Is Boo Radley Innocent

A Mockingbird is one of the most significant symbols in To kill a Mockingbird. A mockingbird stands as a metaphor for someone who is innocent and has done nothing wrong. Someone who tries to help as best they can to help, and does nothing to harm anyone. Atticus’s greatest teaching moment to his

In the book, Scout and Jem are inadvertently deceived about Boo Radley. Boo is a shut-in whose reclusive lifestyle is viciously commented on by the residents of Maycomb. The gossip spurs Scout’s and Jem’s fascination with Boo Radley and drives them to incorporate Boo into their games and activities.

In court, Tom said that the reason he helped Mayella Ewell was because he “felt right sorry for her, she seemed to try more’n the rest of ‘em ” (Lee, 197). Feeling sorry for Mayella became his only crime. After the trial, Miss Maudie sympathized with Jem, telling him that not everyone was against Tom; in fact, people like Judge Taylor, Heck Tate, and of course Atticus were for him. When Tom was shot, most of Maycomb didn’t care, but Mr. Underwood of The Maycomb Tribune “likened Tom’s death to the senseless slaughter of songbirds by hunters and children” (Lee, 241). He recognized that Tom was innocent and his death was undeserved. Sheriff Heck Tate showed empathy for Boo Radley after Mr. Ewell attacked the Finch children. He says, “To my way of thinkin’, Mr. Finch, taking the one man who’s done you and this town a great service an’ draggin’ him with his shy ways into the limelight—to me, that’s a sin. It’s a sin and I’m not about to have it on my head” (Lee, 276). He knew Boo wouldn’t be able to cope with the stress of being the town’s celebrity, so he decided to pretend that Mr. Ewell fell on his own knife and the children got away by themselves. Several people in Maycomb cared for each other and looked at things from another’s point of view.

When Atticus gives the children a gun during the novel, he reminds them to “‘shoot all the bluejays’” they want “‘but remember it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird’” (Lee 93). Shooting a mockingbird is as cruel as taking advantage of a defenseless person. When Boo Radley kills Ewell in an attempt to save Scout and Jem, Atticus wants it to be known that Jem killed Ewell in an act of self-defense because he believes it to be the truth. Instead, the sheriff states that the public’s notion of the occurrence will be that Ewell confusedly fell on his own knife. He formulates the idea with much consideration for Boo Radley, not wanting Radley to receive a tremendous amount of attention from the people in town for knowing that he truly murdered Ewell. Atticus understandingly fears that his children’s respect for him will dissipate if he follows through with the plan, but Scout consoles him. Shooting a mockingbird is as cruel as taking advantage of a defenseless person. Therefore, as Scout says, creating a hero out of Boo would similarly “be sort of like shootin’ a mockingbird” (Lee 282). Her statement is an extremely climatic moment, allowing the reader to understand that she has fully absorbed the

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

While walking home from school one day the children happen to find two pieces of gum hidden in the knot-hole of a tree on the Radley yard. These treasures, the children soon come to realize, can only be from the elusive man himself Boo Radley. Soon enough the children find even more gifts from Boo such as a small box with Indian-head coins, a ball of twine, a boy and girl carved soap figures, a whole pack of gum this time, a spelling medal, and their most cherished treasure, a pocket watch. This knot hole was the only connection between Boo and the children until the hole was clogged up by Boo’s brother Nathan, but because of that Hole Scout and Jem began to see Boo just a little differently from the way they saw him before. Something that also helped Scouts understanding of Boo began to change was during the fire of Miss maudie’s house. While Jem and Scout watched the events unfold from a safe distance a very unusual thing occurred. Scout while watching the fire did not seem to notice that a blanket that she had not come out with was wrapped around her shoulders. After her father Atticus pointed this out he also mentioned that this was the work of Boo Radley who, like the rest of the neighborhood came out to watch the

People in Maycomb County seen him as a monster and freak. They arewould be judgemental, and that's why he isa scaredy thing to experience. Everything is different in his perspective, and he doeswould not understand why society is so harshlike that. Boo experienced a part of society when Bob Ewell attacked Jem and Scout. He saween how evil people were and killed Bob Ewell. Scout finally saween things through Boo’s perspective when she walked him home. “Atticus was right. One time he said, you never really know a man until you stand in his shoes and walk around in them. Just standing on the Radley porch was enough.” (Lee 148). Boo was just an innocent victim to society, and he had to experience the harsh reality of society. Punishing him would be wrong because he did nothing to hurt anyone, and he saved two innocent livesJem and Scout’s life. Punishing Boo would be a sin just like how Scout saysid, "Well, it'd be sort of like shootin' a mockingbird, wouldn't it?" (Lee 146).

