Examples Of Outcasts In To Kill A Mockingbird

Life as An Outcast in Maycomb County Essay Assignment Draft

Outcasts have very influential roles in the development on a child’s thoughts and values. For instance in Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird, current and former neighbours of Scout give her valuable insight into the lives of others from the perspective of an outcast. In particular, both Dolphus Raymond and Arthur Radley directly display the importance of treating others as equals. Dolphus Raymond, a white Negro-lover, explains to Scout that Maycomb County’s prejudice has forced him to fake being constantly drunk so others would not bother him on his non-racist views. Arthur Radley simultaneously teaches Scout that rumours do nothing but harm with his contrasting lifestyle choice.

Unlike the rest of Maycomb County, he treats blacks with fairness and spends his time with his coloured wife. Scout, not yet affected by “Maycomb’s usual disease” (Lee 117), questions the abnormality of his seating choice (with blacks), in which her brother Jem replies “He likes em’ better than he likes us” (Lee 214). Dolphus’s decision to stand up against prejudiced views and live the lifestyle he wants is a strength Scout is beginning to understand. To continue, Dolphus shows Scout the power of compromise. He puts on a facade where he stumbles around and drinks out of a paper bag so people will say “Dolphus Raymond’s in the clutches of whiskey” (Lee 268) because he understands that they can’t accept his lifestyle, but knows that they will believe that alcoholism is causing his inability to think clearly. Dolphus Raymond is control of what other’s think of him, so he decides to use this ability to help Maycomb county accept the way he lives so he can coexist with them peacefully. Even without this, Scout truly understands Dolphus’s strength and equity when he reveals his inner thoughts to her. He confides “I could say hell with em’ - but I don’t say hell with em” (Lee 268) which shows the give and take approach to the real world where Dolphus makes the people Maycomb County able to accept his lifestyle choice, so he accepts theirs even if he doesn’t agree

Nicknamed ‘Boo’ for staying hidden in his house all the time, Arthur is constantly ridiculed by the rest of Maycomb County. When Scout and Jem were young, they too believed the many rumours about his existence like how he was “six-and-a-half feet tall, dined on raw squirrels, and there was a long jagged scar that ran across his face.” (Lee 16). The children made Boo a fictional character which they acted out in their many games. Instead of facing these rumours upfront, Boo keeps confined to his home, as if he were living on a completely separate planet from Maycomb. As a result, the only way Miss Maudie knows he is still alive is “because I haven’t seen him carried out yet” (Lee 57). The lack of Boo’s presence seems to reinforce his nicknamed being one of a ghost. Scout and Jem become very curious about why he hasn’t “been out of his house in twenty-five years” (Lee 256) so they try to go up to his house and send his messages and Boo begins to feel loved. Through small gifts left in a tree’s knothole, Scout and Jem soon realized that Boo cares about them. Boo’s connection to the children becomes unbreakable when he saves them from their attacker on Halloween night. Scout then can see that Boo is not six-and-a half-feet tall, does not have a long jagged scar that ran across his face, and does not look like he regularly dined on squirrels. After the attack, Boo Radley ensured that