Although Boo Radley appears only once throughout the whole book, his importance is not to be underestimated. He is such a key character because he is the visible representation of Scout’s growth. He is the scale which the reader uses to measure Scout’s progress. The way he is perceived changes drastically as the reader goes deeper into the story. This phenomenon is mainly affected by the fact that Scout is the leading voice of her novel, thus, her development impacts her views, so the reader’s perceptions on Boo Radley. At the beginning of the story Scout tells the Radley’s story, giving an explanation to why they are treated as outsiders in their own community. How Arthur “Boo” Radley was “locked in the courthouse basement” (Lee 14) and
Boo Radley is a mysterious and suspicious character, where throughout the beginning and middle of the book, Scout, Jem, and Dill have a preconception of him being a mean, old man. At the ending of the book, when Boo saves the children from Mr. Ewell, Scout sees how she prejudiced him based on other people’s beliefs. Boo is one of the most misunderstood characters of the book, starting out as a fantasy and a monster, but then he turns out to be very thoughtful, brave, and kind.
9. Boo Radley is so important in the novel because he teaches Scout not to judge others on assumptions and that people are really kind. Boo is a character who throughout the novel is judged based on assumptions. The children fantasize about him, yet he is a mystery to them. In their distraction of trying to find out about Boo, they miss him present in their lives. By the end of the novel when Scout finally sees Boo, she realizes how he has cared for them throughout the years and imagines life from his point of view. The children are so fascinated with him because they do not really know who he actually is. They are obsessed with the idea of him. Perhaps this is because he is one of the only mysteries in their small town, the one they know least about. However, Jem and Scout fear Boo, an innocent man. I think it is appropriate that Boo saves them so that Scout would have the realization that you don't really understand a
Boo Radley had impacted Scouts learning and development throughout the story. This is because Boo Radley was once the scary man living in a haunted house to the man who had saved Scout’s life by Bob Ewell.Jem and Scout had gone through a traumatizing experience after sneaking around at the Radley place. when they try to get a glimpse at Boo, a man began to chase them with the shotgun. “ Jem leaped off the porch and galloped toward us. He flung open the gate, danced Dill and me through, and shoed us between two rows of swishing collards. Halfway through the collards I tripped, as I tripped the roar of a shotgun shattered the neighborhood” (Lee 53). Scout has just had conflict with someone at the Radley place. after this experience, she begins to make better decisions rather than acting childish. Later on in the text, she found out that food was never the antagonist. she had been saved by him and finally saw what he looks like. Scout begins to describe Boo . “ I looked from his hands to sand stained khaki pants; my eyes traveled up his thin frame to his torn denim shirt. His face was white as his hands, but for a shadow on his jutting chin. His cheeks were thin to hollowness; his temples, and his gray eyes were so colorless I thought he was blind” (Lee 270).She finally sees Boo after
In Lee’s novel To Kill a Mockingbird, the character Arthur “Boo” Radley is portrayed as misunderstood, brave, and later on caring. The purpose of the character Arthur “Boo” Radley shows us not to judge a book by its cover. This novel follows siblings Scout and Jem; along with their dad, Atticus Finch. They are a family that lives in Maycomb County. Atticus is a successful lawyer, therefore, he is always busing. Scout and Jem spend most of their summer spying on their neighbor Boo Radley.
Similar to the story, Scout finds out that Boo is actually a generous and friendly individual. In the end, Scout changes to be an accepting person from because of ArthurBoo Radley.She learns not to judge Boo, by having the courage to go against the society that discriminates people who are different. Once she spends time with Boo, develops empathy for him, and focuses on what they have in common, then she begins to understand and accept him. Through Boo Radley, Scout becomes an accepting person by learning to not to judge someone just based on rumors that have a high probability of being wrong.
Scout struggles, with varying degrees of success, to put Atticus’s advice into practice and to live with understanding toward others. She doesn’t turn away from Walter Cunningham Jr. just because he is poor and made her get in trouble. At the end of the book, Scout succeeds in comprehending Boo Radley’s perspective. After she drops him off at his house, Scout takes a moment to survey the rest of the world from the Radley porch. “...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.” Scout imagines many of the events of the story (Atticus shooting the mad dog, the children finding Boo’s presents in the oak tree) as they must have looked to Boo. She finally realizes the love and protection that he has silently offered her and Jem from the beginning.
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 Radley is labeled an outcast and an outsider by the society of Maycomb because of the rumors and myths that have surrounded him through the years of being confined to his brother’s home. For over twenty-five years, Boo Radley has been restricted to the indoor limits of the Radley house suppressing him further from the Maycomb community. Arthur “Boo” Radley was a troublesome child who sadly continued to make wrong choices once he became
Throughout Scout’s journey, her encounters with numerous characters and situations directly demonstrate the development and significance of empathy as she develops and masters the understanding of her peers’ feelings. Scout at first had this overwhelming fear of Boo Radley because she did not understand the circumstances he lived under. As the story goes on, she becomes more mature, as she learns to interpret subtle body language and gestures of Boo. “I was beginning to learn English. His hand tightened on mine and he indicated that he wanted to leave” (147).
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 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
Throughout Harper Lee’s novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, Jem, Scout, and Boo Radley played a meaningful and important role. As the novel progressed the relationship of Jem, Scout, and Boo Radley developed in a significant way. The children had a growing curiosity of Boo Radley in the first few chapters of the novel. Eventually the curiosity faded as the children became more mature and the novel lost its innocence. However, by the end of the novel the events caused Jem and Scout to obtain an amicable relationship with Boo Radley. The development of the relationship between Boo Radley and the children created a meaningful back story which allowed the novel to have a heartwarming touch on many people.
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
Boo Radley, even though he is not in the book that much, plays a very important part in developing Scout into the person she is at the end of the book.