‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ is a revolution in literature, not only because it has won the Pulitzer Prize, but more because it
is unique in its narration as it reveals the dark realities and horrors of an adult world through the eyes of a child. Throughout the story, there are instances where the reader is forced to make a decision as to who the real hero of the story is. One of the characters which stands out the most, and is a strong contender is BOO
RADLEY.
Arthur Radley, known in the Maycomb neighbourhood as ‘Boo’, is someone who doesn’t appear physically , but his is a presence that the reader is most definitely made to sense throughout the story. The story reveals to us that several years ago, in the Radley house, young Arthur was a playful yet very much neglected child of the family, and perhaps the cause of a great deal of resentment from his elder brothers, especially Nathan – and one day, as Ms. Stephanie Crawford says, ‘I was standing in my yard one day when his mama comes out yellin’ HE’S KILLING US ALL. Turned out that Boo was sittin’ in the living room cutting up the paper from his scrapbook, and when his daddy comes by, he reached over with his scissors, stabbed him in his leg, pulled them out, and went right on cuttin’ the paper.’
No one probably realized that this neglected child was only trying to get the attention of his father, but were quick to pass judgment as to not send him to an asylum but rather keep him in seclusion inside his own house for years together.
Boo Radley was just a local legend to Jem & Scout Finch, at least until Dill Harris arrived, who, with his experience of watching horror movies like Frankenstein & Dracula merged with Jem & Scout’s literary imagination began to frame a frightful image of Boo Radley, which sent chills down their own spines - in that way making him the local ‘Bogeyman’, but despite all that, their dare & curiosity still prompted them to make Boo Radley ‘Come Out’. Jem described him as being ‘Six and a half feet tall with a long jagged scar that runs all the way across his face. His teeth are yellow and rotten, his eyes are popped and he drools most of the time. He eats raw squirrels & all the cats he can catch.’ The children were made to think of him as a spook or ghost who peeped in at people’s windows at night.
Though the Radley house was only a few houses down the road from the Finches and Jem & Scout often passed it by, the three children gazed for hours on end, imagining and thinking. They used to challenge each other to dare and touch the front porch of the Radley house.
One night when the three children finally mustered the courage to go into the Radley back yard, Jem’s breaches got tangled in the barbed wire fence and he had to remove and leave them there for fear of getting ‘attacked by Boo Radley’. But when he retuned to bring back his breaches, they were neatly folded up and kept at the side of the fence.
There was a large oak tree that stood in front of the Radley house facing the main road, which had a large knothole. Often on the way back from school, Jem & Scout found small things of different kinds – gifts like soap dolls, a broken watch & chain, spelling medals, marbles & a pen-knife, among others. It seemed to them as if someone was trying to gain their friendship. Though, little do they expect that this person is Boo Radley. However, when Mr. Nathan Radley came and cemented the knothole, they still didn’t understand, though they found this act queer in the least. Later do they discover that Boo’s brother Nathan was preventing him from making any friends.
During and after the trial of Tom Robinson, the Finches had made a staunch enemy of Mr. Ewell who, set out to attack Jem & Scout in the woods at night . During the short scuffle, someone comes to save the children. Scout recognized this individual by his panting and coughing as someone who she had never seen or met before . He killed Mr. Ewell and carried injured Jem home and quickly hides behind the open door of Jem’s room. This person was none other than Boo Radley.
Towards the story’s climax, Sheriff Tate, knowing that Boo Radley had killed Mr. Ewell, changed the FIR saying that he ‘fell on his knife’, because, he did not want to condemn a man who had, in reality, done their community a great service, ridding them of the villain. He refused ‘To Kill a Mockingbird.’
The theme of ‘To Kill A Mockingbird’ shows how great a part is played by self created stories that they become legends, but in-fact, are baseless. One such baseless legend, until Scout arrived at the truth, had made a villain out of someone, who was actually a hero.