Look closely at the description of Boo. Why has Harper Lee included these details and why here?
Scout thinks that the man in the corner of Jem’s bedroom is just an ordinary townsperson that lives in Maycomb. Scout describes the man as having, “Sickly white hands that had never seen the sun, so white that they stood out garishly against the dull cream wall in the dim light of Jem’s room. His face was as white as his hands. His grey eyes were so colorless I thought he was blind.” (Lee 362) The reason Harper Lee included this description is because she didn’t want to tell the reader that it was Arthur Radley. She wanted the reader to wonder who was the strange man leaning against Jem’s wall? She gives the reader clues about the strange man by saying, “Sickly white hands that had never seen the sun.”(Lee 362) The only person in Maycomb who hasn’t been outside most of his life is Boo, but Harper Lee didn’t want to just reveal that it was Boo in the corner, she wanted to describe what this man really looked like to other people who never met him before. Scout has wondered her whole life what Boo Radley looks like. She was constantly wanting to sneak a glance of him. She finally meets him, but doesn’t realize she has, until Atticus introduces her to him. All Scout’s life she was curious about what Boo Radley might look like. That night in Jem’s room, she thought she was just looking at an everyday person who lives in Maycomb, but he wasn’t, he is Boo Radley.
Harper Lee gave such an in-depth analysis because of the anticipation of finally getting to meet such an iconic character like Boo. Both of the Finch kids have spent their whole lives either fearing, wondering, or even renacting the every day life of the Radley's, and now Scout gets a further look into who Boo really is. Scout has started to grow further away from her younger days but she will never forget how big an impact Boo had on her childhood, "My small fantasy about him was alive again" (Lee 364). This is why Harper Lee didn't leave a single detail out about Boo's character and apperance.
ReplyDeleteIn the end of the chapter, Boo Radley comes to help Jem from getting beat up, and when he is in the corner of the room, Scout thinks that Boo is just another countryman. "..sickly white hands that had never seen the sun... his face was as white as his hands.. and his gray eyes were so colorless" (Lee, 362). I think Lee put that there because she didn't want to tell the reader is was Boo Radley but she did hint at it. Boo Radley is the only person in Maycomb that stays inside his house instead of coming outside, therefore his face and hands are going to be white. Also, he probably get's bored with his life and everything bad in it that his eyes could be gray-like. Lee definitely hinted at the "countryman" being Boo Radley, but didn't give it away.
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