Perspective Boo Radley (English Study)
Boo Radley
As the novel advances, the children's changing attitude toward Boo Radley is an important measurement of their development from innocence toward a grown-up ethical perspective. At the beginning of the book, Boo is merely a source of childhood superstition.
For example, when Jem finds his pants sown and laid out on the fence of the Radley's, as he explains to Scout, then allowing them to consider the possibility that perhaps this childhood superstition really does exist. At the end of the novel, he becomes social to Scout, clarifying that she has developed into a selfless and understanding individual. Despite the pain that Boo has suffered the purity of his heart rules his contact with the children. In saving Jem and Scout from the sinister Bob
Ewell, Boo proves the ideal symbol of a good person. But the kids aren't just afraid of him. There's also a strange longing for connection in the kids' obsession with him. Acting out of the life and times of Boo Radley could be a way of trying understand him by "trying on his skin," as Atticus always says. And they do try to say that they're really just concerned for his well-being:
Dill said, "We're askin' him real politely to come out sometimes, and tell us what he does in there—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, "It's my idea. I figure if he'd come out and sit a spell with us he might feel better."
"How do you know he don't feel good?"
"Well how'd you feel if you'd been shut up for a hundred years with nothin' but cats to eat?" (5.72-76)
The last line suggests that Dill at least feels some sympathy for Boo, and can imagine, or thinks he can imagine what he feels—and what he needs. It seems like Boo raises a really important question for the kids: can you still be human without being part of a community?
As the novel advances, the children's changing attitude toward Boo Radley is an important measurement of their development from innocence toward a grown-up ethical perspective. At the beginning of the book, Boo is merely a source of childhood superstition.
For example, when Jem finds his pants sown and laid out on the fence of the Radley's, as he explains to Scout, then allowing them to consider the possibility that perhaps this childhood superstition really does exist. At the end of the novel, he becomes social to Scout, clarifying that she has developed into a selfless and understanding individual. Despite the pain that Boo has suffered the purity of his heart rules his contact with the children. In saving Jem and Scout from the sinister Bob
Ewell, Boo proves the ideal symbol of a good person. But the kids aren't just afraid of him. There's also a strange longing for connection in the kids' obsession with him. Acting out of the life and times of Boo Radley could be a way of trying understand him by "trying on his skin," as Atticus always says. And they do try to say that they're really just concerned for his well-being:
Dill said, "We're askin' him real politely to come out sometimes, and tell us what he does in there—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, "It's my idea. I figure if he'd come out and sit a spell with us he might feel better."
"How do you know he don't feel good?"
"Well how'd you feel if you'd been shut up for a hundred years with nothin' but cats to eat?" (5.72-76)
The last line suggests that Dill at least feels some sympathy for Boo, and can imagine, or thinks he can imagine what he feels—and what he needs. It seems like Boo raises a really important question for the kids: can you still be human without being part of a community?