Mark Twain Once said; “A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shows” Boo Radley, a prevalent, although often unseen character in Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird, was a fine example of how these lies were easily believed and not given a second thought. The truth was nearly undiscoverable underneath all of the lies and the misinformed stories that were made up about him, very often, these rumors propagated, resulting in a much larger fable than the original deceit, scout and Jem are unable to realize this facade that surrounds Boo Radley because they were told these fables from a very young age by elders that they were raised to respect and to believe, as the children grow older, they are able to differentiate the the difference between the truth and the fables.
Because of the rumors that are affiliated with Boo radley, along with the fact that Scout and Jem Finch had never before met him, they were immediately fearful.
Every time Jem asks the citizens of Maycomb about Boo Radley, he gets a different ludicrous story. Jem could only base his conclusion, that Boo Radley is dangerous and not to be trusted, off of these untrue premises. Jem was told may preposterous things, the first thing he was told about Boo Radley was that he had “a long scar that ran across his face,,. ” and his teeth “were yellow and rotten; his eyes popped” The most popular fabrication that went around town, was the suggestion that Boo Radley was mentally insane and that his parents locked him inside of his house The children heard all of these rumors from Miss Stephanie, who was a well respected elderly lady, she told them that one day in the Radley household, ”as Mri Radley passed by, Boo “drove the scissors into his parent’s leg” and then ”pulled them out, wiped them on his pants, and resumed his activities” .
These rumors caused an impenetrable facade around Boo Radley so heightened that the truth was almost imperceptible, Miss Stephanie was known as the neighborhood gossip; however, Scout and Jem were too young to understand that most of what she spoke of wasn’t true, and they automatically assumed that since she was an elderly woman. That she had more knowledge on the subject so they chose to accept her exaggerated stories as the truth. As the novel progresses, Scout and Jern’s opinion on Boo Radley is slowly altered as they start to realize that the rumors may not be true and that he could be just a misunderstood lonely man, They do not realize that Boo considers them as his children and that he cares for and loves them. For example, Boo gives precious and valuable personal items “two pieces of chewing gum minus their outer wrappings” Scout and Jem as a present Later in the story.
Boo covers Scout with a blanket while she is sitting outside so she doesn’t get cold, sews Jern’s pants back up after they are torn, and when it comes to it, even risks his own life to save their. As Scout matures she realizes that Boo Radley was not all that she had been led to believe originally, and she stands to regret her previous assumptions: ”I sometimes felt a twinge of remorse, when passing by the old place, at ever having taken part in what must have been sheer torment to Arthur Radley 7 what reasonable recluse wants children peeping through his shutters, delivering greetings on the end of a fishing pole, wandering in his collards at night?” As she grew older, she developed the capability to make her own decisions and not to rely on the opinions of others, She shows maturity and an understanding of what rumors may do for both the victim and for the quidnunc. Scout takes a glance back at what she originally thought of Boo Radley and realizes that her first impression of him missed the target by a long run.
After various personal experiences with Boo Radley Scout was able to discern Boo Radley not as the fictional character the rumors had built him up to be, but as an actual persont Scout ends up realizing that the rumors she has been led to believe were completely false. She comes face to face with Boo Radley, and learns that she had judged him too quickly — as many people had. After Scout has met Boo for the first and the last time, he asks her to walk with him back to his home. Upon reaching the porch, he disappears inside his home, leaving her with her thoughts. After consideration, she comes to the conclusion that ”Attjcus was right. One time he said you never really know a man until you stand in his shoes and walk around it in them. Just standing on the Radley porch was enough”. By this time, Scout is into her teenage years, she has learned much about how Scout realizes that all Boo had ever done, was to help her and Jem.
Before she had met Boo, she had no proof to contradict the rumors, so she immediately believed them — despite the fact that her father atticus told her the rumors were false and that she should leave the poor man alone. The reality of B00 in front of her was enough to contradict the years of built up gossip and lies In the town of Maycomb, the existing reality is easily altered by rumors that are generally accepted because of the respect for the people that were spreading them. Yet through a simple meeting, Scout Finch uncovered that Boo Radley was not the terrible man all the rumors had led people to believe. In the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, the main lesson resides in the hazardous ease of believing rumors without evidence to contradict the theories. These fables don’t just affect fictional characters in books, these lies have affected many more people then society would care to admit you may be one of these people.
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