Boo Radley Character Analysis

One should never be judged based on their initial presentation. In Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, this theme is especially highlighted. Many of the characters introduced possess deceiving looks that do not reflect their personalities. Boo Radley is the finest example of a deceiving appearance. Arthur (Boo) Radley lives in seclusion and never leaves the safety and privacy of his property. With little to no human interaction because of his choices, rumors developed throughout Maycomb, the setting of the story, that he is an evil man. Most residents in Maycomb, Alabama, fall short when it comes to acknowledging Boo’s true colors. Boo Radley is rumored to have been stalking citizens in Maycomb and he has been suspected of wrongdoing. Scout gave in to the lie that, “Any stealthy small crimes committed in Maycomb were his work” (Lee 10). In result of Boo’s low social development, many people did not know what he was like, and just assumed that he was evil. The residents of Maycomb all knew each other very profoundly; however, Boo Radley was the most unknown man to the population. He and his family were blamed for almost every wrong thing that occurred in the town. Scout Finch observes that Boo Radley had been extremely generous to his fellow neighbors, but the Finches never paid him back, “We never put back into the tree what we took out of it; we had given him nothing, and it made me sad” (Lee 373). Scout came to the conclusion that Boo Radley was a nice man after all; he