To Kill a Mockingbird

I am now reading “To Kill a Mockingbird”. So far, it is about Scout and Jem and their friend Dill. Dill convinces Jem to want to see Boo Radley. Boo has some sort of mental illness and therefore if feared in the town. Rumors are made up about him, and his house is avoided. But Jem and Scout have a different relationship to him. Boo Radley seems to know what they are up to, and is even nice to them. But Jem and Scout have never seen him or been able to contact him. They are beginning to discover that he is friendly to him. I also think that Boo knows what else is happening in the town, and that is why he will not come out.

Towards the beginning of the book, Jem, Scout, and Dill try to look into the window of Boo Radley’s house. Boo’s father shoots at them and they escape, but Jem without his pants. Later, when he goes back to get his pants which were caught on the gate, they were neatly folded and sewn up as if he were expected. It does not say, but I think that Boo Radley did this to become friends with Jem and Scout. There is another example of his kindness as well. When a neighbor’s house burns in the middle of the night, Boo puts a blanket around Scout when she was shivering outside his house. She didn’t notice this act of kindness, but this was certainly an attempt to create friends. Boo is doing only nice things for the kids, and I think that he will continue to help them until they figure this out.

It seems like the townspeople are afraid of Boo because he has a mental illness. This is why they make up mean stories about him and are cautious around his house. This is also why he will not come out. He does not know anybody and he is afraid of how people will react to him. And as time progresses, he is losing his chance of being accepted as more rumors are created. Because he is acting as if Jem and Scout are his friends, it makes me think that that is the reason he stays in his house: because he has no friends. If people accepted Boo even though he has an illness, he would come out. Then he would be treated even better. This issue also comes up in modern times. In Newtown, a man with a mental illness killed people in a school. People are afraid of him, for the right causes, but also for the wrong ones. He did kill people, but if America helped people who are mentally ill even more, this may not have happened. This makes me realize how Boo must feel because I know how afraid we are of people like him. I would not like to be such a cause of fear.

Boo Radley is not what the people in “To Kill a Mockingbird” think he is. He is kind, and just wants to fit in. But because of all the nasty rumors, he feels he cannot come out and therefore is feared even more. He also has a sneaky friendship with Scout and Jem, and I think that this friendship may persuade Boo to come out later in the book.