Boo Radley is mentioned again. Jem understand him better after experiencing Tom's case. He says that Boo stays in the house to avoid being interfered by the other folks. Boo is definitely unwilling to despise anyone innocent out of prejudice. It reflects his virtue rather than horror. His unusual behavior makes him the target of prejudice. As the story continues, the children's idea gets closer to the truth. Aunt Alexandra invites her missionary circle for refreshments. They are ladies in her neighborhood. They seem to be more of a social group than a religious one. Conversations among middle-aged ladies are always long, boring and hard to analyze. When Mrs. Merriweather speaks to Scout, she can response nothing but ``Yes ma'am.'' She soon
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
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
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”.
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
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
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
Boo Radley is the mysterious man in Maycomb County , and he is the killer in every scary kid’s story. Boo stays locked up in his house, and has not came out in thirty years. They say that Boo lives off of raw squirrels and cats that he catches., Aand that he has a big scar across his face, and yellow rotten teeth. Jem, Scout, and Dill spendt their summer trying to get Boo to come out of his house, but it never worksed. The children always wondered why Boo stayded inside his homeuse. Even though he never said why he stayed inside, the children finally understand after what they witness over the summer and school year. One reason why Boo stays inside because he is forced to. Another second reason is that Boo prefers to stay in his own environment,
Boo Radley hates to create trouble, so he remains inside and lacks vitamin D causing him to be as white as a ghost. "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.” (page 259) The quote explains how Boo chooses to not interact with the outside world and not get in anyone’s business. The community speaks about Boo a lot and depicts him to be a juvenile delinquent. “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…” (page 14) Here Boo is characterized to be a wild animal and a monster even though there is no significant evidence to support Jem’s claim because of society’s influence Scout accepted it as being true. Boo in all these circumstances shows how he genuinely is a
A character that displays many aspects of being a mockingbird is Boo Radley. Boo is a man who initially in the story does not come out of his house due to his fear of being persecuted. He is seen as the town mystery and some people do not even believe he exists. On page 44, two of the the main characters who are children named Jem and Scout are walking home from school when they start finding a gifts inside a tree knot hole outside of the Radley place. The children assume the gifts are from Boo and their assumptions are later proven correct. The act of Boo giving the children gifts makes him appear as he cares for the children. In like manner, Boo exhibits the kindness of a mockingbird is on page 95. While watching Miss Maudie’s house fire someone wraps a blanket around Scout, but she does not realise until she gets back home. She guesses Boo Radley was the one who did it and again her guess was proven correct. This act of kindness models his selflessness. Lastly, throughout the story Boo is described as
A malevolent phantom. Bloodstained hands. Eats raw squirrels. As following the typical outline for prejudice in small town Maycomb, Alabama, gossip surrounds Boo Radley, who differs from societal expectations by remaining secluded in his home. During his seclusion, even those who have not met him, such as protagonist Scout Finch, fall prey to assuming such rumors are true.
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’.
Boo is like a monster to Dill, Jem and Scout throughout the beginning of the novel although once the children see that he leaves them gifts inside a knothole in the tree in between their houses. He is only seen on one occasion in the novel, although he is talked about many times because Scout and Jem take an interest in him once they start to find out who he really is as a person. Boo Radley never really left his house even when he could simply because
Boo’s bravery and kindness were hidden from the public eye since he was a recluse. Despite being misunderstood, he was kind to the children by giving them gifts and asking nothing in return. Those who are selfless and kind make the world a better place, yet from the very beginning of the novel, Boo Radley was described as a mysterious and frightening individual. ”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 blood stained- if you ate any animal
Finally, Boo is almost all the time misunderstood throughout the story, Boo is misunderstood because he never comes out of his house, this happens because of Boo’s fears towards the outside world, this fears were born from stories that people started telling around town about him doing awful things when the only actual bad thing he ever did was get in trouble just like a normal child. Everybody think Boo is insane at the beginning of the book, there is just a few that actually see Boo Radley as a human being for example Miss Maudie and Atticus. Miss Maudie told the children (Jem and Scout) that Boo was actually a good person when he was young and probably still is. Jem and Scout slowly start understanding why Boo doesn’t come out of his house “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”. (Lee pg 304), now what this claim is telling us is that Boo stays inside not because he is kept there by his family but because he just simply fears a judgment from the outside world.
Jem has always been interested in seeing Boo Radley in his home or try to get him to come out. When the novel began, Jem was uncomfortable with the idea that Boo would want to stay inside his home all the time. After witnessing the events that taken place at Tom Robinson's trial, Jem’s perception of Maycomb changes now seeing the injustice and hypocrisy that Maycomb's comes to have. Jem says, “‘...If there’s just one kind of folks, why can't they just all get along with each other? If they're all alike, why do they go out of their way to despise each other?