At the beginning of the story, Jem and Scout was young , childish and lacked the ability to see things from other's point of view. From the children's point-of-view, their most compelling neighbor is Boo Radley, a man that always stay in his house and none of them has ever seen. During the summer , they find Boo as a chracacter of their amusement. They sneak over to Boo house and get a peek at him. They also acting out an entire Radley family. "Jem parceled out our roles: I was Mrs. Radley, and all I had to do was come out andsweep the porch. Dill was old Mr. Radley: he walked up and down the sidewalk andcoughed when Jem spoke to him. Jem, naturally, was Boo: he went under the frontsteps and shrieked and howled from time to time"(chapter 4). Eventually , Atticus catch them and order

I am reading To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee and I am on page 35. This book is about a girl named Scout, her father named Atticus, her brother called Jem, and her friend called Dill, in the small town of Maycomb. We follow Scout through her trials with 1st grade, her relationship with Calpurnia, and Boo Radley. In this paper I will be predicting and evaluating.

Who is the Mockingbird?? “‘Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit‘em, but remember it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird’” (Lee 119). Harper Lee’s book To Kill a Mockingbird uses the metaphor of the mockingbird throughout the book. The main thing it uses it for is when someone is being treated unfairly or unjustly.

The Mocking Bird itself is the most innocent bird of them all and it doesn't hurt anyone or anything, it just makes beautiful sounds for people to hear. I think that Tom Robinson was the mockingbird because he was innocent of raping Mayella Ewell. He didn't do anything wrong and he was also crippled. It is also something that Atticus doesn't want Jem and Scout to shoot. Tom even helped Mayella do her chores before he was falsely accused. He did it out of the goodness of his heart and the Ewells exploited that and he was shot to death in the end. If black people in general were accused of rape, even if they were innocent, they were killed and or lynched. Some might think that Boo Radley was the mockingbird because of his father non-stop abuse

When Scout recalls Boo’s gifts, she begins to notice the contrast between the real Boo and the rumors, “Neighbors bring food with death and flowers with sickness and little things in between. Boo was our neighbor. He gave us two soap dolls, a broken watch and chain, a pair of good-luck pennies, and our lives”(373). Boo’s heartfelt presents for Jem and Scout conveys his compassion for the children and the contrast between his real deportment and the false persona Maycomb makes him out to be. The inhumanity of Maycomb’s rumors is evident as they pretend a gentle person is evil. After Boo saves her and Jem’s life, Scout realizes her and Maycomb’s wrongs for judging Boo before they met him, telling Atticus, “When [we] finally saw him, why he hadn’t done any of those things . . . Atticus, he was real nice . . .” (376). When Scout is aware that she had never met Boo before she judged him, she recognizes her wrong, and that “he hadn’t done any of those things” that she believed from the rumors. She understands that the ruthless lies they told harmed Boo, since he is afraid to go outside his home with the reputation Maycomb gave him. Even though Boo is a compassionate and loving man, Maycomb discriminates him based on rumors until he stays inside so as not to be treated unfairly for crimes he has not

After Heck Tate and Atticus decide that it’s a good idea to hide the fact that Boo killed Bob Ewell, Scout argues with saying, "to tell about this would be like killing a mockingbird. " If a mockingbird does no harm to anyone, or the world, then persecuting Boo Radley would be no different than killing a

A mockingbird is a harmless thing that makes the world a better place. In To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee the mockingbird is Tom Robinson and Boo Radley, who are both pleasant peaceful people who would never do any harm. To kill a or bring harm to them would be a sin. Scouts father Atticus tells his children, “I’d rather you shoot tin cans in the backyard, but I know you’ll go after birds. Shoot all the blue jays you want, if you can hit’em, but remember it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.” (p.69)

He is innocent of all of the claims and stories made up about him. He is robbed of friendship and trust with the entire town and is hurt by the cruel remarks made by the townsfolk. He had never done anything to harm anyone or anything in his lifetime; instead he strove to help people whenever he could, but tried to help them as best he could without being seen or noticed. One cold night when Scout Finch was standing frozen cold outside the Radley house, Boo secretly slipped a blanket over Scout’s shoulders to give her warmth. He also gave the two children, Jem and Scout, a few presents in a knot hole of a tree to show his compassion and warm heart. He even helped to protect the two children when Bob Ewell tried to murder them both. These examples show his innocence and that he is obviously not a monster. Scout comes to realise that he has inner goodness that must be cherished, alike a mockingbird. The town had committed a sin by harming him from the cruel things they had made up about him. And it was a sin when Tom Robinson, an innocent man, was killed when it came to his turn in the novel.