Boo Radley Stereotypes

Sometimes people are pre-judged by who they are perceived to be based on stereotypes. In the classic, To Kill a Mockingbird written by Harper Lee expressed the story about Scout, Jem, and Atticus Finch who live in the southern town of Maycomb, Alabama. The Finch’s were faced with many obstacles from the prejudice society of Maycomb. Boo Radley, a mysterious man from the story, exemplifies the theme of “You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view – until you climb into his skin and walk around in it” when the people in Maycomb stereotyped Boo for being a creepy man, until Scout and Jem saw how Boo cared for them, and why Boo remained hidden from the public for so many years.
Boo Radley embodied the

“Jem gave a reasonable description of Boo: Boo was about six-and-a-half feet tall, judging from his tracks; he dined on raw squirrels and any cats he could catch, that's why his hands were bloodstained – if you ate an animal raw, you could never wash the blood off. There was a long jagged scar that ran across his face; what teeth he had were yellow and rotten; his eyes popped, and he drooled most of the time.” (16). Around town, people knew Boo Radley as a local legend. Stories indicate Boo Radley to be a creepy, savage man who lurks around the city of Maycomb. Not many people have seen Boo, but he's known to be a creepy, evil, carnivorous man. “The Radley Place jutted into a sharp curve beyond our house. Walking south, one faced its porch; the sidewalk turns and ran beside the lot. The house was low, was once white with a deep front porch and green shutters, but had long ago darkened to the color of the slate-gray yard around it. Rain-rotted shingles drooped over the eaves of the veranda; oak trees kept the sun away.” (10). The Radley Place is an abandoned looking house at the end of the Finch's street. The children don’t dare to cross the ragged looking house where Boo Radley lives because of the stories Maycomb has created about him.

“ “That’s what I thought, too,” he said at last, “when I was your age. If there’s just one kind of folks, why can’t they get along with each other? If they’re all alike, why can’t they go out of their way to despise each other? Scout, I think I’m beginning to understand something. I think I’m beginning to understand why Boo Radley’s stayed shut up in the house the house all this time... it’s because he wants to stay inside,”(304). Scout and Jem begin to understand why Boo Radley has stayed locked away all these years. Boo Radley, doesn’t want to be judged by the people of Maycomb, he wants to be able to himself. “The Radleys, welcome anywhere in town, kept to themselves, a predilection unforgivable in did not go to church, Maycomb’s principal recreation, but worshiped at home. (11). Religion was considered which was considered “Maycomb’s principal recreation,” though the Radleys practiced their religious beliefs differently from the rest of the families. The families never consider why the Radley’s may have practiced differently than the majority. When Jem, Scout, and their friend Dill were playing something involving Boo Radley, Atticus put a stop to it, “‘Son,’ he said to Jem, ‘I’m going to tell you something and tell you one time: stop tormenting that man. That goes for the other two of you’... ‘So that’s what you were doing, wasn’t it?’ ‘Makin’ fun of