Arthur "Boo" Radley: Human or Monster?

Emma Stevens

Mr. Newman

ENG ID

November 3, 2011

Arthur "Boo" Radley: Human or Monster?

The character Boo Radley in To Kill a Mockingbird, is said to be a dangerous and insane man about whom nobody is fairly sure. He is known for his shady past, being involved in a gang and being corrupted into doing things that would be considered improper. This is stated in this quote: "According to neighborhood legend, when the younger Radley boy was in his teens he became acquainted with some of the Cunninghams from Old Sarum, an enormous and confusing tribe domiciled in the northern part of the county, and they formed the nearest thing to a gang in Maycomb. They did little, but enough to be discussed by the town and publicly warned from three pulpits: they hung around the barbershop; they rode the bus to Abbottsville on Sundays and went to the picture show; they attended dances at the county's riverside gambling hall, the Dew-Drop Inn & Fishing Camp; they experimented with stumphole whiskey. Nobody in Maycomb had the nerve to tell Mr. Radley that his boy was in with the wrong crowd" (10). Even though this is according to town legend, people still believe that Boo was a bad person from the beginning because of being involved with a group of people who did nothing but cause trouble in Maycomb. The town people didn't believe Boo should be in the gang but they didn't have the courage to speak up about the problem. 

Not only is Boo known for his past with gangs but for his mental problems as well. He may have had these problems at the very beginning since he joined the gang without knowing any better or he may have gained his disabilities afterwards. Because of this, people view him less as a human and more like a monster. The information about was mostly told by Miss Crawford, the gossip of the town. According to her, " Boo was sitting in the living room, cutting some items from The Maycomb Tribune to paste into his scrapbook. 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" (11). Jem and other people in Maycomb believed what Stephanie said, even though she was the gossip and people like her could twist the truth. From this information, a image of Boo was made by Jem. Boo is described to be, " about six-and-a-half feet tall, judging by the size of his footprints, he dined on raw squirrels and any cats he could catch, that's why his hands were bloodstained-if you ate an animal raw, you could never wash the blood off. There was a long, jagged scar that ran across his face, what teeth he had left were yellow and rotten, his eyes popped out and he drooled most of the time." (14). This description of Boo's looks and mental problems make the townspeople (including the Finch children) think that Boo is far from a human, instead a deranged beast. Even though Boo Radley may just be different, people like Miss Crawford twist the truth, showing that the townspeople make assumptions about someone they don't know because they are afraid of him. Even though we still aren't sure who Boo Radley really is, I doubt that he is the monster that people say he is.