How Is Maymond Be Portrayed In To Kill A Mockingbird

Prejudice is one of the world’s greatest struggles. It does not only hold society back, but is harmful to the people who do good .In Harper Lee’s book To Kill A Mockingbird, Scout and Jem live through and witness prejudice and racism in the small town of Maycomb. They see someone wrongly accused of a crime because of his race. Scout and Jem also witness and take part in prejudice against a man no one knows anything about. In the novel To Kill A Mockingbird Harper Lee uses characterization to show the negative effects of prejudice and racism.

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

After Jem reflects back on the events that have happened in Maycomb he says, “ Scout, I think I’m beginning to understand something. I think I’m beginning to understand why Boo Radley stayed shut up in the house all this time… it’s because he wants to stay inside” (Lee 227). The labels that were given to Boo could have made him feel isolated, causing him to want to stay in his house. Boo must have been saddened by theses labels, and the hurtful words could have caused him to not want to go outside. At the beginning of the story Scout is talking about Boo and begins to describes the rumors she heard about Boo. She acknowledges that, “ According to Miss Stephanie Crawford … as Mr. Radley passed by, Boo drove the sissors into his parent’s leg, pulled them out, wiped them on his pants, and resumed his activities” (Lee 11). Not only can labels affect people but the rumors about some one can hurt them as well. This is another reason why Boo could have decided to stay in his house, he may have known what people were saying and was discouraged by their words. Boo is affected by labels, causing him to feel lonley and

As the people of the town never saw Boo leave his house they thought that he was bad. Boo had no chance to stand up for himself because he always stayed inside. Through dialogue he is characterized by what the people of Maycomb County say about him, which caused misjudgement. (add quote) Through the character of Boo we are taught that just because one acts different and lives a different life that they are not always scary and bad. After Scout meets Boo at the end of the book she realizes that he is not a complete monster with “jagged teeth” and “eats squirrels” (pg 14) he is a peaceful and good man. It is easy to misjudge

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’.

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

For many years, Boo Radley has been in a complex situation, one unlike that of anyone else in the novel. Mr. Arthur Radley, known as Boo to Jem and Scout has always lived in Maycomb, but almost never makes appearances outside of him home, located behind the schoolyard. After an incident where Boo was arrested, Mr. Radley convinced the judge to let him stay at home, as long as he “gave no further trouble” (page 13). Boo never left the house again for fifteen years after this. He was left out of society for so long, that he eventually became an outsider.though he personally knows very few people, mostly everyone knows of Mr. Arthur Radley Instead of trying to adapt to the modernized version of Maycomb, he immaturely remained inside his house.

The novel To Kill a Mockingbird was written by Harper Lee and was published in 1960. This novel is included in various curriculums to enable students to take this well-written novel to identify the themes and messages and be educated from their literature. Prejudice is defined as a preconceived opinion that is not based on reason or actual experience. The different forms of prejudice that will be analysed are racial, class and social, thus, leads to the citizens of Maycomb to marginalises characters and treat them as an insignificant. It is evident that many characters in this novel suffer from different types of prejudice, which creates a sense of marginalisation. Tom Robinson, Mayella Ewell and Arthur Radley are the important, main

people still looked at the Radley Place, unwilling to discard their initial suspicions” (p. 9) Maycomb’s prejudice towards Mr Arthur Radley was cruel and unfounded; Boo was a mockingbird, who never hurt the world, but through people’s early judgment, they hurt him. Boo Radley proved to be one of the heros of the novel, which supported Atticus’s view that ideas formed before hand are groundless, and prejudice is wrong.

Boo is a very important character in the book, in fact, the novel opens with Scout and her interactions with Boo and is closed by it too. Scout learns about Boo though the gossip passed on through neighbors in the community. The stories are scary and many out of context, however, Scout doesn’t seem to notice this till after the trial. At the beginning of the book she plays a game that involves Boo, and she tries to torment him into coming out. When Scout describes Boo Radley she says, "People said 'Boo' Radley went out at night and peeped in people’s windows. That he breathed on flowers and they froze instantly. They said he committed little crimes in the night but not one ever saw him." This shows that Scout sees Boo as an object of fascination instead of a human being. She does not acknowledge that he has emotions or feelings, she just views him as a monster who does horrible things to people. Furthermore, we can learn that Boo is not a very loved or respected figure in the community due to his strange way of living. As the trial takes place Scout matures and her level of complex thinking increases, but it is not until October 24th that we see how her perception of Boo changes since in the trial she saw how badly they treated Tom Robinson and she directly connected it to Boo “I hugged him and said, “Yes, sir. Mr. Tate was right, it’d be sort of

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

Prejudice in the novel To Kill a Mockingbird is a very common problem in the society Maycomb; prejudice does not only harm an individual but also a society. Tom Robinson, Atticus Finch and Boo Radley are all victims of prejudice, and all three characters are affected by this. The prejudice exhibited towards them traps them, kills them or makes them stronger.

Throughout the novel, the citizens of Maycomb county show many forms of discrimination. For most of the book, the children assume Boo Radley is a terrible person. Jem, Dill, and Scout all group outside of the Radley 's house. Since Dill is new to Maycomb he asks what Boo Radley looks like. “‘Wonder what he looks like?’ said Dill. Jem gave a reasonable description of Boo: 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” (13). Then the kids feel the need to find out what Boo Radley really looks like so they go to Boos backyard and try to catch a glimpse of him, but as soon as they enter the backyard they get shot at and they scatter. After Dill, Jem and scout reach safety Scout tells them “Every night-sound I heard from my cot on the porch was

The community has ostracized Boo Radley from the community even though most people don’t know him. “Inside the house lived a malevolent phantom. People said he existed, but Jem and I had never seen him. People said he went out at night when the moon was down, and peeped in windows.” (Lee 5). This is how the community saw Boo Radley in the beginning of the book (Lee). This outlook of Boo has made everyone scared to even walk past his family’s house (Lee). At the end of the book Boo helps Scout and Jem out from an attack from Bob Ewell when they were on their way back home (Lee). After that event they look at Boo differently till the end of the story. This type of discrimination happens in today’s society still and in movies everyone has seen such as the “Sandlot”.

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