During the fire at Miss Maudie’s house, Scout and Jem, unknowingly, was given a blanket to keep warm. When the Finches plus Miss Maudie return to their home, Scout asks who she should thank for the blanket. Jem proceeded to answer that it was most likely Boo Radley’s doing. This starts a confliction between Scout and her beliefs. Scout has always thought of Boo Radley through the mind of a child, a story that stole her attention. But when she witnessed Boo Radley doing something kind and thoughtful, she found herself shocked and unbelieving. “My stomach turned to water and I nearly threw up when Jem held out the blanket and crept toward me.” (Lee 96). At this moment, Scout realized how real and human Boo Radley and altered her view of the man.…
Jem is drawn to Boo’s story, which he has heard all of his life. Townsfolk tell stories of Boo coming out at night and peeping through peoples’ windows, freezing their azaleas by breathing on them, and terrorizing household pets. When Atticus refuses to give Jem details about the Radleys, Jem turns to Miss Stephanie Crawford, the neighborhood gossip. She talks about Boo saying she “woke up in the middle of the night one time and saw him looking…
For example, he put some of his prized possessions in the hole of the tree, knowing that Jem would notice them and take them home. In the novel, one of the possessions, the pocket watch, was actually lent to Jem by Atticus only once a week, and was not found in the tree. On the contrary, the film did not show any interactions between Jem and Atticus concerning the pocket watch inheritance. One important event would be during the house fire that led to Mme. Dubose’s death. Due to Scout’s curiosity and age, she ended up sleeping outside in the dark, cold night, which resulted in Boo placing a blanket on top of her so that she would not catch a cold. Yet, the movie omitted this scene altogether, which was a disappointment because it would have displayed more of Boo’s affection towards the children. Boo’s highest display of affection towards Jem and Scout would be when he kills Bob Ewell in order to protect the children. Unfortunately, the movie scene resulted in Bob Ewell stabbing himself instead of Boo, which could be taken positively as Boo should be considered a hero for protecting the children without harming anyone. Despite this bittersweet justice, the novel’s depiction of the scene would provide more emphasis on Boo’s paternal feelings towards Jem and Scout. Overall, the film failed to show more scenes about Boo because it would have made more sense, as to why this stranger ended up having paternal instincts and feelings towards the children who mocked…
Long term isolation and Boo’s reclusive personality causes him to have no friends. Boo tries to reach out to the children by leaving them gifts in the knothole of a tree for them to discover. Obviously, Boo treasures the gifts a lot. Even though 2 Indian-head pennies are worth a fortune, he is still willing to give them to the children because he wants them to be fascinated by the gifts just as he does. Boo shows kindness to the children when Jem and Scout are watching Miss Maudie’s house go up in flames. As mentioned in the story, “'Thank who?' I (Scout) asked. 'Boo Radley. You were so busy looking at the fire you didn't know it when he put the blanket around you.'” Boo is courageous and protective, he saves Jem and Scout from being killed by Bob Ewell. Above incidents proves Boo Radley, after all, is not a harmful person described by Maycomb people, in fact he is caring and…
Taking Atticus’s advice to walk around in another’s skin, Scout actually stands on the Radley porch and imagines what Boo has seen over the last few years. And what Boo has seen—the life and times of Jem and Scout—has made him feel compassion for them.…
At the end of the book, Scout escorts Boo Radley back to his home. After Boo closes the door, she turns around and surveys the neighborhood from his perspective. She imagines how he has witnessed all the happenings of the recent years, including her and Jem running by the house on their way to and from school, her childhood Boo Radley games, Miss Maudie's fire, the incident…
Harper Lee compares Boo Radley as a caring person rather than a monster. Many people think that he is weird, isolated, and unaffectionate, however; Boo Radley is characterized as a man who cares about people in his community. “Boo Radley. You were so busy looking at the fire you didn’t know it when he put the blanket around you.” (72) Boo Radley places a blanket over Scout and Jem while they are watching the fire. Boo Radley However, when Atticus told them that Boo had placed the blanket, the kids thought that the fact that they were behind him the whole time, was creepy. "He always spoke nicely to me, no matter what folks said he did. Spoke as nicely as he knew how. You reckon he’s crazy? Miss Maudie shook her head.” (46) Miss Maudie characterizes Boo Radley as a nice and caring…
All through the book, Scout, her brother, Jem, and their friend, Dill rack their brains, trying to understand why Boo doesn’t leave his house. After walking Boo home, Scout begins to look back on past events, but this time, from the Radley’s home. “I had never seen our neighborhood from this angle” Simply from this, Scout was able to imagine the world from Boo’s perspective. From meeting Dill to having their hearts broken by the Tom Robinson trial verdict, Boo had been watching. Scout begins to understand what Dill had meant long before, when he proposed that perhaps Boo stayed at home because he wanted to. From his home, he could watch over Scout and Jem, and for that, Scout was…
