BOO RADLEY (ARTHUR)

Ways Others Treat Him

• They treat him as if he is some kind of freak
• Boo’s dad is bound by religion and treats Arthur as if he is a ‘sin’
• They treat him as a ‘scapegoat’ for all of the towns problems
• He is a figment of the town’s imagination
• Appearance of mysticism
• The kids see him like a ‘character’ in one of their tales – they play make believe games that surround make believe events
• He is a symbol of goodness (the goodness in people) wrapped in a blanket of creepiness – misunderstood, misconceptions
• Nathan Radley follows on from his father – keeps him locked up.
• Heck Tate believes that the community owes a great debt to Boo Radley for killing Bob Ewell but they can’t know because it would support their feelings/ attitudes for him “to my way of thinking Mr Finch taking the one man who has done you and this town a great service and dragging him with his shy ways into the limelight, to me it’s a sin, it’s a sin and I’m not about to have it on my head”
• Scout treats Boo very warmly at the end of the novel when she does meet him. She seems like the older person because she is more familiar with the outside world.

Known Facts

• Was an intelligent child but was emotionally damaged by the treatment of his father
• He used to have gang ties with the rowdy kids from Old Sarum – the Cunninghams. Got disciplined by his father after he went on a joyride with his friends and locked the sheriff in the outhouse. He was never seen out of the house again.
• He stabbed his father in the leg

Things he does

·         Puts presents/ trinkets in the tree for Scout and Jem. He wants to make some connection with the outside world and they are who he has chosen

·         Wraps a blanket around Scout the night Miss Maudie’s house burns down

·         Sews Jem’s pants up when he crawls under the fence. Jem finds them folded neatly

·         They hear him laughing from inside the house when he is watching them playing their games – rolling the tyre into the house

·         Kills Bob Ewell to save Jem and Scout from him

·         He befriends the children in his own way, becomes part of their lives

Physical Description

• “He’s a malevolent phantom”
• “A ghoulish figure”
• “Unknown entity”
• “Sickly white”
• “Blood-stained hands”
• Scarred eyes that pop out
• Drools
• “Sand- stained khaki pants”
• “Thin framed”
• “His face was as white as his hands”
• “Cheeks were thin to hollowness”
• “His mouth was wide”
• “There were shallow almost delicate indentations in his temples”
• “eyes were grey and so colourless. I thought he was blind”