Boo Radley Meaning

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Set during the Great Depression, To Kill a Mockingbird is a novel written by Harper Lee in 1960. In this novel, there is a character named Atticus Finch who comes to represent justice and sympathy throughout the story. One of his ideas is that it’s a sin to kill mockingbirds for “they don’t do one thing but make music for us to enjoy.” Atticus uses these words to instruct his children, Scout and Jem, on the proper way to use their guns, but this phrase also has a symbolic meaning. In To Kill a Mockingbird, like the title implies, several “mockingbirds” are “killed”; those “mockingbirds” are Tom Robinson, Arthur “Boo” Radley, and Jem Finch.
I consider Tom Robinson, a young black man in the novel, to be a “mockingbird” because he only tries to …show more content…

He is a “mockingbird” because all he wants to do is please the Finch children. He does this by putting gifts in the knothole of the tree, mending and folding Jem’s clothes, and covering Scout with a blanket during that one eventful night when Miss Maudie’s house is reduced to ashes. Thus, we know why Boo Radley is a considered to be a “mockingbird.” But still, we do not know why he is considered to be an outcast of such a small town of Maycomb. However, we can infer that something in the past must have happened that caused him to become an outcast. Since he doesn’t come out of the house, people spread ridiculous rumors, further alienating Boo, and by doing that, “killing” him. Also, Boo is forced to kill Bob Ewell to save Jem’s and Scout’s lives, and with it, Boo’s innocence is likewise “killed.” Charging Boo with murder would have been like shooting a mockingbird because he just wanted to help “his” children. However, Heck and Atticus save Boo from being “killed” in the end by deciding to say that Bob Ewell “fell on his …show more content…

Jem is a “mockingbird” because he protects his sister (as in the case when Bob Ewell attacks them) and respects all people deserving of his respect, including African-Americans. Even Jem’s name, “Finch”, seems to suggest that he is a mockingbird. A finch is a small songbird, like a mockingbird, that also does nothing but bring melodious music for people to relish. Jem Finch also does nothing but good things (or tries to) and like a finch, or a mockingbird, is vulnerable to the cruelties of humankind. Jem is also defenseless to the evils and racism of the people of Maycomb County. During Tom’s trial, Jem trusts the compassion of human beings and expects Tom to be acquitted. However, Tom isn’t and Jem just cannot accept the jury’s racist conviction. In this incident, Jem is “killed” by racism. In another event, Jem is again “killed” by racism, this time not racism against blacks but against whites like himself. When he goes to the African-American church with Calpurnia, an African-American woman named Lula prejudges him by the color of his skin. Lula sees him as a racist white boy when he is anything but. Towards the end of the book, Jem is also almost literally “killed” as well. When Atticus defends Tom Robinson during the trial, Bob Ewell vows revenge and he nearly succeeds too when he almost kills Jem and

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