Phantom In To Kill A Mockingbird

Every child has or has had a deep fear, a terrifying phantom to haunt their nightmares in the evening and toil with their minds by day, but at one point, there comes a time, a true test of will in which they must face their anxieties and unmask the horror they once cowered from. Still aligned with the mindset of his peers, Jem remains a victim to mob mentality and retaliates to the lies he has been told with sudden erratic fear. Riddled with ancient legends and alleged rumors, all children, Jem especially feared the Radleys, "the mere description of whom was enough to make [them] behave for days on end," too overcome by fear of harm to unveil the "malevolent phantom," and investigate himself (7,10). No physical presence was required to instill

The use of the word "phantom" implies that Arthur was not a person, not an individual capable of compassion or intellect, but a ghost, a mere apparition, hence to his comically offensive nickname "Boo," for he was only the remains of what once was, his soul dead from the hate he was treated with and his physical body nearly invisible to the human eye, blinded by an almost opaque shield of prejudice. By definition a phantom is considered a figment of imagination as Harper Lee intended for the legends and takes woven from a single social misconduct, deeply read in depth with selective judgement, were all the effects of fear, the aftermath of a catalyst that provoked creativity and imagination to mistakenly fill in the gaps, creating a person that was not human, and a town that was not brave. Having faced the difficulties and fears of his three year evolution, Jem has discovered that while th path to defining one’s own opinion may be fearful, the prize of understanding another person’s experiences is worth the amount of opinionated

Only until Jem finally realized that there is more to people than displayed by their image, sometimes the most peculiar birds have the sweetest, most unique song but only the willing will be able to hear it as Jem did when he realized his own fear and learned to not overcome them but control it within himself and allow the truth to disperse of the lies and encourage bravery. While Jem had not been present in the physical appearance of Arthur Radley in his own home, he was able to witness the strengthening of one's inner self to resist and defy against what was common belief among other and stir up change in the stubborn town of Maycomb, revealing what was unknown to not only his eyes but his sister,