Boo Radley in Harper Lee's Novel to Essay

Boo Radley

In Harper Lee's novel To Kill A Mockingbird, Boo Radley is a marginalized figure. In a book filled with memorable dialogue and conversation, he is the only central figure who never speaks for himself in the text. Because To Kill A Mockingbird describes social existence in a small town, Boo's status as one who does not openly participate in this social existence is responsible for his marginalization. But I hope to demonstrate that Boo is central to Harper Lee's message in the novel: it becomes clear by the end that Boo, no less than Tom Robinson, is meant to be understood in terms of the statement which gives the book its title: "it's a sin to kill a mockingbird" (page 119). The children's idea of Boo basically takes the trajectory of everything that we would define as prejudice: as a result, the story of Boo Radley is a parallel to the story of Tom Robinson.It explains what prejudice is like when racism is not a part of it. In the case of Boo, his social removal from the life of Maycomb puts the children in a position of ignorance: they do not know him, but they have heard rumors. Their lack of direct knowledge is replaced with gossip, fear and mockery, but the way in which the children grow over the course of the novel also involves the way in which they are able to understand Boo Radley better.

In terms of gossip, Jem gets the story from the "neighborhood scold, who said she knew the whole thing." This gossip is clearly not the whole story, as it only involves Boo at the age of thirty-three stabbing "scissors into his parent's leg" (page 13). Jem then expands….....