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To Kill a Mockingbird: Boo Radley 119872 Views
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Description:
Is Boo Radley the quintessential creep? Or, is he just isolated and misunderstood, hiding himself away to avoid people's judgment? You decide. He just doesn't belong heeeeeereeeeeee...
Transcript
- 00:01
To kill or not to kill, To Kill a Mockingbird. We’ve all had our fair share of creepy neighbors.
- 00:09
Even our favorite fictional families have creepy neighbors. Take Herbert from Family
- 00:13
Guy. On a scale of one to creep, this guy is the mayor of Creeptown, USA.
- 00:19
But one creepy neighbor stands above them all: Boo Radley.
- 00:22
Boo NEVER comes out of his house. And according to Jem, he’s six and a half
Full Transcript
- 00:27
feet tall. And he has a long, jagged scar across his
- 00:30
face and rotten, yellow teeth. And Jem says that he spends the better part
- 00:34
of his days drooling and feasting on squirrels and cats.
- 00:37
When it walks like a creep, talks like a creep, and acts like a creep, it is a creep. So Boo
- 00:43
Radley is officially a creep. Or is he? Maybe these are just our perceptions
- 00:50
of Boo. There are those who perceive Boo Radley as
- 00:53
a saint. After all, it was Boo who mended a meddling
- 00:56
Jem’s pants. And it was Boo who protected Scout from getting
- 00:59
a chill when Miss Maudie’s house burned down.
- 01:02
And it was Boo who communicated with Jem and Scout by leaving thoughtful gifts in the knothole.
- 01:06
And yep, you guessed it - it was our old pal Boo who risked life and limb to protect Jem
- 01:12
from Bob Ewell’s attack. So which is it?
- 01:14
Is Boo a creeper? Or is Boo a saint?
- 01:18
It may be all about perspective. Boo Radley is creepy only because we don’t
- 01:21
really know him. And depending on how you look at someone,
- 01:24
they can either be super creepy or super sweet. So if Boo is such a fabulous dude, why doesn’t
- 01:30
he just hang out and let everyone get to know him?
- 01:33
It’s hard to say, really. Maybe Boo is afraid of how people will treat
- 01:36
him… Or he’s afraid that people will judge him.
- 01:39
Or maybe Jem is right… No, not that Jem.
- 01:42
There you go… Maybe Boo stays inside because he WANTS to
- 01:46
stay inside. Perhaps after all the years of gossip, scrutiny,
- 01:49
and ridicule, Boo just doesn’t want be known. But this begs the question: Can you still
- 01:54
be human without being part of a community? Boo Radley: he’s an enigma, wrapped in a
- 01:59
mystery, tucked into phyllo dough, and then stuffed with spinach.
- 02:03
But he ain’t no creeper. He’s just misunderstood.
- 02:06
And yes, there’s an important lesson to be learned from all of this.
- 02:08
You can’t judge a book by its cover. Because after all, wasn’t Harper Lee a little
- 02:13
like Boo? Aren’t we ALL a little like Boo?
- 02:17
Shmoop amongst yourselves…
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