What Does Arthur Radley Represent In To Kill A Mockingbird

Snap Judgements Boo! No, not a ghost, Boo Radley, the peculiar and quiet man, he was a great deal more than just a scary rumor. However, he only appeared in a few chapters of the novel. So, why is he important at all? It is essential for an author to incorporate many different literary elements in their novels to support the plot and bring light to different problems in the world.Arthur ‘Boo’ Radley is used by Harper Lee in To Kill a Mockingbird as a symbol. He is used to show how rumors and prejudice people can destine a life of being an outcast. Arthur Radley represents the misjudgment of people. In the beginning of the novel, Arthur is introduced as a “malevolent phantom”, right from the beginning he is seen as different from everyone else, so they gossip about him (Lee 10). No one knows anything true concerning him, so people feel the need to make things up about his life to better understand or make sense of his unique life. There are many odd rumors about him: Arthur “dined on raw squirrels”, he had a “long jagged scar that ran across his face”, and “his eyes popped” out of his head (Lee 16). These descriptions isolate him from everyone else, it is almost like he is not a real person anymore. He is made up

Scout starts to realize this too, she finally grasps the idea that targeting someone that is different, such as Arthur, is “sort of like shootin’ a mockingbird” (Lee 370). Tom Robinson is also shot down because people see him only how they want to, a immoral black man. Arthur is just an unfortunate individual that has to show he is not the wicked preconceived notions the townspeople thought he was, he was faultless, like a