How Does Scout Describe Boo

Arthur Radley (Boo)

Boo the Monster

If nosotros take Jem'southward word for it, Boo Radley is the kind of guy who, a century or then later on, would probably be shooting homemade zombie movies on digital video in his backyard. And possibly taking it all a fleck too seriously.

Jem gave a reasonable description of Boo Radley:
- Boo was most six-and-a-half anxiety tall, judging from his tracks;
- He dined on raw squirrels and whatsoever cats he could take hold of, that's why his hands were bloodstained—if you ate an animate being raw, you could never wash the blood off.
- In that location was a long jagged scar that ran across his confront; - What teeth he had were yellowish and rotten; - His optics popped, and he drooled most of the time. (ane.65)

Talking about Boo Radley gives kids the same thrill as telling scary stories around a bivouac. They've never seen him, and then they (one) don't quite believe he is a real person, and (2) experience costless to brand up fantastic stories as someone else might do almost Bigfoot. Their make-believe games, in which they deed out scenes from his life, put him on the same level equally the horror novels they shiver over. Fun!

Boo Radley the Fantasy

But the kids aren't just agape of him. In that location's also a strange longing for connectedness in the kids' obsession with him. Acting out of the life and times of Boo Radley could be a way of trying to understand him by "trying on his pare," as Atticus e'er says. And they do try to say that they're actually just concerned for his well-being:

Dill said, "We're askin' him existent politely to come out sometimes, and tell us what he does in at that place—nosotros said nosotros wouldn't injure him and nosotros'd buy him an water ice cream."

"Yous all've gone crazy, he'll kill u.s.a.!"

Dill said, "It'south my idea. I figure if he'd come out and sit a spell with us he might feel ameliorate."

"How exercise you lot know he don't feel good?"

"Well how'd you feel if y'all'd been shut upward for a hundred years with nothin' simply cats to eat?" (5.72-76)

The last line suggests that Dill at least feels some sympathy for Boo, and can imagine, or thinks he tin imagine what he feels—and what he needs. It seems similar Boo Radley raises a really important question for the kids: can you lot still be human without beingness part of a community?

Boo Radley the Reality

After the Tom Robinson trial, Jem and Lookout first to accept a different understanding of Boo Radley.

"Watch, I think I'm beginning to understand something. I remember I'k beginning to understand why Boo Radley's stayed close up in the house all this time... it'due south because he wants to stay inside." (23.117)

Having seen a sample of the horrible things their beau townspeople can do, choosing to stay out of the mess of humanity doesn't seem like such a foreign choice. Merely it turns out merely the ugly side of humanity tin can actually elevate Boo out, when he sees Bob Ewell attacking the Finch kids.

While Tate insists that Ewell fell on his own knife, he also indirectly implies that Boo Radley stabbed the man on purpose to defend the children. Since no i saw it (except, presumably, Boo Radley himself), there's no way to know for sure. Rather than elevate Boo into court, Tate decides to "let the dead coffin their dead" (30.60). Weirdly, Tate seems less concerned about the negative consequences for Boo than the positive ones.

"Know what'd happen then? All the ladies in Maycomb includin' my wife'd be knocking on his door bringing angel food cakes. To my manner of thinkin', Mr. Finch, taking the one man who's washed y'all and this town a bully service an' draggin' him with his shy means into the limelight—to me, that's a sin. It'southward a sin and I'm not almost to accept it on my caput. If it was any other man, it'd exist different. Simply non this man, Mr. Finch." (30.62)

Angel nutrient cakes! The horror! Just for Boo Radley, being the eye of attention, fifty-fifty good attention, would be horrible. Even Scout, who's known the real Boo Radley for less than an hour, gets it: "Well, information technology'd be sort of similar shootin' a mockingbird, wouldn't it?" (xxx.68). Even the total-equality-under-the-law Atticus begins to call up that sometimes a piffling inequality is what's really fair.

A New Perspective

When Scout walks Boo Radley home, she's entering into territory she'southward seen all her life but never before prepare foot on. Turning to leave, she sees her familiar neighborhood from a new perspective—Boo'due south perspective.

To the left of the brown door was a long shuttered window. I walked to it, stood in front of information technology, and turned around. In daylight, I idea, you lot could meet to the postoffice corner. […]

Autumn, and his children trotted to and fro around the corner, the 24-hour interval'due south woes and triumphs on their faces. They stopped at an oak tree, delighted, puzzled, humble.

Winter, and his children shivered at the front gate, silhouetted against a blazing firm. […]

Summer, and he watched his children's heart break. Autumn once more, and Boo'due south children needed him.

Atticus was right. One fourth dimension he said you never really know a man until you stand up in his shoes and walk around in them. Simply continuing on the Radley porch was plenty. (31.25-31)

A shift in perspective transforms Boo Radley from an evil spirit into a guardian angel. What actually cements it for Sentry is an human action of imagination, as she visualizes what the events of the last few years might take looked like to Boo. Information technology seems like the book is telling the states here that, to understand and empathize with others, all you lot need is imagination. Perhaps that'south why Lee has a child tell the story—because children can use their imaginations. Sure, imagining Boo Radley as a monster may non take been very nice, but information technology did make the kids try to figure out how Boo Radley sees the world.

The book ends with a sleepy Scout retelling the story Atticus has just been reading to her.

"An' they chased him 'n' never could catch him 'crusade they didn't know what he looked like, an' Atticus, when they finally saw him, why he hadn't done any of those things... Atticus, he was real nice...." His hands were under my chin, pulling upward the cover, tucking information technology around me.

"Almost people are, Picket, when you lot finally run into them." (31.55)

Sentry literally "finally sees" Boo Radley, just perhaps there's more to "seeing" than that. The Tom Robinson case suggests that it's all as well possible for people to look at someone and still not come across that he's a human existence merely like them. Boo Radley starts out a monster and ends up a human, but he never rejoins the Maycomb customs. Or perhaps, in taking an active interest in the Finch children, he already has: mayhap his character suggests that the bonds that hold a community together tin can be more only social ones.