I wonder why Radley keeps leaving "gifts" around, even though he tried to scare the kids away. It seems strange that the hole was plugged as soon as they asked Nathan Radley about it. The kids definitely paint a better picture of Boo Radley than the rest of Maycomb feels about him. Scout and her friends are still obsessed with the idea of Boo Radley as a mysterious figure. I don't feel persuaded by this "mysterious" portrayal; I think Radley had some role in starting the fire that burned down Miss Maudie's house. I'm not sure what his motivation would be though.
I thought the story would continue to talk about Boo Radley and the fire, but then the whole idea of racial tensions was finally introduced. Scout begins to notice and deal with people criticizing her father for working with African Americans. I'm sure this has been ongoing, but Scout is the narrator, so she's only starting to notice now that she's getting older (even though she is still very young).
I was also confused when the novel took such a sharp turn away from the Boo Radley fascination and more towards the struggle over Atticus's identity for the children. I feel like in part this is due to the time jump that is happening, but I wonder if later on Boo will tie in more to the themes of tolerance and acceptance we've been seeing in the novel so far.
ReplyDeleteI definitely feel as though Boo Radley is going to turnout to be a misunderstood character, who may eventually befriend Scout and possibly put the Radley family in a better light.
ReplyDeleteI feel as though Jem growing up may be why the Radley's were brushed to the side in the story, since the siblings encouraged each other's curiosity. That said, it is really strange for a fire in a small town to be ignored...
As children we make up stories, and once they get boring we move on. Do you believe that Scout's friends maybe tired of the town legend of Boo Radley and turned their attention to Atticus as a way to make their lives more entertaining? Perhaps this could explain why Scout and Jem began recieving more grief for Atticus's decision to represent Tom Robinson.
ReplyDeleteWhile the book has definitely turned away from its focus on Boo I don't believe his role in the book is over yet. How do you think Harper Lee will bring his role back into the main story?
I'm interested to hear why you're so sure that it's Radley that was leaving the gifts. If he's the one who filled up the whole, why would he if he was using it to send the kids things? The author never explicitly tells us that it's Nathan who sent the gifts, but that was a suspicion on my mind too.
ReplyDeleteNathan and Boo aren't the same person. Boo's name is Arthur and Nathan is his brother. It is strongly implied that Boo is leaving the gifts but that Nathan doesn't like the attention so he closes up the hole (he knows what Boo is doing and puts a stop to it). Nathan doesn't like to interact with others and doesn't like people on his property.
ReplyDeleteI understood that they were two different people, but my initial thought was that maybe Boo Radley was trying to lure the kids to his house with malicious intent
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