Boo Radley Quotes

According to Miss Stephanie, Boo was sitting in the livingroom cutting some items from The Maycomb Tribune to paste in his scrapbook. His father entered the room. As Mr. Radley passed by, Boo drove the scissors into his parent’s leg, pulled them out, wiped them on his pants, and resumed his activities.

– Harper Lee

To Kill a Mockingbird, Chapter 1. Boo Radley is portrayed as a crazy maniac because of rumors spread about him. This is one of the stories Jem hears from Miss Stephanie Crawford. Because of this Scout and Jem look upon Boo with suspicion and fear.

Jem gave a reasonable description of Boo: Boo was about six-and-a-half feet tall, judging from his tracks; he dined on raw squirrels and any cats he could catch, that’s why his hands were blood-stained – if you ate an animal raw, you could never wash the blood off. There was a long jagged scar that ran across his face; what teeth he had were yellow and rotten; his eyes popped, and he drooled most of the time.

– Harper Lee

To Kill a Mockingbird, Chapter 1. While Boo Radley isn’t seen outside his house until the end of the novel, Jem is able to provide a most fantastical description of him based on local gossip and prejudice and a child’s imagination. The invisible Boo becomes the Maycomb Boogieman, a monster straight out of a gothic horror story that children are afraid of. The idea of Boo as being a kindly, innocent and vulnerable man has not yet dawned on them at this early stage of the story.

“Let’s try to make him come out,” said Dill. “I’d like to see what he looks like.”
Jem said if Dill wanted to get himself killed, all he had to do was go up and knock on the front door.

– Harper Lee

To Kill a Mockingbird, Chapter 1. Boo Radley may be depicted as a monster who strikes fear in children, but the children have a curiosity about him and Dill suggests they try to make him come out of the house. He is reputed to only leave home at night to watch people while they sleep.

Jem wanted Dill to know once and for all that he wasn’t scared of anything: “It’s just that I can’t think of a way to make him come out without him gettin’ us.” Besides, Jem had his little sister to think of.
When he said that, I knew he was afraid.

– Harper Lee

To Kill a Mockingbird, Chapter 1. Dill accuses Jem of being scared. Jem tries to act like the older kid and Scout’s protective brother and show that he is brave when it comes to Boo Radley. Scout’s interpretation from Jem’s words is that he is afraid of Boo.

The old house was the same, droopy and sick, but as we stared down the street we thought we saw an inside shutter move. Flick. A tiny, almost invisible movement, and the house was still.

– Harper Lee

To Kill a Mockingbird, Chapter 1. There is an ominous feel about the Radley house, with the small flicker of movement suggesting someone is watching from inside. The children are fascinated with Boo who never comes out of the house, but he is interested in them also. The scene foreshadows Boo’s entrance into the children’s lives.

Two live oaks stood at the end of the Radley lot; their roots reached into the side-road and made it bumpy. Something about one of the trees attracted my attention.
Some tinfoil was sticking out of a knot-hole just above my eye level, winking at me in the afternoon sun. I stood on my tiptoe, hastily looked around once more, reached into the hole, and withdrew two pieces of chewing gum minus their outer wrappers.

– Harper Lee

To Kill a Mockingbird, Chapter 4. The Radley tree symbolizes community. The roots are reaching out and symbolize how the reclusive Boo is trying to reach out and be friendly towards the children. He tries to connect with Jem and Scout by leaving gifts for then in the tree. Boo’s gifts foreshadow how he will later be seen as a symbol of goodness and courage and not the frightening, reclusive monster he is depicted to be early on in the story.

We ran home, and on the front porch we looked at a small box patchworked with bits of tinfoil collected from chewing-gum wrappers. It was the kind of box wedding rings came in, purple velvet with a minute catch. Jem flicked open the tiny catch. Inside were two scrubbed and polished pennies, one on top of the other.

– Harper Lee

To Kill a Mockingbird, Chapter 4. Despite the nasty gossip about him, Boo Radley is a kind and gentle person. He leaves the children gifts. The care with which he constructs the box shows how much he cares for Jem and Scout. This foreshadows his emergence in the minds of people later on as a kind, loving person as opposed to the scary monster that he is depicted as in the early part of the story.

