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Boo's Transformation In To Kill A Mockingbird

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In the story To Kill A Mockingbird, Jem’s perception of Boo Radley changes as Jem learns to understand Boo and empathize with him. Jem starts to acknowledge Boo’s situation as his curiosity gets the better of him. His curiosity leads to Jem’s horrifying description of Boo, and his father's interrogation. With those experiences, Jem learns to act maturely, and think critically. Boo’s empathy through his events of mending Jem’s pants, giving gifts in the Radley tree, and Mr. Radley’s cementing of the tree, causes Jem to understand that different people have their own way of doing things, and leads him to become more empathetic for Boo and others, setting a good example for Scout, and the reader. At the beginning of the book, Jem thought of Boo …show more content…

However, on Dill’s last day at Maycomb, Dill and Jem decided to sneak onto the Radley property. They get scared away by the blast of a shotgun, and in the chaos of escaping, Jem’s pants get stuck on the Radley fence. Later at night, Jem decides to go and retrieve his pants, and when he does he is shocked. “ ‘They’d been sewed up. Not like a lady sewed ‘em, like somethin’ I’d try to do. All crooked. It’s almost like—’ ‘—somebody knew you were comin‘ back for ’em.’ Jem shuddered. ‘Like somebody was readin‘ my mind… like somebody could tell what I was gonna do. Can’t anybody tell what I’m gonna do lest they know me, can they, Scout?’ ” (78). This event is a landmark for Jem’s understanding of Boo Radley and his overall maturity. His understanding of Boo rose as he realized Boo and him aren't so different after all, and that Boo is just misunderstood. This is shown when Jem says, “Can’t anybody tell what I’m gonna do lest they know me, can they, Scout?” further proving that Boo is misunderstood since he went out of his way to empathize with someone who just broke into his yard. In the quote, it is also prevalent that Jem’s overall maturity has gone up from this experience because he now recognizes that different people like to show their appreciation in different ways and that Boo Radley did this by trying to mend his pants. With his newfound wisdom, Jem can now empathize with Boo

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Boo’s innocence is abused as a result of mistakes he made in his past. Even though he tries to subtly help others so he can gain their trust, they still think he is untrustworthy. When Jem is trying to slip under the Radley fence, his pants get stuck, so he leaves them there. Boo knows that Jem will come back and get his pants, so he quickly mends them. Boo wants to help, not hurt Jem.

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The only contact Jem had with Boo Radley ends when Nathan Radley covers up the tree hole with cement. Scout realizes that Jem seemed very upset about the cement in the tree “when [Scout] went in the house [Scout] saw [Jem] had been crying; [Jem] was dirty in the right places, but [Scout] thought it odd that [she] had not heard [Jem]” (Lee 84). Jem was upset about the fact that he won't be able to get anymore things from Boo Radley. That made Jem realize that Boo never gets out of the house and it made Jem even more mad about the whole situation. Jem notices that Boo is stuck in his house for a awful reason and the only real outside contact he got was giving things to Jem and Scout, which makes him feel bad for

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She has started to lose her innocence, which leads her to be able to understand more of what people mean even when they say something else. Scout realizes that her and Jem’s savior was indeed Boo Radley: “‘Hey Boo,’ I said” (Lee 362). Boo Radley’s innocence leads him to be courageous by saving Jem and Scout. Boo has watched Jem and Scout through their times of crisis and as they have grown up. “His mouth was slightly open, and he looked at Jem from head to foot.

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“Don’t you know you’re not suppose to even touch the trees? … You’ll get killed if you do.”(Lee 24)Jem says this to Scout out of concern and love, to try and protect her but scare her away from the Radley house. Jem had then started his own rumors about Boo Radley, by imaginatively describing what Boo would look like. “There is 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.”(Lee

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When Jem goes to retrieve his pants from the Radley house, “they were folded across the fence… like they were expectin' me” (66). Boo Radley sewing and folding Jem’s pants demonstrates his care for Jem. Him knowing that Jem will come back to retrieve the pants relays his knowledge of the kids and how he wants to help them. After the fire at Miss. Maudie’s, Scout is told that Boo Radley gave her a blanket “Someday, maybe, Scout can thank him for covering her up.”(81). He pushes past his fear of leaving his house so that Scout would not be cold, and he did so knowing he would not receive recognition for it.

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