Themes In Harper Lee's 'Appearances Can Be Deceiving'

The story To Kill Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, is a timeless 1960 classic. In this story several children grow up in the small Southern town of Maycomb, which goes through the case of the century. A black man, Tom Robinson is accused of rape and faces against the racism of the South. The story shows the case from the point of view of Scout Finch, the daughter of the attorney for Tom Robinson. Many themes are demonstrated but of the themes, the most prevailing theme is “Appearances Can Be Deceiving”, which is presented many times throughout the story. This theme demonstrates itself many times by a character being recognized a certain way, while in reality they are different. Several characters support this theme throughout the book such as Boo

Radley, a mysterious character who is the center of the town gossip, Dolphus Raymond, the town drunk, and Mrs.

Lafayette Dubose, an old morphine addict that makes the children care for her as she gets off her addiction. These characters help the reader better understand the theme of “Appearances Can Be Deceiving” in the story To Kill A Mockingbird.

Boo Radley, a reclusive man who is gossiped about by almost everyone in town, because of this the town believes he is a horrible person who underwent a trial in his youth that his father never forgave him for, forcing him to stay inside the house. Mr. Radley stays indoors and the house is closed up, the Radley family never goes to church and other activities, breaking many codes of the town. Boo Harper Lee recognizes Radley as bad person in his first description: “People

said he existed, but Jem and I had never seen him.

People said he went out at night when the moon was down, and peeped in windows.” (Lee, 9). The town of Maycomb knows nothing of Boo Radley and assumes he prowls at night, performing unusual tasks, and looking in the town’s houses. It is even in question that Boo even exists; he is that perplexing to the town. The fact that the entire town recognizes him as a terrible shows the reader the social shame upon him. He ran with a rebellious crowd in his youth, a

