Boo Radley Free Essays

Boo Radley Boo Radley, an enigmatic character in To Kill a Mockingbird is an interesting man to behold. Standing six and a half feet tall with a scar traversing his face, Boo has an intimidating appearance. Boo has an infamous reputation; as a mutilator of domestic house pets, as a drooling stalker that supposedly peered in neighborhood windows in the dead of the night, and for having halitosis that purportedly would wilt a flower. We will write a custom essay sample on Boo Radley or any similar topic only for you Order Now Although nearly no one had ever seen this â€Å"town lunatic†, rumors spread like wildfire about his personality quirks and disheveled appearance. Boo has decayed yellow teeth. Allegedly, this mystery man’s pecan tree was poisonous and his mouth is tainted with the blood of cats and chickens that he had tortured. Tortured was often used in describing Boo, but rumors and innuendo are more fiction than fact. For instance, Boo Radley was an alias used to hide his real name, â€Å"Arthur†. Growing up as a troubled teen, Boo was part of a gang that was eventually caught for swearing in front of women. The juvenile delinquents were tried and sentenced to industrial school. With a religious and legalistic upbringing, Boo’s father refused to allow Boo to go to industrial school and instead took him home. Incarcerated in the house for years, the prisoner never received a chance to go outside. He was trapped. At age thirty-five the psychologically scarred adult stabbed his father in the leg with scissors. This incident proved to be the final straw for his father and the courts. Arthur was jailed in the basement of the County Courthouse for a short time. Eventually, your past will catch up with you, and Arthur’s did. Only time will tell what becomes of Boo. How to cite Boo Radley, Essay examples Boo Radley Free Essays Everybody in Maybcomb County’s impression of me, Arthur â€Å"Boo† Radley, is through neighborhood fairy tales; I’m described as someone defenseless to society’s significant judgment. Everybody thinks of me as a monster, they’re all petrified of me. I can’t really say I blame them though; anybody would be crazy if they were kept in here as long as I’ve been. We will write a custom essay sample on Boo Radley or any similar topic only for you Order Now I’ve heard a few rumors about me; the one that struck me the most was the one rumor where I apparently stabbed my dad with a pair of scissors in his leg†¦ what kind of person would make such lie up? I have no doubts that all of Maycomb County believe what they think is the â€Å"truth†, but its absolutely crazy how somebody would go that far to make something like that up. â€Å"Wouldn’t you stay in the house if you didn’t want to come out? † (Chapter 5, p. 58). I wanted too! I really did want to come out for once; I do absolutely nothing all day long, spending it only with me, myself and I. I’m restricted from reading the newspaper, watching television, going out on the front porch or even opening a near by window for a breath of fresh air. I feel like I’m in prison; in fact, I literally am! â€Å"Jem gave a reasonable description of Boo: Boo was about six-and-a-half feet tall, judging from his tracks; he dined on raw squirrels and any cats he would 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 were yellow and rotten; his eyes popped, and he drooled most of the time. † (Chapter 1, p. 6). I look nothing like that; everything is quite the opposite to be honest. I’m six’1, I eat normal food, like all normal people; I brush my teeth everyday which makes them white, not yellow; and I absolutely do not drool. And how would they know that my hands were bloodstained or not? Did they not mention that nobody has seen me in approximately 15 years? It all just doesn’t make sense to me; somehow people in Maycomb County enjoy and believe the little myths about me. Inside the house lived a malevolent phantom†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Chapter 1, p. 10). Me? A malevolent phantom? They clearly have no idea what they’re talking about; last time I checked, I was human. Just because nobody has seen me in a while that doesn’t mean I’ve turned into a ghost over the years. These people all just don’t get it. They don’t understand the fact that I’m a somebody; that I’m pretty much the same like everybody else – other than the fact that I haven’t been out of my house for about 15 years. They don’t understand that I have feelings as well; everything they say, all the rumors and little stories of theirs offends me. I just hope that everybody in Maycomb County realizes and finds out somehow who I truly am. That I’m a human, just like they all are, not some kind of a monster, who goes out at night, and eats children and cats or whatever their nonsense is. And maybe, just maybe, I have the courage one day to finally get out of the house, go out in the open, where every single neighbor of mine can see me, and show people who I really am. How to cite Boo Radley, Papers