Boo!
Boo! Such a word is often used to scare siblings, or hung up on houses around Halloween. However, in the book To Kill A Mockingbird, Boo is something regularly discussed, but not as a word. No, Boo is a nickname for the furtive Arthur Radley, the neighbor to the Finches. Throughout the novel, Boo is regarded as something of a Boogieman, a story used by Jem to frighten Scout and Dill. This mysterious, shy, and misunderstood character composes Arthur Radley, a masterpiece of Harper Lee. Boo Radley is one of the more mysterious characters in the novel To Kill A Mockingbird. As Scout’s narrative tells us on page seven, “the Radley place was inhabited by an unknown entity, the mere description of whom was enough to make us behave for days on end.” (page 7) My assumption is that throughout town, mothers would use a phrase similar to: “If you don’t behave, Boo Radley’ll getcha!” At the beginning of the book, Jem give an imaginative description of Arthur: “he was six-and-a-half feet tall, he dined on raw squirrels and cats, …there was a long jagged scar that ran across his face, his eyes popped out, and he drooled most of the time.” (Page 16) While this is probably an untrue portrayal, it just goes to show how little Boo is known to the town of Maycomb.
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This is not surprising, since, according to town legend, he has spent most of his life with very little human contact. When Arthur is in the Finches’ home in chapter thirty-one, Scout chronicles his behavior: “Every move he made was uncertain, as if he were not sure his hands and feet could make proper contact with the things he touched.” (page 371) The one evidence of Boo trying to reach out to someone, to overcome his bashfulness, is manifested in Scout, Jem, and Dill. My theory is that they became so interested in Boo, that Boo became interested in
One person from the town of Maycomb, Jem, who is Atticus’ son, describes Boo at the beginning of the book. He tells Scout that Boo “dined on raw squirrels” and that he had a “long jagged scar” across his face (Lee 60). Jem’s description is obviously not true, because the townspeople have not seen Boo for several years. Everything Jem made up about Boo was based off a single footprint Jem found in the dirt out by the road. In other words, he made it up from nothing. This shows that people thought Boo
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
Boo Radley had never really done anything wrong until Bob Ewell went after the kids. Arthur did what he thought was best at the time and stabbed Bob to save the kids. In this instance Boo can also be symbolized by the mockingbird because even though it was murder, he still did the right thing in a sense. He had spent his whole life letting people talk about him and assume things that pretty much destroyed his life. He never did any of the things they speculated, but he still suffered from them. Arthur spent the majority of his life trapped inside his own home waiting for his final breath, but when the children came along he was filled with amusement and hope. This gave him the need to look out for him, like when he gave Scout the blanket without her knowing during Miss Maudie's house fire, and killing Bob Ewell. Mr Heck Tate let Boo off the hook and said he fell on his knife for the sake of his own life. Everyone who knew boo knew he was truly an innocent man much like the
Boo Radley is one of the hermit residents of the Radley house. Boo leaves gifts for Jem and Scout and is one of the good people mistaken for creepy and
In the novel, Boo's character symbolizes honesty; his character is an innocuous, genuine man who does nothing to the town except for stay inside more often than not. The topic, it is a wrongdoing to murder a mockingbird, is spoken to by Boo's character in the way that he doesn't add to the town's assumed 'sickness', yet the town still makes numerous inconsiderate suspicions about him. Atticus tells Scout ordinarily in the book that it is a wrongdoing to slaughter a mockingbird on the grounds that they don't do anything yet sing and make exquisite music for individuals. This is precisely the same as Boo's circumstance on the grounds that he is spoken to by the mockingbird, and it isn't a good fit for the individuals to discuss him and make bits of gossip about him, on the grounds that he doesn't do anything to mischief anybody, he just stays inside a great deal.
He is referred to as a mockingbird because he suffers he is stuck and constantly talked negatively by the town.It's the only form of contact he has with the outside world. Boo (Arthur Radley) is actually a very shy character who is often misjudged by society including scout and jem. As the story goes on, we find Scout beginning to realize Boo radelys true intentions and the situation when she tells Atticus that exposing Boo would be "sort of like shootin' a mockingbird, wouldn't it?” Throughout the novel, Scout, Jem, and Dill are curious about the "mysterious" Boo Radley because he never comes outside from his house or associates with anyone in the neighborhood.
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’.
In To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee one of the characters, Arthur “Boo” Radley, has a major struggle with society. He is an outcast. Boo being an outcast is caused by many different factors, he deals with it in different ways, and his struggle with society is important.
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 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
Power is too overpowering sometimes especially for class, gender, and race. TKAM is a book written by Harper Lee in 1960. Mayella Ewell is a white, 19-year-old woman, who accused Tom Robinson, who is Negro, for rape. The book takes place in Maycomb, Alabama in the 1930s in the South during the Great Depression where there was a recession. Mayella is not a powerful character based on her class, gender, and race compared to Tom Robinson.
Boo is a painfully shy man who spends the majority of his time avoiding the outside world in his house. Atticus's’ children, Scout and Jem, and their friend Dill hear many stories of horrible deeds Boo has supposedly done by other town member, all of which are shown to be false rumors. Though he has never bothered anyone, and is kind to the children, he is met only with lies and fear of him. It is no wonder as to why Boo would want to hide away from a world that turned against him for not conforming to it’s ideal personality. Towards the end of the story Boo overcomes his fear and leaves his house to save the children from Bob Ewell, a bitter man who wants revenge on Atticus for making a fool of him at Tom’s trial, killing him in the process.
At the end of To Kill a Mockingbird Scout and Jem were almost brutally stabbed and suffocated by Bob Ewell. However, Boo came out of his house them. This took him so much courage as he was afraid of the world outside of his “prison”. His love for the children drove him to do this. Even though in the beginning he did a small bit of bad, he is truly a“mockingbird”. Boo was even referenced by Scout as a mockingbird after he saved Jem and her’s life by killing their attacker. When Boo’s actions were to be covered up, she stated, “Well it’d be sort of like shootin’ a mockingbird (by giving Boo undesired attention), wouldn’t it?” (Lee 370). Miss Maudie's quote morphed into describing Boo, just one of many ways it was seen in the book.
Arthur “Boo” Radley feels affection towards Jem and Scout; he also loves them. However, the children do not know that from the beginning, and they become aware of his feelings at the end of the novel. They do become more understanding towards the end because they learn more about human nature and to look at situations in other people’s perspective to become more understanding. Boo expresses his love for them various times. He was the one to give them presents by leaving the presents in the mysterious knot-hole.
did not allow anyone to visit him or have the slightest contact with him. Eventually Boo's mental state triggers him to stabbed his father with a pair of scissors. Boo's fathers causes Boo to suffer innocently by stealing his childhood experiences away from him. This indicates that Boo is a mockingbird because he did very little to deserve this torment and isolation that his father inflicted upon him. Then, Jem and Scout from the beginning of the story never fully understood Boo's past life at all, yet they judged him on things they hear about. They suspect he was basically an evil monster that never comes out of his house. Scout starts the stereotyping by creating a nickname “Boo” for the innocent Arthur Radley. This nickname robs Arthur of his true name and identity, causing him to suffer. Furthermore, Jem and Scout constantly pester Boo in an attempt to discover his actual identity. They tell their best friend Dill that Boo is like a zombie. Jem describes Boo as being: “About six-and-a-half feet tall, judging from his tracks; he dined on raw squirrels and any cat 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 and he drooled most of the time” (Lee 13). The stereotypical image created by Jem completely robs Boo