Boo Radley and Scout

The Relationship Between Arthur (Boo) Radley and Jean Louise (Scout) Finch In To Kill a Mockingbird, written by Harper Lee, Scout is an educated six year old child who is very mature for her age. Despite her capability to understand things that most six year can not, she is a bit curious. That curiosity can be viewed as rude and or childish. She is curious about Boo Radley, as to why he never comes out of his house. Scout and her brother, Jem, try to come up with ways to get

Boo to come out of his house. This type of behavior can be as rude to others but to them they believe that they are doing a kindness by bringing him outside and enjoying the beauty of the world. Throughout the book their relationship progresses and the children learn that you do not know a person until you see them for the first time. Arthur (Boo) Radley was locked in his house for 15 years and has never been seen by outsiders. Rumors say that he wander the streets of Maycomb in the middle of the night and eats squirrels and possums.

One time Boo Radley was cutting newspapers and when his father walk by he stabbed him in the legs, and resumed in cutting his newspaper like nothing happened. The Radley place is viewed like a haunted house in the story, but it is all not true, Atticus teaches his children to not judge anyone unless you “walk into their shoes”. (Lee 279) The children believe all of the rumors they have heard about Boo Radley. They even start to make some of their own inferences about him based on what they have heard. These feelings about Boo

Radley start to change when the children begin to find presents in a knothole out side of the Radley place. They figured that they were from Boo Radley It was a way for him to show them that he wants to be their friend. The children do not realize this until later and then want to thank him by inviting him out for ice cream. They were caught by Atticus and he told him to stop pestering Mr. Radley. On Halloween night, as Jem and Scout were walking home from the school play, they felt as if they were being followed.

Scout thought that it might be Cecil Jacobs since he tried to scare her earlier. As it turns out, it was Bob Ewell. Still angered by Atticus’s attempts at making him look like a fool, he tried to murder Scout and Jem. Jem has fallen unconsciencely and has broken his arm, leaving Scout to defend for herself. When scout thought that she was going to die, something mysterious had happened. She had realized that she had a savior, but she was not sure on who it was. The next thing she saw was a man carrying Jem home and Bob Ewell dead with a knife in his ribs.

When she returned home, Jem was in the bed resting when Atticus told scout that there is someone that she needs to meet. It was Boo Radley, the man she feared the most had saved her life. At that moment Scout is no longer afraid, and treats Boo as an equal. She knows he saved her life and Jem’s life, and looks upon him with respect. The power of this moment brings Scout to tears, but, as always, she handles herself with maturity beyond her age. When Atticus found out that Bob Ewell was dead he said “There’s a black boy dead or no reason, and the man responsible for it’s dead. Let the dead bury the dead this time…. ”. (Lee 278) In a sense, one could look at Arthur “Boo” Radley as the symbol of this novel, the mockingbird. He never really harmed anyone, he just stays inside leaving the people of Maycomb at peace. Scout says that Mr. Arthur is like a mockingbird because telling everyone that he is the mockingbird is like killing him from the inside. It would give him publicity and a person like boo, that is shy, would feel scared from all of it. So it would be like killing a mockingbird.