Boo Radley In To Kill A Mockingbird By Harper Lee

During the great depression, the issue of racism was alive. There was active lynching of black men, unlawful convictions, and just an all-around extreme resentment. In To Kill A Mockingbird, a novel by Harper Lee, Scout is the key character. She is a young girl who needs to learn about the racism and hate in her community. Scout learns to be empathetic through her experiences and the experiences of the people surrounding her. She realizes that her environment is surrounded by injustice and that she has to understand others not to have that hate.
Boo Radley is a central character that seems to be a mystery to the whole town of Maycomb, but through his mystery Scout can learn that the hate he has gotten is not deserved. At the beginning of the

Jem claims that “Boo was about 6 feet-and-a-half feet tall, judging from his tracks; he dined on raw squirrels and any cats he could catch” (Lee 14) This shows some fear and assumption of who Arthur Radley is. Due to this being an earlier example of Scout hearing of him, she doesn't empathize with Mr. Radley. Throughout the book, Boo Radley goes against the portrayal that the residents of Maycomb give him. Some examples of this are in chapter 6 when Jem, Dill, and Scout sneak into the Radley yard and watch through a window. Jem then rips and abandons them in the yard. Most likely Boo Radley crudely sewed them up, he was the only one with the opportunity to. Another instance of Mr. Radley, aiming to contact the Finch children is when Mrs. Maudie’s house is ablaze, and Scout happens to have a blanket around her. She is unknown to how this blanket happened to be on her shoulders but due to Jem and her standing in front of the Radley place, it was most likely Boo Radley again. A final prominent example of Arthur Radley reaching out to connect with the children is that he kept leaving gifts for

Cecil Jacobs is a key character in showing the youth’s taught hatred. He is one of Scout’s classmates and he is extremely rude and disrespectful to Scout. He likes to tease scouts and calls her father disrespectful names. Another example is when a scout learns about Adolf Hitler in her class. Atticus has a discussion with her after the whole class and the teacher proclaim their hate for this man “Is it okay to hate Hitler.” (spoken by Scout) “It is not… It's not okay to hate anyone.” (Said by Atticus) (Lee 282) Atticus has to teach scouts this form of empathy; not hating people you don't even know. The children are taught this by their teacher and to say what their families think about Hitlers's reign. What the adolescent’s authority figures say they follow. The final example is at the Christian missionary meeting that Aunt Alexandra brings Scout to. At this meeting, while talking to the whole group Mrs. Merriweather says but some people just don't see it my way. If we just let them know we forgive ‘em, that we've forgotten it, then this whole thing will blow over” (Lee 264) This is Mrs. Merriweather explains that the black residents in Maycomb are overreacting about one of the community members, Tom Robbinson, being sent to prison and most likely being sentenced to death. She is saying this around a child and if they are saying it around Scouts they say it around