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• Reclusive.
• Feared by many.
• Kind.

Boo Radley is a neighbour of the Finch family. When he was young he began to associate with a gang of boys and gradually they became a nuisance in Maycomb, drinking whiskey and going to dances at a gambling den. One night the boys crashed a “flivver” and appeared in court. The other boys were sent to an industrial school but Mr Radley, Boo’s father, thought it was too embarrassing for his son to attend such a school and asked if he could look after his son instead. The judge agreed but unfortunately for Boo this meant that he spent the next 15 years of his life locked up in his childhood home. He becomes like a ghost who is unable to lead a normal fulfilling life, apparently rebelling only when he stabs his father in the leg with a pair of scissors. For a while after this incident Boo is imprisoned in the basement of the courthouse, but is later moved back home. When Mr Radley dies, people in Maycomb think Boo might be allowed outside but his brother Nathan Radley returns home and Boo’s imprisonment continues.

Boo becomes fascinated with watching Scout, Jem and Dill play in the street outside his house. He rewards them by leaving Jem and Scout gifts in the hole in the tree outside his garden but he also tries to look after them, especially when they are attacked by Bob Ewell.

As Jem matures he begins to realise that one of the reasons Boo Radley may not leave his house anymore is because he no longer wants to. His house offers him the security that the outside world would not. By the end of the novel, both Scout and Jem realise that Boo is a very different man to the one they imagined him to be.

Reclusive

How is Boo like this?

Boo is never seen outside his house until the end of the novel. Although Jem and the reader begin to suspect Boo is responsible for leaving gifts in the hole of the oak tree and sewing together Jem’s torn trousers, he is not actually seen until he rescues Jem and Scout from Bob Ewell’s attack.

Evidence

They were white hands, sickly white hands that had never seen the sun, so white they stood out garishly against the dull cream wall in the dim light of Jem’s room.

Analysis

Scout’s description of Boo when she meets him for the first time reinforces the amount of time he has spent indoors. His hands are the pale colour associated with people who spend their time indoors and only venture outside in darkness. This emphasises the fact that Boo is shy and lacking in confidence.

Feared by many

How is Boo like this?

Maycomb residents have not seen Boo for many years; in fact many people have not seen him at all. This means that stories have spread about Boo’s apparently grotesque appearance and awful deeds. It is this sort of irresponsible gossip which has encouraged Scout, Jem and Dill to want to make Boo come out of his house. This reinforces Harper Lee’s belief that some people living in Maycomb are wrong to be afraid of people who are different from them.

Evidence

Stephanie Crawford even told me she woke up in the middle of the night and found him looking in the window at her.

Analysis

Here, Miss Maudie is giving Scout an example of some of the gossip that is spread about Boo Radley. Miss Maudie feels Stephanie Crawford’s words are ridiculous. However, they highlight the fact that people like Stephanie Crawford find it easy to believe that, when they are scared or when they believe someone is trying to hurt them, Boo is to blame.

Kind

How is Boo like this?

Boo is consistently kind to the children and this perhaps highlights his own childlike nature. After all, he was little more than a child himself when he was locked inside his house and this may be why he leaves them gifts or tries to help them.

Evidence

Before he went inside the house, he stopped in front of Boo Radley. Thank you for my children, Arthur, he said.

Analysis

This short piece of dialogue shows Atticus thanking Boo for saving Scout and Jem from Bob Ewell. The whole incident where Boo rescues the children allows us to see how kind he is. He leaves his house and risks his own life in order to save them yet he has had so little kindness shown to him throughout his life. This emphasises the point that far from being the monster some people in Maycomb believe him to be, he is a decent human being who has developed the ability to display kindness despite being treated with great unkindness himself.