You know that old man in every life based movie that no one seems to understand or talk to? Well, in To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, not only is the “old man” of the story misunderstood, but labeled a killer. This sets up an odd foundation for the relationship between the children and Boo at the start of the book. This relationship could be described at best as terrified. Scout mentions the Raddled place in chapter 1 when she says; “inside the house lived a malevolent phantom”.
But as the book regresses the children begin to believe less and less of the tales that have been told to them about Boo, and begin more to base their opinions of him on their experiences with Boo. They come to realize that he really doesn’t want to hurt them, but to be friends with them. At the start of the book Jam and Scout are terrified of Boo. But as their young minds begin to develop, they also begin to see that what they had been told about Boo was nothing but tales. There are three main incidents that cause them to change their minds about Boo. Think you know them?
Let’s find out! The first event that marks off a new perspective of Boo is when Scout discovers the presents in the tree on her way home from school one day. The first of the items is a piece of gum, but as it goes on, the items get steadily more and more valuable and precious. The second gift discovered in the tree is two highly polished and well looked after Indian coins. The third is a whole ball of twine. The gifts in the tree reach their climax though when Jam and Scout find two hand carved figures of soap, which are of two children that resemble themselves quite well.
The next day as they walk past to deliver a thank-you note, they arrive to find that someone has poured concrete into the hole in the tree where the gifts were hiding. The children later find out that it was Mr.. Nathan Raddled, the very controlling older brother of Boo who filled up the hole. Mr.. Nathan claims that the “tree’s dying. You plug ‘me with cement when they’re sick. ” The next incident is in the middle of winter. This is when Ms. Atkinson house catches alight from her fire near the window to keep her plants from freezing.
The fire begins to really take hold of the wooden house and it burned so ferociously that Tactics actually wakes up the kids and tells them to get out of the house in case it catches fire. Out to the front of the Raddled house they are both really cold, but they are so interested with the fire across the road, they don’t notice Boo come out of his house and wrap a blanket around Scout’s shoulders. Scout doesn’t even notice it until Jam questions her about where she got the blanket from.
When they discover hat it has come from Boo, their feelings towards him begin to waver from terrified- to more understanding and compassionate. The final incident occurs after the trial when Mr.. Lowell is trying to get revenge on Tactics for embarrassing him in the court by attempting to kill Jam and Scout. As Jam and Scout are walking home from the school Halloween party, Mr.. Lowell suddenly runs up from behind them and attacks them with a knife. In the resulting struggle, Jam manages to keep Mr.. Lowell away from Scout, but it is this attempt to protect his sister that gets his arm broken. Mr..
Lowell comes at Jam, but is pulled away by Boo who NAS run out tot his house to try and protect the children. He manages to overpower Mr.. Lowell and in the resulting struggle Mr.. Lowell is stabbed by Boo, with his own knife- and dies. Boo takes the children back to Attic’s house to explain what has happened. In the resulting inquiry it is decided that Mr.. Lowell hadn’t been stabbed by Boo and in fact, he had fallen onto his own knife. After a short discussion about what happened with the Sheriff, Scout takes Boo back to his house and she never sees him again, but she is no anger frightened of him at all.
In conclusion, throughout the novel Scout and Jam become more understanding of Boo through the interactions that Scout and Jam have with Boo. They learn that he isn’t someone that should be feared, and is in fact quite like a “Mockingbird” in the way that he does nothing to hurt people or children and only wants help them. Through this process Boo grows his “wings” and, as that of a mockingbird, gain his voice. At the end of the novel Scout, Jam, and Boo part as friends of a feather.
