To Kill a Mockingbird
How is Boo Radley shown in the first five chapters of the novel?
Boo Radley is shown as the mysterious man of Maycomb county. Scout is curious to know who he is and what he looks like and she hears of bizarre stories which would spread around the town. Jem describes Boo at the end of chapter 1 “Boo was about six-and-a-half feet tall, judging from his tracks; 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 were yellow and rotten; his eyes popped, and he drooled most of the time.” He is described as a monster despite scout nor Jem having ever seen Boo Radley. Harper Lee wants us to create an image of boo Radley just like scout is and the image created is built from myths and stories of Boo, which raises questions such as ” Is Boo Radley what they say he is”.
At the beginning of chapter 1 dill dares Jem to go pass the Radley gate and touch the house. When Jem does touch the house they hear something move and they all run away. This showed that Boo Radley did exist but he is shown as the monster of maycomb among Scout and Jem. Because they have never seen Boo Radley the children create scary stories about him, this shows their creative imaginations and Curiosity to know more about Boo Radley.
February 22, 2015 at 9:22 pm
I like this: ‘Harper Lee wants us to create an image of boo Radley just like scout is and the image created is built from myths and stories of Boo’ A good way to develop this further would be to draw upon how other views of Boo are presented – how about Miss Stephanie Crawford in comparison to Miss Maudie?
Targets:
1) Be more concise and selective with your quotations – your fist quotation about Boo is too long. You could break this up by providing some of your interpretations about this quotations – for instance, why is it important that we are hearing this information through the narration of a child? Where did they hear it from?
2) You might benefit from learning a few basic quotations about Boo – for instance, he is first described as a ‘malevolent phantom’ – quick things that you might be able to reference when needed.
Why not compile a quick mind-map made of basic key quotations – no more than 10 words to a sentence long.