To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, narrates the life of Scout Finch, a six-year-old girl who lives in Maycomb, Alabama during the 1930s. Over her summer, she and her older brother Jem make friends with Dill, and the party takes an interest in Boo (Arthur) Radley, a man rumored to be locked up in the Radley house by his older brother. They play games about him but are soon confronted by Scout and Jem's father, Atticus, to respect him as they do others. Later, the Finch family is mocked because Atticus, a lawyer, was defending a black man, Tom Robinson, in law. Even though he loses because of the prejudiced views of people in Maycomb, Atticus has hopes that they will overcome their prejudice because a jury member, one of the Cunninghams, hesitates for a good while before declaring Tom guilty. Later, Scout and Jem realize that just like Boo Radley, Tom can also be seen as an innocent mockingbird, who did nothing but good yet get rejected by society.
Many people are often misunderstood in character and personality by outsiders and are affected by rumors passed around in society. Throughout the novel, Arthur Radley, often called Boo, is always misunderstood as a weird and horrifying person who never left his house, even when most people didn’t even see him. Arthur himself is in reality a generous yet socially awkward and extremely shy person who would often perform good deeds for his neighbors without showing himself. During one time, many gifts would often show up inside the hole of a large tree outside the Radley’s front porch which the children would joyously take on their walk back home. Later, Jem and Scout realized that Arthur Radley put these gifts there for them until his older brother, Nathan, cemented the hole. In addition, when Scout watched the fire in Miss Maudie’s burning her house down, Arthur secretly put a blanket on her shoulders in fear of her catching a cold outside. Although Scout’s narrations are limited to only her perspective, Arthur is likely to have helped many others in the neighborhood, despite his bad reputation and rumors. Arthur’s good personality and character are further analyzed at the end of the novel when he saves Jem and Scout from Bob Ewell and is invited to their house to sit. There, it is inferred that Scout realizes that he is a shy person in contrast to the rumors in the neighborhood through her description of Boo Radley: “A strange small sudden pain/sudden muscle jerk shook him, as if he heard fingernails scrape slate, but as I looked at him in wonder the tension slowly drained from his face. His lips parted into a shy smile, and our neighbor's image blurred with my sudden tears.” (Lee 31). People around him often misjudge Arthur Radley because of the rumors in the neighborhood, while his real character strongly contradicts other people’s expectations.
Throughout the novel, Arthur Radley has multiple indirect interactions with Jem and Scout that both affect his shy personality and the opinions of the readers and children. At first, Jem and Scout would often see Arthur and the Radley family with a biased perspective and find them scary, mostly because of the rumors in the neighborhood and Dill’s wild imagination. For instance, when they saw someone on the Radleys' property, Scout describes everything with a creepy mood: “Then I saw the shadow. It was the shadow of a man with a hat on. At first I thought it was a tree, but there was no wind blowing, and tree trunks never walked. The back porch was washed/covered in moonlight, and the shadow, crisp as toast, moved across the porch toward Jem.” (Lee 6). Later, however, the children’s perspectives of Arthur Radley drastically change after a few interactions with him. For instance, Jem, who is quicker at finding the truth and more mature than Scout, first realizes that Boo might not be who they think when he discovers his torn pants mended and folded neatly, most likely by Arthur, on the Radleys’ front yard after he gets them stuck in the fence. Scout finds gifts from Arthur in a tree hole beside the Radleys’ yard. “Some tinfoil was sticking in a knot-hole just above my eye level, winking at me in the afternoon sun. I stood on tiptoe, hastily looked around once more, reached into the hole, and withdrew two pieces of chewing gum minus their outer wrappers.” (Lee 4). She keeps finding these small items in the tree hole after school, until Nathan Radley, Arthur’s older brother, cemented it, in order to prevent interactions between Arthur and the children. Later, Scout finds Arthur as a generous and kind person as he continues being nice to her and Jem, especially after he is invited to the Finches’ house when he saves the children from Bob Ewell. The children have a different, less prejudiced, perspective of Arthur Radley throughout multiple indirect interactions with him.
People are often prejudiced by society and rumored about when they don’t meet the norms or are different from others. Arthur Radley is often prejudiced and biased by the people in his neighborhood, mostly because he doesn’t like going out of his house and because of his family’s bad reputation. His father was a crazy man and, according to Miss Maudie, a ‘foot-washing baptist’: “‘You know old Mr. Radley was a foot-washing Baptist-’Miss Maudie said: ‘Foot-washers believe anything that’s pleasure is a sin. Did you know some of ‘em came out of the woods one Saturday and passed by this place and told me and my flowers were going to hell?’” (Lee 5). Arthur is majorly affected by his father’s bad reputation and is therefore misunderstood and prejudiced greatly throughout the neighborhood. Arthur is described by Atticus as a ‘mockingbird’ because he is innocent and doesn’t deserve to be prejudiced like that by the neighborhood and society: “Mockingbirds don't do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don't eat up people's gardens, don't nest in corncribs, they don't do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That's why it's a sin to kill a mockingbird.” (Lee 10). Arthur Radley can be compared with Tom Robinson, who is also a mockingbird framed for other people’s crimes just because he was African-American. Even though there was clear evidence that he was innocent during the trial, everyone believed that he was guilty because he was black. Arthur Radley is similar, where he is always prejudiced by the neighborhood because he is different and has trouble communicating and socializing with others. Arthur is often prejudiced wrongly by the people in his neighborhood because of his habits and little appearance outside his house.
To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, centers on the life of Scout Finch and the many happenings in Maycomb. In the novel, Arthur (Boo) Radley is prejudiced in many ways by society and the people in his neighborhood because of the rumors passed around about him. While he is always described as a weird and horrifying person and many absurd stories are made up about him, Arthur is in reality a selfless and kind yet extremely shy person. The children, mostly Jem and Scout, are aware of his true character and personality after multiple interactions with him, where Arthur secretly gives them gifts in the tree hole outside his house, helps mend and fold Jem’s torn pants when they get stuck in the Radley fence, and secretly puts a blanket on Scout’s shoulders when she stands outside looking at Miss Maudie’s burning house. She is further convinced that Arthur is in reality a generous and shy person when he is invited to the Finches’ house after he saves the children from Bob Ewell, where Scout finally meets him face-to-face. Arthur is often prejudiced wrongly by his neighborhood and misunderstood by outsiders, while his real character contradicts other’s expectations.
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