At the end of the novel of Haper Lee's novel To Kill a Mockingbird, many things unravel. An adult Scout says, "Neighbors bring food with death and flowers with sickness and little things in between. Boo was our neighbor. He gave us two soap dolls, a broken watch and chain, a pair of good-luck pennies, and our lives. But neighbors give in return. We never put back into that tree what we took out of it: we have given him nothing, and it made me sad". Scout is wrong. Scout, Jem, and Dill gave Boo Radley various gifts as well he gave them. Throughout the novel, Scout gave Boo friendship, a connection to the outside world, and privacy. Although the gifts may not have been material, they are very meaningful to Boo.…
The mysterious neighbor to them, never seen but always there watching. When they first introduced Boo, they feared him until they became to ridicule what they did not know. Scout and Jems maturation process is facilitated by how they handle and overcome their fear of Boo Radley, the towns “boogey man”. When Miss Maudie’s house flamed up Scout and Jem stood by the Radley fence, throughout the night someone came and covered Scouts back with a blanket; it was Boo Radley. That was the first night that Jem started to realize Boo is as pure as a mockingbird, just misunderstood. In the conversation- “Mr. Tate was right…’what do you mean?… 'Well, it'd be sort of like shootin' a mockingbird, wouldn't it?'" (Scout, p.276) took place, it showed insight to a deeper level of thinking that the kids had developed- metaphoric understanding. Jem knew they were wrong about Boo when Boo had stitched up his pants leaving them on the fence for Jem to find and when he did, he cried an emotional silent cry of remorse for they had contributed to the ridicule Boo endured. With this new understanding in chapter twenty three Jem enlightens Scout why Boo doesn’t leave his house; he doesn’t want to, it’s a confusing corrupt world he’d rather not live in. In a way Boo had taught Scout how to empathize with people. As she was escorted by him to his porch she stood there with tears filling her eyes for the man who saved their lives. Empathetic as she gazed the yard “in his shoes” watching memories from the past three…
On her way past the house she caught a glimpse of something in the tree. Scout says this around chapter 3, “Some tinfoil was sticking in a knot-hole just above my eye level, winking at me in the afternoon sun” (44). This is the first thing that Scout finds in the knot-hole. The first gift from boo Radley, although she didn’t know it yet. Further in the book Jem and Scout find more gifts in the tree and are disappointed when Nathan fills the knot-hole with cement. Jem is explaining what happened that night of the fire, and Scout is asking what had happened. “Boo Radley. You were so busy looking at the fire you didn't know it when he put the blanket around you”. Scout nearly through up when she heard this. Jem continues to say, “He sneaked out of the house-turn 'round-sneaked up, an' went like this!'" This is when Ms. Maudie house burned down. Scout was scared when she found out that boo was behind her, although she is starting to understand him. Scout and Jem are now so curious about him and start to understand that he could be nice, and not this mean monster. The reality is that Boo is a nice guy and not the mean monster they assumed he…
Imagine you are in a town where racism is evident and you have been falsely accused of rape against a white woman, Mayella Ewell. You are an African American young man who has a beautiful wife and children, fighting for your freedom in a trial that could end with you being six feet underground. The evidence of the trial is to your advantage and your defending attorney is now presenting his closing argument that is sure to prove your innocence. The major conflict in the trial is the inequality you face because you are a colored man against a white woman. Racism was one of the many problems affecting the United States, especially in southern states, during the 1930’s. It is still a major issue in the United States today. In “To Kill A Mockingbird”…
In the book, To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee is able to successfully develop the characters and portray her purpose for writing the novel. Numerous authors use their characters to achieve the goal of establishing a theme and purpose within their material. They are able to do this by using literary devices to convey what they want the readers to know. This technique is commonly used by authors to relay information and this book features the use of the main character’s perspective, irony, and metaphors. Harper Lee utilized rhetorical devices that manifested the purpose of the novel which focuses on the treatment of people, discrimination during that time era, along with prevalent gender roles forced upon characters throughout the book.…
(Lee 96). Whenever Jem, Dill, and Scout go to the Radley house because they want to get a look at Boo, Jem gets stuck in the fence trying to escape and rips his pants. Later that night Jem goes back to get them and sees Boo has stitched up his pants and laid them across the fence. Instead of telling his father that the children did it Boo choose to help them. This was very kind of him because they were just being curious.…
The first event that marks off a new perspective of Boo is when Scout discovers the presents in the tree on her way home from school one day. The first of the items is a piece of gum, but as it goes on, the items get steadily more and more valuable and precious. The second gift discovered in the tree is two highly polished and well looked after Indian coins. The third is a whole ball of twine. The gifts in the tree reach their climax though when Jem and Scout find two hand carved figures of soap, which are of two children that resemble themselves quite well. The next day as they walk past to deliver a thank-you note, they arrive to find that someone has poured concrete into the hole in the tree where the gifts were hiding. The children later find out that it was Mr. Nathan Radley, the very controlling older brother of Boo who filled up the hole. Mr. Nathan claims that the “tree’s dying.…