Preview

How Is Boo Radley Innocent

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
606 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
How Is Boo Radley Innocent
Boo Radley Character Analysis: From Town Monster to Childhood Hero
In Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, Boo Radley is depicted as a character that is innocent, protective, and misunderstood. Boo is an innocent man, he has childish tendencies, and through his actions, shows friendliness. As a child, Boo never had the chance to properly grow up and mature because he was mentally unstable. His erratic behavior led to him being locked inside his house. In the novel, Boo Radley can be considered a good person injured by the evil of mankind. He was an intelligent child emotionally damaged by his father. Boo is more than a creepy shut in; he has rights and feelings just like everyone else. He is a human being.
Boo Radley is similar to a mockingbird,

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Boo Radley Quotes

    • 692 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Mr. Arthur “Boo” Radley, a neighbor to Jem and Scout, has never been viewed correctly by everyone. Throughout the book, his neighbors imagined him as cannibalistic, mysterious, and monstrous man, however the growth of Jem and Scout result in a change of perspective. After the kids realized Boo had been caring for them by returning clothes, warming them by giving a blanket, and saving them from being killed, Boo Radley’s reputation altered greatly through the eyes of children and families in Maycomb.…

    • 692 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird the character “Boo” Radley is portrayed as an evil and creepy specter of a person who prowls the neighborhood at dusk as if to remain invisible to the outside world around him who would otherwise judge and reticule him. He is thought to be all of these horrible accusations as well as others such as dangerous and prone to violence when in reality he is a mockingbird, a symbol of good and innocence . It is not until the end of the novel that Boo’s true character is reviled when he saves the Finch children from a truly evil man who wishes to harm or even kill them. Boo’s arrival seems to serve as a sense of justice in a time much deserving of it.…

    • 282 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Boo Radley symbolises a beautiful, but tortured mockingbird that is misunderstood and ostracised by both his family and the wider community. He is kept as a prisoner in his own home, kept in confinement by his god-fearing Baptist family. Despite this treatment Boo remains gentle and harmless. However, people tell stories about how he eats squirrels and cats and poisons the pecan nuts in the school yard. To the community Boo is a "malevolent phantom". Gradually Scout and Jem begin to see things from Boo's perspective. Like the mockingbird Boo gives pleasure and comfort: for example, the gifts in the tree, the blanket placed around their shoulders as they watch Miss Maudie's home go up in flames. Finally, he saves Scout and Jem's lives. In turn, Scout realises to drag Boo into the limelight would be like "shootin' a mockingbird" and a cruel betrayal of all the inherent goodness Boo symbolises as a mockingbird.…

    • 596 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the novel, Boo Radley is a victim of prejudice. Boo Radley is not accepted nor does he fit into Maycomb society because he is considered different from the others. He is not normal according to Maycomb civilians and therefore he is punished socially by a community that is very judgmental and biased. Boo does not act like a normal person and his actions are mysterious and abnormal. One day Boo was cutting the newspaper with scissors, and when his father passed "Boo drove the scissors into his parent's leg, pulled them out, wiped them on his pants, and resumed his activities" (12). Boo just sat there after stabbing his father. He did not apologize or feel regret for his actions. This event became a topic for gossip throughout Maycomb giving Boo the malicious reputation he has to live with. Boo Radley isolates himself from the people of Maycomb. He stays inside his home all day and nobody ever sees him. He stays inside his home because he knows that his society will ridicule him and will not allow him to let go of his past errors.…

    • 1018 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, the small-mindedness of the Maycomb community hiders Maycomb people to truly understand each other. Arthur Radley, also known as Boo, is assigned with negative characteristics without validation by the Maycomb community. As the story unfolds, Scout, the narrator, starts to know more about Boo Radley, Boo transforms from a mysterious and fearful person to the most heroic and sympathetic character in the novel. Scout experiences that hatred and biased will sully her knowledge of human goodness.…

    • 839 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Boo Radley Hero

    • 145 Words
    • 1 Page

    Many assert that Atticus Finch is the hero in the novel, “To Kill a Mockingbird,” by, “Harper Lee,” but I respectfully disagree with that and believe the true hero is Boo Radley. Throughout the book, “To Kill a Mockingbird,” Boo Radley was secretive and reticent, although, he had multiple encounters of being heroic. Boo Radley additionally, is somebody portrayed as a mad man. Scout, Jem, and Dill was told that Boo (allegedly), defiantly stuck scissors into the leg of his repressive father. When the children heard about that, they reluctantly tried to find out more information about Boo. By the end of the novel, “To Kill a Mockingbird,” Boo is distinguished more as a hero to the children, rather than a shadow of a dreadful person. I conceive…