As the summer progressed, so did our game. We polished and perfected it, added dialogue and plot until we had manufactured a small play upon which we rang changes every day.

– Harper Lee

To Kill a Mockingbird, Chapter 4. Scout describes how one of the ways the children dealt with their fear of Boo Radley was to make up a game called “Boo Radley” and play it. It’s drawn from neighborhood gossip about Boo.

Through all the head-shaking, quelling of nausea and Jem-yelling, I had heard another sound, so low I could not have heard it from the sidewalk. Someone inside the house was laughing.

– Harper Lee

To Kill a Mockingbird, Chapter 4. Scout lands at the bottom of the Radley’s front steps when a tire she is inside rolls into their yard. She hears laughter coming from the house. It can only have been Boo Radley. He is watching the children, this signals how he will later make an critical intervention in their lives.

“Stephanie Crawford even told me she woke up in the middle of the night and found him looking in the window at her. I said what did you do, Stephanie, move over in the bed and make room for him? That shut her up a while.”

– Harper Lee

To Kill a Mockingbird, Chapter 5. Miss Maudie provides Scout with an example of some of the gossip that is spread about Boo Radley. Especially by Stephanie Crawford, a fountain of unfounded rumors about the Radley family. Miss Maudie thinks her words are ridiculous. Scout points out that Stephanie Crawford goes about the neighborhood “doing good,” which makes her rather hypocritical.

“No, child,” she said, “that is a sad house. I remember Arthur Radley when he was a boy. He always spoke nicely to me, no matter what folks said he did. Spoke as nicely as he knew how.”

– Harper Lee

To Kill a Mockingbird, Chapter 5. Miss Maudie to Scout. Just like Atticus, Miss Maudie makes up her own mind about people based on the facts, rather than listening to gossip, which in the case of Boo Radley is wildly exaggerated.

“The things that happen to people we will never really know. What happens in houses behind closed doors, what secrets – “

– Harper Lee

To Kill a Mockingbird, Chapter 5. Miss Maudie to Scout. She tries to explain how the reclusive Boo Radley feels after being secluded in the house for so long. Boo was locked up in his childhood home by his abusive father, who hypocritically in public was religious and “a foot-washing Baptist.” Boo is viewed as a strange and frightening figure by the children.

shut up for a hundred years with nothin' but cats to eat - Boo Radley in To Catch a Mockingbird

Dill said, “We’re askin’ him real politely to come out sometimes, and tell us what he does in there – we said we wouldn’t hurt him and we’d buy him an ice cream.”
“You all’ve gone crazy, he’ll kill us!”
Dill said, “It’s my idea. I figure if he’d come out and sit a spell with us he might feel better.”
“How do you know he don’t feel good?”
“Well how’d you feel if you’d been shut up for a hundred years with nothin’ but cats to eat? I bet he’s for a beard down to here – “

– Harper Lee

To Kill a Mockingbird, Chapter 5. Dill and Jem cook up a plan to drop a note into Boo Radley’s window with a fishing pole to get him to come out. Dill expresses some sympathy for Boo being shut up in his house for so long, while Scout is terrified Boo will kill them. The reclusive Boo is a victim of prejudice in Maycomb, and in the minds of children like Jem he is a figure of fear.

“So that’s what you were doing, wasn’t it?”
“Makin’ fun of him?”
“No,” said Atticus, “Putting his life’s history on display for the edification of the neighborhood.”
Jem seemed to swell a little. “I didn’t say we were doin’ that, I didn’t say it!”
Atticus grinned dryly. “You just told me,” he said. “You stop this nonsense right now, every one of you.”

– Harper Lee

To Kill a Mockingbird, Chapter 5. Atticus, who is not often severe with his childen, has strong words when he catches them and Dill playing a game called “Boo Radley.” He makes clear that the Radleys are people and are not to be made fun of.

Then I saw the shadow. It was the shadow of a man with a hat on. At first I thought it was a tree, but there was no wind blowing, and tree trunks never walked. The back porch was bathed in moonlight, And the shadow, crisp and toast, moved across the porch towards Jem.
Dill saw it next. He put his hands to his face.
When it crossed Jem, Jem saw it. He put his arms over his head and went rigid.

