Boo Radley Flashcards
‘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.’
(Jem’s description of Boo)
At first, Boo is described as some sort of horrendous monster by Jem, and the children don’t view him as human at all. To them, he’s some sort of mystery, a spectacle and tormenting him (even if they don’t see it as that at the time) is their game.
The children treat Boo with as much prejudice as the town treats Tom Robinson.
“I know what we’re going to play” he announced. “Something new, something different.”
“What?” asked Dill.
“Boo Radley.”
The children taunt him, by trying to make him come out of his house and through playing their games. This causes Atticus to tell them that what they’re doing is wrong.
“Well, how’d you feel if you’d been locked up for a hundred years with nothin’ but cats to eat?’
(Dill about Boo)
Shows how, in a way, their games can be seen to be ‘trying on his skin’ even if it is an unorthodox approach. This shows that despite their tormenting of Boo, they still feel sympathy towards him.
“Scout, I think I’m beginning to understand something. 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.”
(Jem about Boo)
Because the children treat Boo with as much prejudice as the town treat Tom Robinson, watching the injustice Tom faces by the court, helps them to understand Boo much more.
In a way, throughout the novel, Boo’s development of his character, shows the children’s development of maturity.
‘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. If it was any other man, it’d be different. But not this man, Mr. Finch.
This shows that, for Boo, being in the centre of attention would be horrible- Scout says ‘It’d sorta be like shootin’ a Mockingbird’ and even Atticus seems to think that even a little inequality is what’s really fair.
Although is this truly the case? Is it really fair that, just because he dislikes being the centre of attention that he should be exempt from trial. Yes, what Bob Ewell did was wrong, but by denying his family a trial they are denying what is fair and just surely? Or does it not matter because the ‘Ewells had been the disgrace of Maycomb’?
….’Shoot all the bluejays you want….’
‘Boo’s children needed him’
Boo sees Scout and Jem as his children, which is why he parted with the things that were special to him, mended Jem’s trousers and covered Scout with a blanket and ultimately, why he killed for them.
This shows how, the bonds that make up a community aren’t necessarily just social ones.