    • 145 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Boo Radley is one of the most important characters in the story. “Hey Boo,” (Lee, 362). This is the first chapter where you actually meet Boo. He is standing in the corner of Jem’s room when Jem broke his elbow. Everybody thinks Boo is this really scary person. They call him Boo because he’s like a ghost. His real name is Arthur Radley. Jem described him as, “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." (Lee,chapter1) This shows what Scout and Jem thought of him. It was a not very good assumption. He turns out to be not so creepy in the way he looks and turned out to be a very nice person which scout didn’t really expect. They realized their perceptions was wrong because he gave them food, fixed Jem’s pants, and gave them dolls over time.She came to expect it as she matured and got…

    • 610 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Boo Radley Rapism

    • 442 Words
    • 2 Pages

    At the start of the story we (the audience) are introduce to the main characters; Atticus, Jem, Boo Radley, Robert Ewell, Scout, Tom Robinson, Calpurnia, and more. Boo Radley in “To Kill a Mocking Bird” is the character that we 1st get to see being judge. Jem and Scout see Boo Radley at first as nothing but a “malevolent phantom" (chapter 1 pg. 8) it states “Inside the house lived a malevolent phantom” Everything that surrounds Boo Radley would be the rumors and myths. Boo Radley seems to have never came out his house unless it was needed for. As Boo Radley saved Jem and Scout from being killed by Bob Ewell, we (the readers) finally get an actually inside look into Boo Radley. Him saving them (Jem and Scout) showed that he is actually a humane person who puts others 1st before himself, who isn’t what the townspeople say he is. When he performed that act of heroism, both Jem’s and Scout’s views had been understood towards him; really realizing that Boo…

    • 442 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Boo Radley Symbolism

    • 325 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The symbolism of the mockingbird relates to Boo Radley because he is of an innocent nature. Such as, the mockingbird which does not feast on things that it shouldn't neither does it nest where it does not belong. Instead, all it does is create marvelous music for people to enjoy. Similarly, as the mockingbird is of an innocent nature so is Boo Radley because he never wished harm to befall anyone. In fact, his only act of violence was accidental. Yet people found it in their hearts to accuse him of something he wasn’t guilty of.…

    • 325 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Boo Radley, possibly one of the most interesting characters in the story, was heaveily stereo typed throughout until the very end, where he revealed his face to the world for the first time. At first, Scout and the children viewed him as a scary, somewhat shady person who has been locked up in his house his whole life. However, over time…

    • 489 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Boo Radley is a very important character because he shows that even though people are shy and mysterious they can also be kind hearted people when a chance is given to them to show this side. The moral of this is even though people can look weird or act strange or have been shunned for something they did a long time ago, you shouldn’t judge them without giving a…

    • 712 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Study Guide

    • 1609 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Boo Radley is a mysterious character that is described in a lot of detail by Scout. The Radley house is scary to the children. There is a lot of mystery around Boo, there does not seem to be a lot of facts. It is said that he only comes out of his house in the middle of the night.…

    • 1609 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    To Kill a Mockingbird

    • 1616 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Boo Radley was one of the main characters in this novel, yet he was only seen in the novel very few times. His role in this novel was to prove to the audience that stereotypes are not always true, since the stereotyped evil character was actually acting as a parent-like figure to the Finch children. The town of Maycomb had created a horrible stereotype over the years of Boo Radley only because of his parents and the fact that he had social issues. Many people including Jem, scout and Dill thought Boo was, “chained to a bed most of the time, 6 feet tall, judging by his tracks, he dined on raw squirrels and any cats he could catch that’s why his hand were bloodstained… there was a long jagged scar that ran across his face; what teeth he had were yellow and rotten, his eyes popped out, and drooled most of the time,” (pg.16) only from stories they have heard from others around Maycomb. Boo Radley shows the theme of the…

    • 1616 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    To Kill a Mockingbird

    • 508 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Boo Radley is not accepted nor does he fit into Maycomb society because he is different from others. Moreover, Boo does not act like a normal person. In society, his actions are mysterious and abnormal. After some trouble with the law “ Mr. Radley’s boy was not seen again for fifteen…

    • 508 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    He had given the children his precious items, covered Scout with a blanket, and killed for them. “‘Thank who?' I asked. 'Boo Radley. You were so busy looking at the fire you didn't know it when he put the blanket around you.' My stomach turned to water and I nearly threw up when Jem held out the blanket and crept toward me. 'He sneaked out of the house-turn 'round-sneaked up, and' went like this!'"(Lee 96). This quote shows that Boo Radley wasn't a monster, but instead the opposite. He cared about the children. Surely, it would be wrong to corrupt Boo’s innocence because he is a innocent man who is judged differently by society. “Inside the house lived a malevolent phantom. 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. When people's azaleas froze in a cold snap, it was because he had breathed on them. Any stealthy small crimes committed in Maycomb were his work. People still looked at the Radley Place, unwilling to discard their initial suspicions,” (Lee 10). In brief, Boo Radley symbolizes a mockingbird in the…

    • 601 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays