People view the Radley house
and its inhabitants as suspicious.
The fact that everything
on the Radley place was
poison having slipped
Jem's memory."
They have this view
because they form
outside the norms of
Maycomb respectability.
They don't go to church
on a Sunday, they keep
themselves to
themselves and never
tend to socialise with
their neighbours.
Just because
they don't follow
everything all
other citizens in
Maycomb do,
they are
automatically
percieved as
unnatural and
people to be
cautious of."
Described as a "malevolant phantom."
Boo was put under house
arrest by his father as he
was involved with a gang
and he stole a car and
resisted arrest. He was put
under house arrest because
his father did not want
him going to reform school.
When Boo's father dies,
Calpurnia remarks "There
goes the meanest man
ever God blew breath
into." This surprises
Scout as Calpurnia rarely
commented on anything
white people did.
Nathan
Radley
continues
keeping Boo
under house
arrest after
his father's
death.
Boo is metaphorically
speaking, made into a ghost
as he doesn't take part in the
everday life of Maycomb.
It was then
rumoured Boo was
seen stabbing his
father in the leg
with scissors.
Boo has been
mythologised by the
town of Maycomb
into a monster.
Throughout the novel, Boo is
shown to care for the children
"When I
went back,
they were
folded across
the fence"
After the night where the children tried to look through
the Radley window, they had to quickly escape. Whilst he
was attempting to escape, Jem got his trousers caught
in the Radley fence so had to leave them tangled on the
fence, ripped. When he returned to retrieve them, they
had been badly sewn up and were folded on the fence.
When Scout ends up by the Radley
house after being pushed whilst rolling
inside a tyre, scout says that "someone
inside the house was laughing"- shows
that Boo finds humour in the children.
When Scout is outside at the event of Miss
Maudie's house fire, she falls asleep outside
the Radley house. When she's asleep, Boo
comes out and puts a blanket around her to
stop her from getting a chill-shows Boo
cares about her health and welfare.
Boo leaves several presents for the
children in a knothole in a tree, including
chewing gum, a pocket watch, two old
pennies and two soap dolls carved like Jem
and Scout.
Nathan Radley cements up the knothole
to stop Boo's contact with the outside
world and children but he claims to the
children it's because the tree's "dyin'"
The children also
eventually begin to
consider Boo as they
mature. This is shown
when they realise that
the Radley game,
which portrays Boo as
a monster, is unfair
and a misjudgment of
Boo.
Ending
The ending of the novel seems to show Boo as
being vulnerable as he asks to be walked home
"His face was a
white as his
hands, but for a
shadow in his
jutting chin."
Vulnerable
“Boo was our neighbor. He gave us
two soap dolls, a broken watch
and chain, a pair of good-luck
pennies, and our lives.”
Scout
appreciates
what Boo's
done over the
years
Mockingbird- directly linked to in CH30-31
Boo is a
victim of
prejudice,
just like a
mockingbird.
Both Mockingbirds and Boo only
want to make people happy.
"Mockingbirds don't do one thing but make music for us to enjoy"
Does no wrong but tends to
get abused by others.
"Well it'd sort of be like shootin' a
Mockingbird, wouldn't it?"