Why Is Boo Radley Important In To Kill A Mockingbird

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He was the ghost story of Maycomb, but was his character really all that important? Arthur “Boo” Radley hardly gets any dialogue or time out in the open in the book, yet is renowned as one of the most phenomenal characters in not only the novel, but in literature as a whole. However, was he really all that important with only one line of dialogue? Boo Radley is as important to the book as Tom Robinson is through many ways. One, he saves Jem and Scout. Two, he is the “mockingbird of the book.” Lastly, he was too built up to not have a redeeming scene at the end.
At the end of the story, Jem and Scout are walking home at night and out of nowhere Bob Ewell attacks them in the dark. Scout is rendered pretty much helpless by the (pure and innocent) ham suit and Jem’s arm has been broken by Bob. Out of nowhere, Boo comes in and saves the children by stabbing Bob with the knife Bob had brought to harm the children. After the attack, everyone is back at the house and we finally see how Boo is: a poor, shy, pale-looking, and twitchy fellow. After hearing all the things that Scout, Jem, and Dill had said about him to make him seem like a creep, we see that everything we know about him is wrong. Minus the stuff Atticus tells us of course. He is not the …show more content…

Ever since Atticus’s: “It’s a sin to kill a mockingbird,” line, almost every person we meet in the story fits the bill as the mockingbird. None more prominently than Boo Radley himself. Scout even goes as far to compare him as one. Boo does nothing but good to the Finch’s: giving Scout a blanket on the cold night, gives the children gifts in the tree, and even saves their lives at the end. Yet, everyone believes that his is the monster in the night. This is the second time we see how wrongly the people in Maycomb treat those who are labeled before they get to understand

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