Who's Afraid of Boo Radley?: An Essay on To Kill a Mockingbird Mahyar Mirrashed 9th Grade

Throughout the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, Scout’s feelings and notions regarding Arthur “Boo” Radley change from her initial preconceived impression that he was a monster, to accepting Boo as a person and empathizing his perspective of the world. In the beginning, Scout was a victim of the neighborhood legend that Boo was a sort of baleful, strange phantom. Later on, Scout dismisses her depiction of Boo when she learns that most of the rumors were products of imagination. As a result, her feelings are altered and she gradually starts to not fear Boo. Towards the end of the novel, when Scout had matured, she accepted Boo as a person, disposed of childhood biases, and treated Boo like a friend whom she had known for years.

Scout is deeply influenced by the legend that there was a spooky menace named Boo Radley who plagues her neighborhood. Such rumors, spread by gossiping neighbors, caused Scout discomfort and prompted her to grow fearful of Boo. As Scout mentioned, “...the mere description of whom was enough to make us behave for days on end,” (Lee, 7), shows how intensely she was affected. From this, we can understand that even though she’s never interacted with Boo, she’s built a partisan towards him in which she avoids...