Wednesday, September 26, 2012
Chapters 8 and 9 : How did Scout end up with a blanket across her shoulders? Why did Harper Lee include this moment in the book?
Boo Radley placed the blanket across Scout’s shoulders when she was busy watching the commotion at the fire. “‘Boo Radley. You were so busy looking at the fire you didn’t know it when he put the blanket around you’” (Lee 96). Harper Lee added the moment when Boo added the blanket on Scout’s shoulder to prove that Boo Radley is a caring man, who is nothing like the rumors about him. Boo has feelings but expresses them differently than most. He folds and sews up Jem’s pants, leaves Scout and Jem gifts in the tree and when Scout accidentally rolls up and hits the Radley front staircase, she hears Boo laughing. His older brother Nathan is always keeping him inside, “protecting him” and keeping him safe, while everyone else makes assumptions about who Boo really is, only because they never have the chance to get to know him. Boo means well and is only trying to help, his family doesn’t trust him and his neighbors don’t know him when all he wants is to be a part of the world. Harper Lee included this moment in book to show that while Boo Radley may be unpredictable and young, he means no harm and against his family's will, tries to help Scout and get to know the Finches better. In the future Boo will prove to be an important character.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I absolutely agree that in this scene Boo Radley is beginning to be shown as a more compassionate and admirable person than earlier in the book. People in Maycomb have a strong bias against him, and generally view him as a foreign, alien object "You reckon he's crazy?" "If he's not he should be by now." (Lee, 51). After all these years of being stuck inside the house, Boo Radley has finally seen Jem and Scout, two people with whom he can identify, and so by leaving them gifts and wrapping Scout in a blanket, he tries to make friends with them. I predict that he will be seen throughout the remainder of the novel as an unknown force, but for good and of good, rather than a scary unknown.
ReplyDeleteBoo Radley is a generous person. Harper Lee makes the other characters in the book think of Boo as a selfish man who stays in his house all day. In this chapter he isn’t selfish. Atticus reminds us of this when he tells Scout that, “He (Boo) put the blanket around you.”(Lee 96) He chose to go outside with the blanket even though Miss Maudie’s house was on fire and it was very cold outside. He cared about the warmth and health of Scout. Harper Lee makes all the characters think of Boo as a bad person even if he did something good.There are rumors about Boo that include him stabbing his father, the neighborhood judges him. This is why when Boo does a good deed Scout takes it the wrong way. “My stomach turned to water and I nearly threw up” (Lee 96.)She reacted this way when she found out that Boo put the blanket around her. What do you think Boo would think if he knew Scout thought of him this way, even after what he did the night of the fire?
ReplyDeleteI think that Boo Radley already knows that people think of him as a monster, and he has probably heard all the rumors spread about him. This is why he is trying to make Scout and Jem believe that he is actually a kind and caring person despite what they already believe. He is putting gifts in the knot-hole in the tree outside his house, he sewed up Jem's pants, and he laughed at Scout when she fell onto his porch to show that he is human, and he does things out of the kindness of his heart. Do you think Scout and Jem will ever think of Boo Radley as a good person no matter how hard Boo Radley tries to convince them?
DeleteI agree that Boo Radley is in fact a kind person. The examples that you chose were great, about the pants, the tire and the tree hole. I think that Mr. Nathan Radley is probably more crazy because he won't let Boo outside. He probably just doesn't want Boo to socialize or meet anyone outside of the family. I feel that Boo is a caring man and just wants to meet friends but his brother is holding his life back because of rumors. Do you think that Boo will ever make any friends and that people will realize he's not a monster?
ReplyDelete