Boo_Radley_in_Tkam

The way that Harper Lee portrays Boo Radley in the first 8 chapters of “To Kill A Mockingbird” is very important for our understanding of him as a character. In the first chapter we are told that Jem thinks “it all started” when they tried “making Boo Radley come out” – Harper Lee says nothing more about Boo for a few pages but leaves us with the knowledge that Boo is a key character in what will happen in the book, even if we don’t know it straight away. However when we carry on reading we are told that “inside the house lived a malevolent phantom” which tells us that Boo is more than a bad person, the word malevolent gives us the impression that Boo wishes evil or bad on others. When Harper Lee goes on to tell us a little bit about Boo’s background and childhood we find out that he “formed the nearest thing to a gang” with his brother and some friends, so we know that, whilst he’s mostly harmless, he’s always been a troublemaker. However we also find out then when Mr Radley finds out and says he would deal with it then from that day on Boo “was not seen again for fifteen years” which gives us the impression that Boo has perhaps been imprisoned by his family in a house that he can only escape from under cover of darkness. This point is possibly the first time that we begin to feel a twinge of pity for Boo. However throughout the next few chapters we get mixed messages from Scout about what Boo is really like – and so any pity we might feel for him is blinded by Scout’s fear. Over the next couple of chapters Harper Lee leaves us to dwell on who we think Boo really is whilst Scout begins her first year of school. But then in chapter four when Scout is on the way back from school she sees the foil in the tree in the Radley house which has been stuck to the tree just above her eye level and, whilst Scout does not understand, we as readers know that it was Boo who left her the gum and whilst we don’t know why; we still see it as a kind gesture. Later on in chapter five when Scout is speaking to Miss Maudie we get a completely new, and what seems like a much more truthful, take on the Radley family and we get to know a bit about Boo’s father, Mr Radley, when Miss Maudie tells us that “Old Mr Radley was a foot washing Baptist” which tells us that he was a very strict man who though that anything that’s pleasure is a sin. This tells us as readers that Mr Radley definitely has it in him to imprison his own son without feeling guilty about it because he thinks that what he’s doing is the right thing. And when Scout goes on to ask Miss Maudie about all the rumours about Boo – she tells Scout that it is most probably made up and says one of the first positive things we hear about Boo in the book, she says “I remember Arthur Radley when he was a boy. He always spoke nicely to me… Spoke nicely as he knew how”. Even though we have been led to believe that Boo is a bad person we are now beginning to see the more complicated and perhaps misunderstood side of Boo. This view is further enhanced when Jem returns to the Radley house for his lost trousers after losing them climbing through the fence. Jem says that when he found them “they were folded across the fence… They’d been sewed up. Not like a lady sewed ‘em, like somethin’ I’d try to do.” – as readers we know that it’s Boo who fixed Jem’s trousers, and a more positive and less prejudiced view of Boo is becoming apparent to us. We also learn that it’s not just us as readers who are beginning to see a new side to Boo; later, in chapter 7, when Scout and Jem are walking home from school and see that there’s something new in the tree, Scout says, “Don’t take it Jem… This is somebody’s hiding place.” To which Jem replies: “I don’t think so, Scout.” From this, even though Scout is confused by what he means, we can tell that it is not just us as readers, but Jem too, who has faith in Boo now. When Jem and Scout look into the tree they find a “watch that doesn’t run” which is perhaps symbolism for the reader from Harper Lee, symbolising Boo’s frozen childhood that he never managed to live. Our good feelings about Boo are perhaps confirmed in chapters 7 and 8 when the knot hole in the tree gets filled with cement by Mr Nathan Radley although once again, it is not through Scout that we get these positive affirmations of Boo. Scout says that “when we went in the house I saw he had been crying” and we realise that Jem has been crying, not for the loss of presents that he has been receiving, but he was crying out of pity for Boo. Jem felt sorry for Boo because he had just been able to start making bridges to the outside world – even if it was just to him and Scout, but his bridges were destroyed by his brother, who, like his father, wanted Boo to be kept contained and isolated in the house. Following this, during the fire at Miss Maudie’s, even though Scout does not notice, we realise that Boo, upon seeing Scout stood outside his house shivering with cold and worry, took it upon himself to get her a blanket and wrap it around her. Scout is scared by this because she has still not seen the good in Boo as we have, but as readers we realise that all the things said before about Boo have perhaps been exaggerated and we know that he is a good person at heart. We can also tell that Scout is scared of Boo from her prejudiced descriptions of him and this, in turn, makes us scared of Boo at times because the story is told to us by Scout and so, consequently, we feel as she feels and subconsciously share her views on events. Therefore, even though we realise that there is another side to Boo – because Scout didn’t notice or believe it, weren’t told about it directly; we were left to figure it out for ourselves. And because Harper Lee has done it this way, it is us as readers who trust Boo because we want to, and because we believe it’s right. We don’t just think he’s good because Scout has told us. I think that Harper Lee thinks that this is crucial to our understanding of the story, because if we as readers didn’t have faith in Boo, then the story would grow confusing at the end.