains this is the reason why Miss Rachel locks up so tight (Lee,13). The children believe that many people are afraid of Boo. Because the children hear some adults talk about Boo Radley and how bad his family is, they believe that he is dangerous also. The stories of Boo being trapped in the basement or even locked in his house, we easily believable by a six and ten year old. “ Nobody knew what form of intimidation Mr. Radley employed to keep Boo out of sight, but Jem figured that Mr. Radley kept him chained to the bed most of the time”(Lee,11). Jem and Scout believed these tales, like they were the truth. Being innocent children, they wanted to help rescue Boo. Scout could never imagine sitting in the house all day. She gets bored on
"You never know a person until you consider things from his point of view.. Until you climb into his skin and walk around it" ( by Atticus) . The story happened in a society where one judges people based on color and family background. The main characters includes Atticus , his children and his neighbors. Atticus believes that see thing from different perspectives help one get a better understanding of a person or truth. Therefore, he always teach his children to see things from different perspectives.
In “To Kill a Mockingbird”, Atticus relates to the main quote by showing his children how they could never understand Mrs. Dubose until they experience her struggles. Atticus explains to Jem and Scout Mrs. Dubose’s situation. To Jem and Scout, Mrs. Dubose is a mean, old cranky lady who doesn’t respect anyone. To Atticus, Mrs. Dubose is a fighter. When Mrs. Dubose insulted Atticus, Jem finally snapped and cut her camellia bushes.
Throughout the story, Boo Radley was questioned of what kind of person he was, but then turns out that he is also like a mockingbird. In the novel, Boo Radley rarely came out of his house, but then one day he came out to help the kids, Scout and Jem, from danger. He didn’t want any trouble, but he did it to save the kids. Also, we know that Boo was the one who killed Bob Ewell for trying to kill the kids that night, but Mr. Heck Tate did not do anything because he knew that Boo does not want any attention from the folks in town. In addition, as a theme, this shows us that no matter how long and how hard we try to keep things in such as our feelings, it will still come out at one point. It is just like when Jem came back from Boo Radley’s place to get his pants, he did not talk for days because of what he witnessed, but then he eventually spoke to Scout about what happened to his pants when he went to Boo’s place. Another one is when
Mr Radley was ashamed of his son’s behaviour when he got into the wrong crowd as a youngster and punished him by locking him up. There is a lot of gossip around Maycomb about Boo and people blame him for any bad things that happen in the neighbourhood, ‘Any stealthy crimes committed in Maycomb were his work.’ Jem turns him into a monster, ‘his hands were blood-stained’, and ‘his eyes popped’. At the end of the novel however, we find that Boo is misunderstood, and gossip of the town’s folk has made him up to be a ‘malevolent phantom’. Scout tells us he is timid, he had, ‘the voice of a child afraid of the dark’.
In the novel To Kill A MockingBird, Harper Lee illustrate the theme of fear and how fear towards the of house of Boo-radley scares people. In chapters one through five, Jem had his little sister think of when he said that, I knew he was afraid. Scout knows that Jem is scared of Boo because he is believing these crazy stories that Dill is telling him because he doesn’t know what to believe. He doesn’t completely understand who Boo-radley is, so he fears him because of the stories people make up. “It’s just that I can’t think of a way to make him come out without him getting us.”(Ch.1)
In the book, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, talks about the symbol of the mockingbird and why it is a sin to harm one in anyway. The mockingbirds represent certain characters in the story. Atticus Finch had told Scout and Jem, “Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can’t hit em’, but remember it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird” (98). He says this because bluejays are dangerous and they could hurt others, which gives them a reason to hurt one back. But it is not okay to kill a mockingbird because all they do is bring joy to others by singing songs, and it is not right to hurt something that does not do any harm.