Boo Radley In To Kill A Mockingbird

Boo Radley is portrayed as a heathen, although he is really just an introverted, amicable person. Boo is first heard of in chapter 1 when the Finch kids are describing him to Dill. The children are warning their new playmate about the mysterious stranger down the street, when the narrator explains: “Inside the house lived a malevolent phantom… people still looked at the Radley Place, unwilling to discard their initial suspicions” (5). This shows how no one in Maycomb has the decency to look beyond what has been reputed, and give an innocent man the benefit of the doubt. The whole town has illustrated Boo as a menace because he is a recluse and has no interaction with the outside world unless it is to creep up to his neighbors’ windows,

For this reason, the children of Maycomb feel free to make up fantastic stories about Boo like one would for the lochness monster. In chapter 4, the children are bored of their usual pretend games when Jem chimes in with a new game to play, “I know what we are going to play… Something new, something different… Boo Radley” (30). Although unaware, the children do nothing but mock Boo who cares a great deal for them. Because he does nothing about his disguise he so willingly took form in, no one is able to see the real man behind the mask who only concerns himself with the well-being of the kids down the street. Boo Radley is simply a mentally ill man who has the strangest of ways, but the purest at heart. In spite of the fact that he didn’t choose his brand, Boo Radley is another pawn in Maycomb’s game of

In chapter 20, Dill gets queasy in the middle of Tom Robinson’s trial so the children take a step outside when Mr. Dolphus Raymond steps into their conversation, “Secretly, Miss Finch, I’m not much of a drinker, but you see they could never never understand that I live like I do because that’s the way I want to live” (170). Mr. Raymond doesn’t actually drink or mix with people of color because he is ill. Dolphus wants to live his life without the harsh judgement from those around him. He wants to be married to a Black women and have half children without the discrimination already placed upon those with colored skin. Dolphus feels it is necessary to live like he does to protect himself and his family. All things considered it doesn’t faze Mr. Raymond that he has mixed children and that people know that he does, but the fact that they don’t understand why is what bothers him. After listening to Dolphus talk to them Scout thinks to herself, “...I shouldn't be here listening to this sinful man who had mixed children and didn't care who knew it, but he was fascinating” (170). In Maycomb it is disgraceful to have anything to do with people of color if you aren’t paying them, and Dolphus breaks this commonly known law. He believes that life is much more elementary if you give people a simple explanation as to why things