Direct Characterization Boo Radley

Even though he kept to himself he was still accused of doing terrible things like driving 'scissors into his parent's leg' and dining 'on raw squirrels and any cats he could catch'. Apart from these completely unfair and unproven accusations he also was subjected to solitary confinement in his 'home'. All this was because he had a mental illness, and all he ever did was do the best that he could with the mind that he had. Boo Radley is a mockingbird because he is kind, gentle and always tries his best. Like Tom, he was thrown into a bad situation by the townsfolk and their biased and inaccurate views. That forced him to to react as best he could which was 'killing' Bob Ewell. He saved Jem and Scout, who where kids who had previously suspected him to be a monster, and that he had even previously left 'perfect miniatures' of them, for them. Although by some peoples standards, killing is never the 'right' option, Boo did what he thought was right, and he saved the kids lives. Boo is a mockingbird because he is innocent, and was put under the burden of the towns out of date views of society.

Here, it shows that since the kids never saw Boo, he must be locked up and is not able to come outside. Another reason the kids think he is locked up is because the doors of the Radley place are always closed. The text says, “The doors of the Radley house were closed on weekdays as well as Sundays, and Mr. Radley’s boy was not seen again for fifteen years” (Lee 13). This shows, Boo is locked up because their doors were closed so no one would see that Boo was locked up, and he was not seen again. The third reason the kids think he is locked up is because he never came out of the house when Mr. Radley died. Instead, his older brother returned most likely to keep Boo locked up in the house. Boo’s older brother would not have come home if it were not for having to keep an eye on him. Next, the kids are scared. The first reason they are scared is because they say the Radley pecans that fall in the schoolyard will kill you if you eat them. The book says, “...but the nuts lay untouched by the children: Radley pecans would kill you” (Lee 11). Here, it shows that they did not even touch the nuts, because they were so scared of anything that had to do with the Radley’s. One other reason they are scared is because

Boo was extremely misunderstood. In chapter one, we find out that the entire neighborhood is afraid of Radley and his family. Everyone has made up stories about The Radleys. According to their neighbor, Miss Stephanie Crawford, he stabbed his dad with some scissors. In multiple chapters, Scout mentions that people have said that Boo eats wild animals. In chapter four, they mention that he bit off his mother’s fingers because he could not find any cats or squirrels to eat. Due to these stories about Boo, people wanted to kill him. Boo also never left his house. Scout’s brother Jem thought that Boo never left his house because his dad had him chained to the bed. While talking about misunderstanding people, Atticus hints at Boo and Walter Ewell. He tells her,

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

These factors reflect their perceptions of the social norm. Boo behaviours as a hermit sparks their imagination to create an image of Boo. “...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 along 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...”(TKAM, 18). This image of Boo led the children to be extremely curious and eager to see him for themselves. “‘...Let’s try to make him come out,’ said Dill. ‘I’d like to see what he looks like...’” (13) “...Dill and Jem were simply going to peek in the window with the loose shutter to see if they could get a look at Boo Radley...”.() “Dill had hit upon a foolproof plan to make Boo Radley come out at no cost to ourselves (place a trail of lemon drops from the back door to the front yard and he’d follow it, like an ant).”(144). At one point they attempt to contact Boo with a note put through an open window with a fishing pole. Atticus, the father of Jem and Scout, catch them and he teaches them a lesson of respecting privacy as well as treating everyone in an equal and humane manner. “What Mr. Radley did was his own business. If he wanted to come out, he would. If he wanted to

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

The town of Maycomb has created a horrible label for him because of his parents and social issues. Many people think as Jem, Scout and Dill that, “judging from his tracks; he dined on raw squirrels he could catch, that’s why his hands were bloodstained (...) 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” (16) all because of the stories they heard around. Boo Radley shows the theme of coexistence of good and evil, because no one knew who he was so they made up horrible rumours by pure ignorance although he is nothing of a monster as people describe. He turns out to be a protective, shy and caring person at the end of the book protecting Jem and Scout from Bob

This is a strange character in the novel because Boo Radley never came out of his house and the children thought of him as a

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

Throughout this journal, one can predict the kids will not meet Boo because he is locked up and they are scared of him. One reason why the kids will not meet Boo is because he is locked up. A reason to support this is because he stabbed his father with a pair of scissors. One quote from the book to give you a visualization is “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” (Lee 13). As you can see Boo can not think through his actions before doing them. He does not see that what he does deeply affects others around him. Next, another reason he is locked up is nobody sees a lot of activity coming in and out of the Radley household. Maycomb is a quiet

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

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”.

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

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