Why Does Scout Think She Will Never See Boo Again
Arthur Radley (Boo)
Boo the Monster
If we take Jem'southward word for it, Boo Radley is the kind of guy who, a century or so afterward, would probably be shooting homemade zombie movies on digital video in his backyard. And maybe taking it all a bit too seriously.
Jem gave a reasonable clarification of Boo Radley:
- Boo was nigh six-and-a-half feet alpine, judging from his tracks;
- He dined on raw squirrels and whatsoever cats he could catch, that's why his hands were bloodstained—if yous ate an beast raw, yous could never wash the claret off.
- In that location was a long jagged scar that ran across his face; - What teeth he had were yellow and rotten; - His eyes popped, and he drooled about of the time. (1.65)
Talking about Boo Radley gives kids the aforementioned thrill equally telling scary stories around a bivouac. They've never seen him, so they (ane) don't quite believe he is a real person, and (ii) feel costless to brand upward fantastic stories as someone else might do about Bigfoot. Their brand-believe games, in which they act out scenes from his life, put him on the same level as the horror novels they shiver over. Fun!
Boo Radley the Fantasy
Simply the kids aren't merely afraid of him. There's too a strange longing for connectedness in the kids' obsession with him. Acting out of the life and times of Boo Radley could exist a way of trying to empathise him by "trying on his peel," as Atticus always says. And they do try to say that they're really just concerned for his well-being:
Dill said, "Nosotros're askin' him existent politely to come out sometimes, and tell us what he does in in that location—we said we wouldn't hurt him and we'd buy him an ice cream."
"You all've gone crazy, he'll kill us!"
Dill said, "Information technology'south my thought. I figure if he'd come out and sit a spell with us he might experience better."
"How do you know he don't experience good?"
"Well how'd yous feel if you'd been close up for a hundred years with nothin' only cats to swallow?" (5.72-76)
The terminal line suggests that Dill at to the lowest degree feels some sympathy for Boo, and tin can imagine, or thinks he can imagine what he feels—and what he needs. It seems similar Boo Radley raises a really of import question for the kids: tin you still be human without existence role of a community?
Boo Radley the Reality
After the Tom Robinson trial, Jem and Sentry start to have a different agreement of Boo Radley.
"Spotter, I think I'g get-go to understand something. I think I'm offset to understand why Boo Radley'due south stayed shut up in the house all this fourth dimension... it'southward because he wants to stay inside." (23.117)
Having seen a sample of the horrible things their young man townspeople can practise, choosing to stay out of the mess of humanity doesn't seem like such a strange choice. Simply information technology turns out only the ugly side of humanity tin actually drag Boo out, when he sees Bob Ewell attacking the Finch kids.
While Tate insists that Ewell fell on his own knife, he likewise indirectly implies that Boo Radley stabbed the man on purpose to defend the children. Since no ane saw it (except, presumably, Boo Radley himself), at that place'south no way to know for sure. Rather than drag Boo into court, Tate decides to "let the expressionless bury their dead" (thirty.60). Weirdly, Tate seems less concerned about the negative consequences for Boo than the positive ones.
"Know what'd happen and then? All the ladies in Maycomb includin' my wife'd be knocking on his door bringing angel nutrient cakes. To my way of thinkin', Mr. Finch, taking the 1 man who's done you and this town a dandy service an' draggin' him with his shy ways into the limelight—to me, that's a sin. It's a sin and I'1000 not almost to have it on my caput. If it was any other man, it'd exist unlike. But not this man, Mr. Finch." (xxx.62)
Angel nutrient cakes! The horror! Merely for Boo Radley, being the center of attention, fifty-fifty good attention, would be horrible. Fifty-fifty Scout, who's known the real Boo Radley for less than an 60 minutes, gets it: "Well, it'd exist sort of like shootin' a mockingbird, wouldn't it?" (30.68). Fifty-fifty the total-equality-under-the-constabulary Atticus begins to think that sometimes a petty inequality is what's really off-white.
A New Perspective
When Picket walks Boo Radley home, she's entering into territory she'due south seen all her life but never before gear up foot on. Turning to exit, she sees her familiar neighborhood from a new perspective—Boo'south perspective.
To the left of the brown door was a long shuttered window. I walked to it, stood in front of it, and turned around. In daylight, I thought, y'all could encounter to the postoffice corner. […]
Fall, and his children trotted to and fro around the corner, the day's woes and triumphs on their faces. They stopped at an oak tree, delighted, puzzled, apprehensive.
Winter, and his children shivered at the forepart gate, silhouetted against a blazing firm. […]
Summertime, and he watched his children's heart break. Fall again, and Boo's children needed him.
Atticus was right. One time he said you lot never really know a man until you stand in his shoes and walk effectually in them. Just standing on the Radley porch was enough. (31.25-31)
A shift in perspective transforms Boo Radley from an evil spirit into a guardian angel. What really cements it for Sentry is an deed of imagination, every bit she visualizes what the events of the last few years might have looked like to Boo. Information technology seems like the book is telling us here that, to understand and sympathize with others, all you need is imagination. Maybe that's why Lee has a kid tell the story—because children can apply their imaginations. Certain, imagining Boo Radley every bit a monster may not have been very nice, but information technology did brand the kids try to effigy out how Boo Radley sees the world.
The volume 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 overnice...." His hands were nether my chin, pulling upwardly the cover, tucking it around me.
"Most people are, Lookout man, when you finally see them." (31.55)
Scout literally "finally sees" Boo Radley, merely mayhap in that location's more to "seeing" than that. The Tom Robinson case suggests that information technology'due south all too possible for people to expect at someone and still not see that he's a human beingness just similar them. Boo Radley starts out a monster and ends upward a man, but he never rejoins the Maycomb community. Or possibly, in taking an active involvement in the Finch children, he already has: mayhap his character suggests that the bonds that hold a customs together can be more than just social ones.
Source: https://www.shmoop.com/study-guides/literature/to-kill-a-mockingbird/boo-radley
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