– Harper Lee

To Kill a Mockingbird, Chapter 6. Scout joins Jem and Dill to invade the Radley yard at night and get a sneak look at Boo Radley through a window. When the shadow of a man walks past they get the fright of their lives and flee. Not a minute too soon, as Nathan Radley then fires off his shotgun into the air.

Because nobody could see them at night, because Atticus would be so deep in a book he wouldn’t hear the Kingdom coming, because if Boo Radley killed them they’d miss school instead of vacation, and because it was easier to see inside a dark house in the dark than in the daytime, did I understand?

– Harper Lee

To Kill a Mockingbird, Chapter 6. Jem and Dill give Scout reasons why they chose this night to steal into Radleys’ yard to sneak a look at Boo through the window.

“Scout, I’m tellin’ you for the last time, shut your trap or go home – I declare to the Lord you’re gettin’ more like a girl every day!”
With that, I had no option but to join them.

– Harper Lee

To Kill a Mockingbird, Chapter 6. Jem insults Scout’s gender again, after she protests over him and Dill going to the Radley house at night because she is afraid Boo will kill them. After the insult Scout feels she has no choice but to go along. And they do all get quite a fright.

“Mr. Radley, ah – did you put cement in that hole in that tree down yonder?”
“Yes,” he said. “I filled it up.”
“Why’d you do it, sir?”
“Tree’s dying. You plug ’em with cement when they’re sick. You ought to know that, Jem.”

– Harper Lee

To Kill a Mockingbird, Chapter 7. When the Radley tree is filled with cement by Nathan, it symbolizes the end of Boo Radley’s attempts to communicate with Scout and Jem. He does this through the gifts he leaves in the tree for them. They represent the friendship he has towards the children. Nathan filled the knot hole with cement because he caught Boo leaving presents there for the children. Atticus told them the tree didn’t seem sick.

“Come on in, Jem,” I said.
“After while.”
He stood there until nightfall, and I waited for him. When we went in the house I saw he had been crying; his face was dirty in the right places, but I thought it odd that I had not heard him.

– Harper Lee

To Kill a Mockingbird, Chapter 7. Scout describes how Jem reacts when he discovers the hole in the Radley tree has been filled with cement by Nathan Radley and therefore no more gifts can be left. Jem was unable to thank Boo for the gifts that he left them in the tree.

“Someday, maybe, Scout can thank him for covering her up.”
“Thank who?” I asked.
“Boo Radley. You were so busy looking at the fire you didn’t know it when he put the blanket around you.”
My stomach turned to water and I nearly threw up when Jem held out the blanket and crept toward me. “He sneaked out of the house – turn ’round – sneaked up, an’ went like this!”

– Harper Lee

To Kill a Mockingbird, Chapter 8. After the fire at Miss Maudie’s house, Jem, Scout and Atticus are drinking hot chocolate in their kitchen when Atticus refers to the blanket that Scout is wrapped in. She is shocked to learn it was the mysterious Boo Radley who sneaked out of the house and put it on her in an act of kindness and friendship.

“If there’s just one kind of folks, why can’t they get along with each other? If they’re all alike, why do they go out of their way to despise each other? Scout, I think I’m beginning to understand something. I think I’m beginning to understand why Boo Radley’s stayed shut up in the house all this time. It’s because he wants to stay inside.”

– Harper Lee

To Kill a Mockingbird, Chapter 23. A growing up Jem Finch doesn’t understand why people would want to show hatred and prejudice towards each other. So he sees why Boo Radley would want to stay inside his home to get away from such people.

So many things had happened to us, Boo Radley was the least of our fears. Atticus said he didn’t see how anything else could happen, that things had a way of settling down, and after enough time had passed people would forget that Tom Robinson’s existence was ever brought to their attention.

– Harper Lee

To Kill a Mockingbird, Chapter 26. Scout feels older and wiser after the Tom Robinson trial and the discrimination he faced, and is remorseful about the way she treated Boo Radley. The quote also foreshadows Boo Radley’s eventual reappearance and the night Scout and Jem are attacked by Bob Ewell.

