Analysis of the Relationship Between Boo Radley and the Finch's Children

To Kill a Mockingbird Harper Lee
Analysis of the relationship between Boo Radley and the Finch- children

The novel “To Kill a Mockingbird”, written by the American Author Harper Lee, was published in 1960. The story is focused on the perspective of a little girl named Scout Finch who lives with her brother, Jem Finch, and father, Atticus Finch, in a “tired” old town in Alabama named Maycomb. Throughout the whole novel the Characters have to deal with the town’s prejudice and racism against the black community. The plot takes place during the hard years of the Great Depression, which affects most of the figures in the story, and it deals with issues like hypocrisy and discrimination.
One of the most mysterious Characters of the whole novel is “Boo” Radley. Because he never leaves his house, this almost “invisible” figure stays hidden in the first part of the story and then slowly exposes himself at the end of the novel, when he rescues the main character Scout and her brother Jem from the Bob Ewell. In the first part of the plot we can see the kids have a very unique relationship with this unknown character.
One of the main feelings Scout and Jem have towards Boo is fear. The kids have never seen this man but they still manage to create this bizarre picture of their neighbor. To their eyes, Boo Radley is more like a monster than a human being; “Jem gave a reasonable description of Boo: 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.” (Chapter 1). The problem is that this “reasonable” description of Boo Radley is based on rumors and not facts, therefore is this image influenced by the fear most people have towards things or people they don’t really know; “People said he existed, but Jem and I had never seen him. People said he went out at night when the moon was down and peeped in windows.” Due to the trial he had to face as a teenager and the fact that he never left the house after that incident, made the people in Maycomb spread horrible stories about him. The kids are not the only ones scared of this man; in fact most Maycomb folks prefer to avoid walking in front of the Radley’s place. This shows how easy it is to fear something you don’t know, and that the rumors like this one can lead to discrimination.
However this fear also evokes obsession and curiosity in the kids. Jem and Scout are obsessed with Boo’s lack of public appearance and try desperately to get closer to him in any way possible. The fear doesn’t let them go directly to him or his house but they manage to get closer ; “The more we told Dill about the Radleys, the more he wanted to know, the longer he would stand hugging the light pole on the corner, the more he would wonder.” The fact that he´s such a mysterious character makes him even more attractive to them. They even start a game of his life; “”I know what we are going to play,” he announced. “Something new, something different.” “What?” asked Dill. “Boo Radley”” (Chapter 4). One of the only persons who really stop them from invading his personal space is Atticus; “”Son,” he said to Jem, “I´m going to tell you something and tell you one time: stop tormenting that man. That goes for the other two of you.”” (Chapter 5). That shows how desperate the kids are to reveal Boo´s personality. So they won´t stop talking about Boo and searching for anything possible that could make him more of a reality than just their imagination.