Boo Radley's Interest In To Kill A Mockingbird

Dill Harris, the boy who Scout and Jem befriended, was interested in the Radley’s from the first time he knew about them. The Radley’s lived in an unkempt, dark, scary house on the same street as Scout and Jem. Because of all the gossip Dill heard from Stephanie Crawford, Scout, and Jem about Boo Radley, he was curious to see what he was like. Was the thirty-something-year-old Radley son really a gang member? Did he really have bloodstained hands? Did he really stab his father? All those questions were probably running through his head when he decided he wanted to make Boo Radley come out. Dill wanted Boo to come out so he could satisfy his curiosity about the infamous Radley.
Everything that was known about the Radley’s was negative; Mr. Radley was taciturn whenever he was seen in town and “bought cotton” for a living, Boo was a criminal, and the family did not go to church (pg. 11). Dill had such an interest in the Radley’s that he liked to “hug a lightpole” a safe distance from the house and watch the silent home(pg.15). Though Dill had constantly been warned about the Radley’s, his curiosity got the better of him. When Jem told Dill about how Boo was nocturnal and would look in people’s windows and “dine on raw squirrels and any cats he

One day he said said, “Let’s try to make him come out. I’d like to see what he looks like.” (pg. 16) Jem was very against the idea but had no choice but to go along with Dill’s plan because “Dill bet Jem The Gray Ghost against two Tom Swifts that Jem couldn’t get any farther than the Radley gate.” (pg. 16). That dare was the first part of Dill’s plan to draw out Boo. Though Dill was so curious about Boo Radley, he was still scared of him because when Jem ran away from the Radley’s house after touching the side of the house, “Dill...followed at his heels” and only once he was a safe distance from the house he looked back (pg.