It is a scary place though, ain’t it?” I said. “Boo doesn’t mean anybody any harm, but I’m right glad you’re along.”
…”Ain’t you scared of haints?”
We laughed. Haints, Hot Steams, incantations, secret signs, had vanished with our years as mist with sunrise.

– Harper Lee

To Kill a Mockingbird, Chapter 28. The playful discussion by Scout and Jem about childhood fears foreshadows some not-so-childish, real-life, scary things about to happen. The children are about to be attacked and Bob Ewell’s body is about to be found. Also foreshadowed is Boo Radley’s transformation from the fearful ghostly figure of the children’s imagination to a real person that they respect.

High above us in the darkness a solitary mocker poured out his repertoire in blissful unawareness of whose tree he sat in, plunging from the shrill kee, kee of the sunflower bird to the irascible qua-ack of a bluejay, to the sad lament of Poor Will, Poor Will, Poor Will.

– Harper Lee

To Kill a Mockingbird, Chapter 28. The mocker is a mockingbird, standing for innocence and defenseless beings. The bluejay represents malevolent creatures that harm others. Boo Radley is a symbolic mockingbird and Bob Ewell a bluejay. The closeness of both birds in the same tree foreshadows Ewell’s attack on the children and Boo defending them.

I made my way along in what I thought was the direction of the road. I was not sure, because I had been turned around so many times. But I found it and looked down to the street light. A man was passing under it. The man was walking with the staccato steps of someone carrying a load too heavy for him. He was going around the corner. He was carrying Jem. Jem’s arm was dangling crazily in front of him.

– Harper Lee

To Kill a Mockingbird, Chapter 28. Scout describes how a man was carrying Jem away from the scene of the attack by Bob Ewell. The man, unknown to Scout then, turns out to be Boo Radley.

“Mr. Finch, there’s just some kind of men you have to shoot before you can say hidy to ’em. Even then, they ain’t worth the bullet it takes to shoot ’em. Ewell ‘as one of ’em.”

– Harper Lee

To Kill a Mockingbird, Chapter 29. Sheriff Heck Tate tells Atticus that Bob Ewell’s stabbing death is no loss to Maycomb. He is downplaying it to cover up Boo Radley’s role in the death.

They were white hands, sickly white hands that had never seen the sun, so white they stood out garishly against the dull cream wall in the dim light of Jem’s room.

– Harper Lee

To Kill a Mockingbird, Chapter 29. How Scout describe Boo Radley when she meets him for the first time. His overall paleness speaks of all the time he has spent indoors, he is never seen outside his house until the end of the story.

I looked from his hands to his sand-stained khaki pants; my eyes traveled up his thin frame to his torn denim shirt. His face was as white as his hands, but for a shadow on his jutting chin. His cheeks were thin to hollowness; his mouth was wide; there were shallow, almost delicate indentations at his temples, and his gray eyes were so colorless I thought he was blind. His hair was dead and thin, almost feathery on top of his head.

– Harper Lee

To Kill a Mockingbird, Chapter 29. Scout, in describing Boo Radley, uses words that convey a very nontheatening person, in contrast to the monster figure of the children’s imagination earlier in the story.

When I pointed to him his palms slipped slightly, leaving greasy sweat steaks on the wall, and he hooked his thumbs in his belt. A strange small spasm shook him, as if he heard fingernails scrape slate, but as I gazed at him in wonder the tension slowly drained from his face. His lips parted into a timid smile, and our neighbor’s image blurred with my sudden tears.
“Hey, Boo,” I said.

– Harper Lee

To Kill a Mockingbird, Chapter 29. This is the moment when Scout finally meets and speaks to Boo Radley. No longer afraid of him, she treats him as an equal and with respect. She knows that he has just saved her life and Jem’s and the emotion of the moment brings her to tears.

People have a habit of doing everyday things even under the oddest conditions. I was no exception: “Come along, Mr. Arthur,” I heard myself saying, “you don’t know the house real well. I’ll just take you to the porch, sir.”
He looked down at me and nodded.

– Harper Lee

To Kill a Mockingbird, Chapter 30. Scout sees Boo Radley no longer as a frightening neighborhood myth but as a person and symbol of love and she treats him with kindness and respect.

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