group with a few of the Cunninghams from Old Sarum. This group would drink whiskey, hang around the barbershop, and ride the bus to the movies on Sundays. A second case of Boo Radley’s appearance to the town happens when Harper Lee describes Boo attacking his father: “His father entered the room. As Mr. Radley passed by, Boo drove the scissors into his parent’s leg, pulled them out, wiped them on his pants, and resumed his activities.”(Lee, 11). Boo Radley had tried to attack and possibly kill his father after his mother ran into the street telling the neighborhood of what had happened. This rumor spreads around and because this is the only thing the town knows of Boo Radley they see him as a bad person. Boo Radley has many rumors surrounding him about so much that the town believes these stories to be true. In reality Boo Radley has a kind heart and helps the children when they are in danger. Boo Radley does this at the end of the story when Jem and Scout are attacked; “The man was walking with the staccato steps of someone carrying a load too heavy for him. He was going around the corner. He was carrying Jem. Jem’s arm was dangling crazily in front of him.” (Lee, 263). This man who carried Jem away after Bob Ewell attacked him was Boo Radley. Boo Radley came out of his house to save Jem and Scout’s lives. By doing this, Boo Radley defied the rumors and stories of the town’s gossip. Also Boo is nice enough to provide the children with gifts through the knothole in the tree, “Our biggest prize appeared four days later. It was a pocket watch that wouldn’t run, on a chain with an aluminum knife.” (Lee, 60). Boo Radley is leaving some very nice things in this hole, sacrificing some of his items just to be nice to the children. Boo Radley has seen these kids playing out his life in front of his house but he overlooks this and still is kind to them. Being kind to people who have made fun of Boo in front him is disproves the town’s views of him being horrible. Boo Radley is a great example of appearances can be deceiving because of the many times he is nice but the town still looks down upon him because of the gossip.
Another example of the theme appearances can be deceiving is in the character Dolphus Raymond. Dolphus Raymond is an extreme alcoholic who drinks because of the suicide of his then fiancé on the day of their wedding. It is the town’s impression that Dolphus’ fiancé committed suicide due to the thought that Dolphus was having an affair with a black woman. The way the town expresses its views can be seen when Scout and Jem first meet Dolphus Raymond, “Mr. Dolphus Raymond lurched by on his thoroughbred. ‘Don’t see how he stays in the saddle,’ murmured Jem. ‘How c’n you stand to get drunk ‘fore eight in the morning?” (Lee, 158). This quote clearly identifies that Mr. Raymond is an alcoholic. When two small children notice that he is so drunk that he can barely stay on his horse is shows that the town must have poor feelings toward Mr. Raymond. In a second occurrence the children see Mr. Raymond drinking, here confirming the town’s beliefs on Dolphus, “Mr. Dolphus Raymond seemed to be so doing: two yellow drugstore straws ran from his mouth to the depths of a brown paper bag.” (Lee, 160). Mr. Raymond confirms the fact that he is a drunk by publicly drinking. He is ruining his reputation if he has not already ruined his reputation by drinking right in front of women, which is extremely impolite in the South. The community misunderstands Dolphus Raymond most of the time. The town believes he is a drunk when in reality he is actually drinking regular cola. “You mean all you drink in that sack’s Coca-Cola? Just plain Coca-Cola?”(Lee, 200). Dolphus Raymond disproves the town’s beliefs of him being a drunk because he has just been drinking cola from the depths of a paper bag. The town thought that he had whiskey inside of the cola bottle but they were incorrect. Dolphus explains that he pretends to drink because people can accept that easier than him actually enjoying the colored folks. “I try to give ‘em a reason, you see. It helps folks if they can latch onto a reason. When I come to town, which is seldom, if I weave a little and drink out of this sack, folks can say Dolphus Raymond’s in the clutches of whiskey—that’s why he won’t change his ways. He can’t help himself, that’s why he lives the way he does.” (Lee, 200). Dolphus Raymond wants the town to believe that he spends time with the colored folk because he drinks. In reality he enjoys the colored people and knows that the town can accept the fact that he drinks but not that he likes colored folk. Dolphus Raymond is a great example of appearances can be deceiving because he disproves the town and is very smart in the way he does it.
Mrs. Henry Lafayette Dubose is the Finch’s neighbor who has an extreme morphine addiction. Mrs. Dubose makes the children come in to read to her by her bedside. The children believe she is a terrible old hag who hates them and everyone else as described in Chapter 11. “Jem and I hated her. If she was on the porch when we passed, we would be raked by her wrathful gaze, subjected to ruthless interrogation regarding our behavior, and given a melancholy prediction on what we would amount to when we grew up, which was always nothing.” (Lee, 99). Mrs. Dubose sits on her porch yelling at Scout and Jem, correcting their behavior, clothing, and manners. Mrs. Dubose seems to be a terrible lady for harassing children for their harmless behavior. Mrs. Dubose causes Jem to become so angry with her he rips up her flowers. Mrs. Dubose then forces Jem to read to her for a whole month, which seems like a very extreme punishment. “She wants me to come every afternoon after school and Saturdays and read to her out loud for two hours.” (Lee, 105). Mrs. Dubose is making a child come in her house to read to her, which to the children seems like the worst punishment possible. To them it is going into a dark scary house to read to the worst person possible. Mrs. Dubose is actually a woman who is a severe morphine addict. She makes a commitment to get off drugs before she dies. She has the children come in to read to her distracting her from the drug for longer periods of time each day. “She took it as a pain-killer for years. The doctor put her on it. She’d have spent the rest of her life on it and died without so much agony, but she was too contrary—” (Lee, 111). The children realize that they were quite harsh to her and that she was just trying to get away from the drug by having them distract her. The children thought she was the worst, while she was actually trying to be brave through her fight with drugs. Mrs. Dubose knew she was dying so her last vow was to have no attachments left even to drugs. She swore to get off it in Chapter 11, “She said she was going to leave this world beholden to nothing and nobody. Jem, when you’re sick as she was, it’s all right to take anything to make it easier, but it wasn’t all right for her. She said she meant to break herself of it before she died, and that’s what she did.” (Lee, 111). Mrs. Dubose wanted nothing left and the only way to achieve that was to have the kids wane her off drugs by distracting her everyday. Mrs. Dubose is an excellent example of the theme appearances can be deceiving because the children look her at as evil but she is just trying to fight off her addiction.
The theme appearances can be deceiving is very prevalent in the story To Kill A Mockingbird. The theme can be better understood by studying the characters of Boo Radley, Dolphus Raymond, and Mrs. Dubose. By understanding these characters and the themes they show one can better identify other instances in which the author uses this theme.